How Native Americans make a Chacara bag

Maybe some of you already know that I love textile arts, and I love making them too.  Yesterday I learned how Native Americans called the Hato Chami in Panama make Chacara bags that are used for carrying things like wood and sometimes for carrying babies.  There are a lot of steps and it is hard work.  Here are a few videos that show the process.
First they cut a big leaf from a wild pineapple plant.

Then she cuts off the edges which have little needles.

Next they bring the leaf back to their house and lay it on a log and with a special tool they scrape the fibers off of the leaf. 

Then she cleans off the fibers using water and then hangs them to dry on the wood bars of the house, and they get bleached by the light of the full moon.

After the threads have spent enough time in the moonlight, they dye the them different colors using fruits and vegetables, and then they weave and sew the threads into different patterns.

When we went back to the shop that all the women in the village share, and my parents said I could buy one thing, and after looking at everything and trying on dresses and shirts I chose a bag.  I love my Charcara bag.     

November 2014 to Jan 2015

Hello friends,

Sorry I didn't post anything for such a long time.  So, now I will write a summary of the travels so far.

Granada
First I went to Managua, Nicaragua and then the day after we took a bus to Granada, Nicaragua and took spanish lessons in a school called NicaraguaMia.  My teacher's name was Fatima. My parents were taking classes next to me with a teacher named Jarlan.  We were separated by a bamboo wall.  Some of the favorite phrases I learned so far have been "quieres jugar?" or "jugar con migo" which means "do you want to play with me?" and "play with me."  Also "no te preocupes" means "don't worry", and "no pase nada" means "nothing happened."  And "Como no?" means "How could you not?" 

Matagalpa
After Granada we went to Matagalpa, Nicaragua.  In Matagalpa we stayed in a hostal called Martina's Place. The hostal was named after their five year old girl Martina. I couldn't talk to her that much because I didn't know enough Spanish.  Martina's friends came over to play at the hostal and the two girls spoke English. Their names are Metzy and Xochitl.  We became good friends. Then we stayed at Metzy's and Xochitl's house for a week.  Their family was working for S.O.L. that stands for Seeds Of Learning. They build schools for children.
Here is a photo of us at the school they just built.

Also in Matagalpa, there were a lot of chickens on the roads.  Here is a photo of one.

Panama
After Nicaragua, we came to Panama.  The first place we went to was Bocas del Toro, a group of islands in Panama. We took a very little, different and beautiful plane to get there.  My favorite part of Bocas del Toro was Playa Estrella. In English that means star fish beach, and here is a photo of a star fish I saw there.

The next part of Panama we went was Boquete. In Boquete we went to a laundry mat and they gave away our laundry by mistake or so we think, we still don't have our clothes back but I hope they return them. Basically it rains every day in Boquete, but the best part of Boquete are the rainbows.  In Spanish a rainbow is un arco iris. 
Here is a photo of a double rainbow:

 

And here is another rainbow we saw near Boquete in a town called Cerro Punta:



 

To get away from the rain for a while, we drove to a beach in Panama called Playa Las Lajas.  In Las Lajas, I did some boogie boarding and body surfing.  Here is a video of when I was first practicing body surfing with a girl named Marisol who lives in Las Lajas.

  

And a video of boogie boarding

 

 

Volcan

Now we are in a town called Volcan, Panama.  All around in Central America there are many stone sculptures.  Here in Volcan we met a few of the sculptors that make these stone sculptures.  Below is a video of a man making one.  When he took a break, he invited us into his house to show us some other sculptures he made and also some artifacts that are over 2000 years old that he found around Volcan.  After the video, there are photos of other stone sculptures that we've seen on this trip.