Day 5, January 17th, 2011

Day 5, January 17th, 2011

Cloud Forest. Up at 4 AM again, to be on a flight at 6 AM to the Western part of Panama, in a province named Chirique, bordering Costa Rica. We flew into the city of David and then were shuttled to an archeological site that states they have found remains of a civilization dating back 3000 years, mainly consisting of Chinese and African people, cohabitating. It was an interesting little museum as well and the lady that runs the place does a fantastic job giving tours in English, BUT the placed was a little too unbelievable, too much of the story didn’t make sense and everyone has commented about that. The name of the area is Sitio Barriles, and sits at the base of an extinct volcano, hasn’t erupted for 800 years, and near the town of Vulcan. We had a really nice time visiting the site and got to see a lot of really cool birds as well. I honestly can’t tell you all the birds I’ve seen, but it’s more then I would ever pay attention to.

We then had lunch at a local restaurant in Vulcan, (I had fish again, I think I’ve done that everyday) and proceeded to our new hotel. It’s really quant place, we take up half of the rooms, but the grounds are beautifully kept and the people are very friendly. And beer is SUPER cheap, $1.25!!! But before we got to beer, we went for a hike in the cloud forest. About an hour away from the hotel, we were taken to another national park that is shared with Costa Rica. We hiked and watched for birds for about an hour. It was a nice steep trail, at an elevation of 3500 feet, that pretty high for Panama. It was much cooler in that clouds and we welcomed the change of scenery, yet still being in the warmth of the rainforest. It was absolutely beautiful and I took more pictures of flowers then anything else. I can’t wait to go the orchid farm tomorrow.

A cloud forest is: generally tropical or subtropical evergreen montane moist forest characterized by a persistent, or frequent seasonal low level cloud cover, usually at the canopy level. Often exhibiting an abundance of mosses covering the ground and vegetation, in which case they are also referred to as mossy forests. - Wikipedia


As soon as the rain started, we jumped in the bus and headed to the hotel for the night. It was time for relaxation. I had beers with Polly and the 2 Anne’s, then dinner with a large group that gathered about an hour after we returned. I had spaghetti this time, delicious. I knew when I saw all the farms around this area and the fresh tomatoes at the market, that the tomato sauce would be fabulous, I wasn’t disappointed. Before dinner, Georgia and I decided that spending some time doing yoga would be a wonderful break from birding, so at about 8:30 we met in a little empty room off the lobby of the hotel and spent an hour doing yoga, it was magnificent!! We then resigned to typing our blogs, writing in journals and calling it a night early.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I will try to add some to the previous posts, the connection here is not that great, so I will do my best.

Cheers