Day 6, January 18th, 2011

Day 6, January 18th, 2011

Orchid Farm. We got to sleep in, hooray! Since in this area, the birds don’t get up as early as the coast and we didn’t roll out until 8. The group enjoyed breakfast together, a little stroll around the grounds in the cool morning air and a visit to a wetlands area across the street from hotel, where a groups Ingrids perched for the night.




Our first destination today was a hike in the lower areas of the volcano. It was a great walk, an we were looking for a bird called a Quetzel (Ket-sul). It’s a brilliantly colored bird, red breasted, black ish head, blue back and an extremely long blue tail. It was quiet difficult to find, special to this area, but our guide Skot was able to call a few of them to his attention, with help of our field guide, Narano. Once found, I was so happy to get a great picture of a male (longest tail) and the female, I was so proud. I’ve been switching back and forth between my regular lens and telephoto, and of course I had just switched to my regular lens, then the bird appeared. I quickly switched back and everyone was amazed at the shot I got and are asking for copies, yeay! On the walk back to the bus, we got to see a huge tarantula, it was so cool and kinda creepy.

A little while later, after a few stops on the side of the road to check out birds, we stopped in a little town named, Curro Punto. This is were we had lunch and walked around a little. I had fried fish AGAIN, and I have to say, it gets better everyday, wow. After lunch, I walked to a shop that was selling the normal trinkets and hammocks, t-shits and bags and so on, I ended up buying a pretty little purse that goes nicely with a small clutch wallet I always carry on trips (made in Guatemala, given to me by a friend). This little purse is big enough to carry my big camera and a water bottle, it’s perfect. Very unusual for me to buy souvenirs, sometimes, you just gotta do it.

This area is absolutely beautiful and rich in agriculture, with lots of cows and chickens. The land ide even hand plowed, farms everywhere and it is so clean and well kept. The homes here are very nice and a lot of pride is taken in their upkeep. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of homes and shops that are run down or look impoverished, but there is no trash along roads and tons of bright colors.

Next up was an Orchid farm, Finca Dracula. It was a beautiful place, the gardens were fantastic. I took more picture, I’m at over 700 now, and I still have 4 days to go. Yikes. In addition to pictures, we took a tour and learned about what an Orchid is and that there are over 2000 species. It was a nice diversion from birding.


But wait, we went birding some more, haha. A few of us in the group, that were tired of looking for birds, decided to just hike. We were at another trail in the cloud forest and it was beautiful, cool temps and more exercise, we enjoyed ourselves.

Once back at the hotel, the majority of the group sat and had drinks, I went with a margarita for a change, I also showed off my pictures of the day to the group. Dinner was quick, a little handmade pizza, made with local veggis, it was delicious!!!

Polly and I then just resigned to our room, packed up a little bit and chatted for about 2 hours, nothing like a little girl talk to whine down from a busy day! She is a great personal and I’m blessed to have been matched up with her.

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

Day 4, January 16th, 2011

Day 4, January 16th, 2011

Dawn Chorus. The tour began at 6 this morning, after a great hot breakfast, coffee and juice and some of the best yogurt I’ve ever had (btw… I always talk about my meals because of a friend, Eric, mentioned every meal he ate in his blog from New Zealand, so I carry on the tradition). The bus was late for our tour, we were headed to the famous Pipeline Road to take in the sounds of the birds as the sun came up, so we started walking down the hill to listen. After the bus arrived and found us, we were delivered to the Pipeline Road. It was supposed to be a great place to be in the rainforest to see wildlife, it was a little quiet. The birds hid from us, but we got a chance to see an animal from the raccoon family, called Coati Mundi, it lives in the trees along with the monkeys. We got to see some more Howler Monkeys, White Faced Capuchin Monkeys, a few Parrots flying and some kind of spotted cat crossed out path quickly. The group was picked up again by the bus at 9 AM and had the afternoon to ourselves and we would be picked up again at 4:30 pm.

Polly and I spent the day in the resort relaxing, these early morning were really wearing me out. We spent some time at the gorgeous pool, eating lunch (Sea Bass Ceviche) and drinking.
I attempted to update my blog at the pool, but I decided to take a nap instead. It rained a little bit, but the warmth and sun was delightful. Afterwards, we walked to an area of the resort that was formerly the Canal workers lodging, they are cute villas. Then we wandered to the marina and looked at the boats, as well as taking a bunch of pictures.

