Day 2, January 14th, 2011

Day 2 - January 14th, 2011

Since this is a bird watching trip, I think it’s going to be a whole week of early mornings. Luckily, they are starting us out easy. We inadvertently slept in a little bit, but didn’t miss anything. We were to meet the group at the bus at 8:30 AM, breakfast started at 6:30.

Breakfast consisted of a hot buffet, fresh tropical fruit, cereals, breads, cold cuts and cheeses, as well as coffee and juices, watermelon juice, I’ve never watermelon juice before. I ate breakfast alone and worked on my blog, I’ve got to keep you updated, haha. The hotel has free wifi in the lobby and lobby bar, so I sat with my little pc and wrote to you all. And of course, I took some pictures of the hotel, it is beautiful.

The tour left promptly at 8:30 and we were off to see the Embera People, indigenous to this area, amongst the water shed of the Panama Canal. Whilst we drove, Ivan, our Russian named, Panamanian born, English raised, bi-lingual tour guide, explained Panama’s culture, politics, geography, history, diversity and everything else that could be explained in a 1 ½ hour bus ride. Our group had tons of questions as well. Interesting to me was the fact that Hibiscus is call a weed by Ivan and trash is Panama’s cancer. There is kind of a hierarchy when it comes to trash pick up, the more affluent areas have regular pick up, the poorer areas get picked up when they get around to it, it’s quiet sad, trash is everywhere outside the city. There is no recycling programs at all here, unless the neighborhoods volunteer themselves, and local groups have even asked the US to aid them in getting a reliable program in place, but much to no avail.

When we arrived to see the Embera people, we had to take a water taxi out to there village. We were greeted by all of them, young and old, with music and huge smiles. Hosting tourist and selling their handmade goods are how they survive with no government assistance. They are such kind and gracious people, rich in culture that they have clung to and works very well for them.

They explain to us in a little presentation, their history, their village system, their rules, their religion (which is quiet beautiful, not to mention, not influenced by any modern forms) and their medical systems. They also explain to us how they made their handmade goods and the process of the dying of the palm fronds they use for weaving, they made some beautiful pieces. We were then served a traditional lunch of fried plantains and fried tilapias, I don’t generally eat fish at home, but this was as fresh as I was ever going to get fish, next to pulling it out of a river myself, These people get the food from the water around them and the grounds they live on. It was unbelievable, we were also served organic bright red, plump tomatoes, cheese, fruit, pita bread and humus. It was all incredible. After lunch we got time to send some money on their goods, walk around the grounds to see how they live and watch them perform a native dance. They are phenomenal people and they have such a peaceful simple life. On our way to the Emberas, we also stopped to pay our toll into the national park and got a moment to shop at a little “store” for a company called G12 Mujeres; 12 women got together and created a business, with the help of USAID, to sell goods to tourist. It was such a wonderful little story.

After this wonderful experience, the tour headed to the Zoo. It’s a small zoo as far as how many exhibits they have, but on a large piece of property. It was fun to see so many local animal species, including lots of monkeys, birds, reptiles (alligators) and felines, as well as seeing rare animals such as the Harpy Eagle, amazing. It’s the largest eagle and not really the prettiest either, but quiet dangerous. And since we were a birding group, we spent a fair amount of time learning about these creatures. Then we proceeded around the zoo and were eaten alive by chiggers, well that is, I was, my legs look like I have the measles. They don’t itch or anything, yet, so I guess it’s all part of the “fun”. The really sad thing about the zoo is that it is under funded and dilapidated. There was a sad desperate look on the face of the zoo guide as he was asked questions about the facility and he apologized several times about the conditions of most of the exhibits. You can see he had such pride in his work and a love for the animals and it pained him greatly that the zoo was in such poor condition, I guess you could say he was embarrassed. We were all very grateful for the tour he gave us and we all had a heavy heart for the situation.

The day of tours ended there and we were hot, sticky and bug bitten, so off to the showers. Polly and I decided to just hang out in our rooms for a little while, instead of joining everyone at the pool, then we just sat at the lobby bar, drank Mojitos and Pina Colatas, and I had a hamburger. I can say I certainly won’t be craving the beef from Panama when I get home, but I always like to try the beef in different countries. After these few drinks and attempting a conversation with our 24 year old waiter (I‘m glad I made some kind of attempt at learning a little bit of Spanish, I‘ve actually been able to understand when I’m talked to in Spanish), who invited me to a disco tomorrow night in Panama City, we went back to our room and crashed. Tomorrow morning, out of the hotel at 5.