Day Two on Punta Linda already

After sleeping like a rock got a call Justo had to go to Chiriquí Grande and wouldn’t be there till 9:30 no problem I could handle it. It was like a flash back 7 am 5 Indians showed up and I dole out the shovels and picks and told them to go on up and I would return as soon as I got my gas can and filled it up for my chain saw. I knew they didn’t under stand a single word I had said. Well the gas can with my chain saw gas never made it but I did have another cup of coffee with Juana, Mario’s girl friend, and her little girl Susan who was in an obvious time out chair. As soon as she saw me she let loose with a purrrrrrrrrr-FEC-TO (perfecto) as loud as she could making me smile as I pointed to Susan and asked Juana - time out chair? She smiled and nodded. Back to the job after not finding the gas can I remembered a while back Linda and I had climbed to the top and I had cleared some trees where a possible building site could be and I had stashed a cooking oil container that contained some chainsaw oil and gas. Climbing up to the top retrieving my gas and chain oil I headed down. After talking to the head Indian about the bridges I figured on starting to chop some material for this. Dang being a lumber jack is a tough job. After getting the bar and chain stuck and unstuck numerous times as the tree wanted to pinch and gobble up my 16” chain saw; in a last ditch effort of defiance I had finally cut it into the size pieces we had determined would work. I had let the head Indian use the chainsaw one time after seeing how that went I realized I was the new Lumber Jack, guess my pointing days where over. After we got two trees cut and were working on the third the tree fell off the side of the cliff and was stuck standing straight up caught in a web of vines with no way to make it fall. Back to the hardware store to get some rope which they where out of and then to Chiriquí Grande to buy 9 lbs of rope for $19 dollars. You would have laughed as I tried to explain that I wanted only 20 meters then gave up and told him to give me the rest of the roll which figured was close to that. Back at PL I was watching them try to throw the ¾” rope through the tree and failing then one of the Indians just climbed a tree next to it and threw it through. With 5 Indians, Justo, and I we got it to drop with 10 minutes of tugging. Cutting it up in 18’ pieces they carted it to creek to now begin the bridge.
I am always so happy for little signs of improvement after I had cut up the trees they set them in place and started flattening the tops of the logs for the boards to be later nailed on. When I stepped back to look at what they had done I was happy to see how good it was going to look and I think they also see now what I am trying to do. Where is a wood cutter when you need him? Still no Justo’s brother today either. When I asked Justo he told me he had tried to call him again but he lives where there isn’t a phone signal. He was sure he would contact him soon since he had borrowed $20 from him. I am crossing my fingers with Justo too.
I got back to Mario’s at about 3:30 so tired I could hardly stand up and drenched in sweat and jumped into a warm shower, dang life is good. I lay in bed to fall asleep almost immediately wake up around 5 pm. Guess I will have to go to get a wheel barrow tomorrow. Thank goodness Lyn and I had cooked up extra food before I had left Boquete and put it in Tupperware plates. I am still to hot even after the shower to heat the food up so ate it cold but it was the best food I had ever eaten, grilled chicken, and red peppers and onion. Tried to call Lyn tonight but the phone won't hold a charge and I got through and cut off, and every thing was going so good.
Tomorrow we are going to keep pressing on the trails and may even try and get a rail up. The wooden planks we will have to cut later unless I get a wood cutter tomorrow since these trees are so hard they laugh at my 16” chain saw.