The evening activities were to visit the Maraflores Locks Museum, for an after hours tour, then dinner overlooking the locks. The museum was beautiful and we had a guided tour and lesson about the history and future of the Canal. They are adding a third lane to the Canal to help with the traffic. This project should be completed in August of 2014, which is the 100 year anniversary of the Canal opening. Dinner was a buffet; great salads, paella, and some really great fish, then a wonderful dessert table. The locks were really awesome to watch, several boats worked their way through and it is fascinating the way the water raises the boats and they float into the next stage of water, I was awestruck.

Once we all returned to the hotel, we had to prepare for departure, our flight is at 6 AM, so we have to leave at 4:50, yikes. So we packed our bags and went to bed, but not before we had our last drink with my little waiter friend at the lobby bar, I had to be sure to say goodbye to him. He had to tell me, via Polly’s translation, that I was pretty, he was such a cute kid. But everyone laughed at how many free drinks I got from him! LOL

Day 3, January 15th, 2011

Day 3, January 15th, 2011

Birding day. The group met up at 4:45 AM for a quick continental breakfast of fresh fruit, bread rolls, juice and coffee. We were attempting to get out into the forest early enough to hear the birds as they begin their day. Our destination this morning was the Caribbean side of the Canal (the Atlantic side. It was a tour of driving to different locations and getting off the bus to see as many different birds that presented themselves. The birds did not disappoint us, Toucans, Tropical Kingbirds, Brown Pelicans, Black Vultures and probably 20 others that I can’t remember and would have no idea I even saw them. There were some magnificent colors in these birds and the sounds were impressive. We also got to see some Howler Monkeys, adorable little things, but they make a sound that is loud and moving, much larger then they appear to be able to make. You can feel their presents when they howl”. It would make more sense to call them Growler Monkeys, because they sound like they are growl.

Interesting things seen along the way; we crossed the Panama Canal on a one way bridge, that is the only bridge that crosses the canal on the Atlantic side. Saw several gigantic ships that appear to be too large to make it through the deceivingly narrow canal, in some places. We also saw some of the spillways; this area of the canal was opened up on December 8th, 2010 to allow the canal to drain from all the rain. On this date, it was the 1st time in history the Canal was “closed” due to weather; delayed is actually the correct term, per our tour guide Ivan. The water shed areas flooded, causing a rush of water into the Canal.

St Lorenzo Fort was our next stop. It was a fort at the entrance of the Chagres River from the Atlantic Ocean, so the area had to be protected from Pirates and things of that nature. The area was very green and the clouds were forming above, it reminded me of Wales or Ireland. The waves of the Atlantic were huge, whilst a little fishing boat with 5 people aboard were anchored trying to get today’s meal. It began to rain, but in the humidity, the cool drops felt really good on the skin, I had to take my over shirt off to cover my camera, and I enjoyed being in just a tank top for a little while. Ivan had spotted a sloth, in a far away treetop, and we stood in the rain looking through his high powered scope at the fantastic creature. Yet with the rain getting heavier, we decided to jump in the bus and head to lunch.

For lunch, we visited a little poor village that our guide, Skot, visited during college, he help build a lookout platform for a nature center there. There was also a group of students from CU that helped build a small café in the middle of the village to encourage tourist to visit and spend their money.
The town was making attempts at cleaning up the building and homes, but they make very little money. Even our bus driver, whom lives in Panama City, remarked at how sad it is to see this town and how poor the people are, “we don’t’ realize how much we take for granted the way we live, internet and cell phones, cable and such, it’s just sad”. Everyone was very kind and grateful for our patronage, as we pull away the kids wave at the bus.

We got back to the hotel and we had a nice dinner of a salad bar and again, sat in the hotel lobby bar to enjoy some local beers and talk about our day. I was served by my nice waiter that invited me to disco, and when the opportunity arose, he gave me his phone number. So cute, but I don’t speak Spanish and he doesn’t speak English, but such a lovely gesture. I even got a kiss on the cheek upon my departure to my room, awe. The group resigned to bed early, the day tomorrow begins again at 5:45.

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.

Day 1, Jan 13th, 2011

Day 1 - Panama, Jan 13th, 2011

Travel day. You wouldn’t think that this would be a day worthy of writing home about, yet it was a great day. From inside my cocoon of warmth in my bed, 4:15 AM came too quickly, but I was quiet excited for it. Yet, realizing, I should have turned on the space heater for the room over night, boy it’s cold, I can’t wait to feel the warmth that Panama is promising me. I prepared my bags the night before and I only needed to finish up a few details and I was ready to go. It was awfully nice of my ex-husband to offer to give me a ride to the rendezvous point for the group I was traveling with; roll out 5:15 AM.

During this trip, I’m traveling with 12 people, Skot and Suzy, trip organizer and his lovely wife, Polly is my roommate, Cory, Ann (times 2), Peggy, Deb, Georgia, Gary, Jan and Janette. Our details for today are a flight to Houston, 2 hour layover, flight to Panama and a shuttle bus to Gamboa Rainforest Resort. You can see details about it at www.gamboaresort.com.

During our flights, I sat with Polly and Cory, we had a delightful time. It was fun to hear of where they were both from originally, all of us are from the Denver Area now. Polly from Minnesota and Cory from Holland, the Southern part, along the Belgium border. Lots of talk of where we’ve been and the adventures we have had. Additional chats about the kinds of foods we like, one of my favorites was hearing about the progression of meals during a day in Holland. Lots of chocolates and sweets, yum! We each enjoyed some time with word search books or crosswords and I of course had to take several naps. The entire trip was very smooth and we had no trouble at all with any bags or people, haha.

The Gamboa Resort is 45 minutes North East of Panama City, along the Chagres River, ABSOLUTELY gorgeous place. We even have a hammock on our balcony! Since it was so late when we arrived, only a hint of the river was visible, illuminated by a brilliant half moon. The air was warm, humid and mildly thick, it feels wonderful. We all dropped our bags in our rooms, I took a couple of pictures before the beds were disturbed and then a quick evening snack of Civiche, and a couple of drinks in the lobby bar with everyone.

One thing I noticed, as I walked along the outside corridor, was the sound of the tropical insects and maybe a couple of monkeys, welcoming me to Panama. The sound was intense and I realize it was an appropriate greeting to the country, since this all started with a walk in the park, listening to singing insects.

I was a little anxious for the next day and had a little bit of a hard time getting to sleep, but it was much welcomed once I settled my mind.

The Start

Another adventure, another blog. I love hearing that so many people follow along with me on my trips, I'll do my best to give you good details.

I've been asked, "why Panama", some love it, some are not so fond of it. Of course, there is always a story as to what draws me to my destinations. This time, it starts with a simple nature walk, or a "Full Moon Walk" as they are titled, with the South Suburban Parks and Recreation center in my county. I was looking around on their website, whilst signing up for my summer dance classes, and found a list of nature walks, hosted by the Carson Nature Center (CNC) at SSPR. Once a month, on the night of the full moon, there is a guided tour along the paths at the CNC, and the one that sounded intriguing to me was named "Insect Orchestra". It was a night full of singing nighttime bugs, along with description and education about these little singers. I love these kinds of things, but as I drove to the center, I was talking to myself, asking why I was doing this alone, I found this summer to be filled with an enormous amount of shared time with friends, but also many lonely moments wishing my friends were joining me. I share this only because there is an "Ah-ha" moment coming. So alone I went and joined a group of about 10 people and learned about the bugs that perform for each of us, every night of the summer. At the end of this walk, our guide Skot, announced some additional programs sponsored by SSPR and also added "If any of you like international travel, we are going to Panama in January, I can give you some additional information about it, just see me after our walk is done". WHAT!?!?!? (insert Ah ha moment, it was obvious now, I was there for a reason) How exciting, I was immediately interested and followed Skot back to the office to get the details on the trip.

Side note; at about 3:30am, the morning of this walk, I was awake and fretting about how I was disappointed by how many people were giving me their feedback on how it was probably not a good idea to travel in the middle east alone as an American woman (at the time I was still planning my trip to Abu Dhabi). I was also discouraged by friends telling me that all the places I wanted to go on my way to Abu Dhabi would be cold and uneventful at the time of year I was going. Wishing I had friends to go with or a group to travel with had crossed my mind and I guess I said a prayer about it, because at 3:30am, I had a voice tell me, "then don't go anywhere but Abu Dhabi, you'll be just fine". I stopped fretting, stopped tossing and turning and went to sleep, it was like I flipped a switch, and it didn't matter anymore. That very night, I was given the "golden ticket" with the opportunity to travel with a group, on an amazing trip to a place that was going to be magnificent. Sure it's not Cairo or the Dead Sea, or Croatia, but it's a place that will definitely fill up my traveling heart and will give me a chance to take a whole bunch of pictures.

I barley hesitated at signing up for the trip, it was a bit more then I would normally spend, especially since it is less then 60-days after another big trip, but I didn't care. I felt it was a gift that I was given, based on what I was asking for, a group trip to a foreign country; ask and you shall receive. If you do ask, you best be willing to go with what you are given; timing is not for me to decide. SO, I'm off in 12 days!!! The trip is a 10-day journey with about 15 people that I don't know, yet, and I'm looking forward to getting to know them all.

I will do my best to post each day, with pictures, if possible. I hope you enjoy reading about this journey and I look forward to hearing from you, with questions or comments about my trip.