Sunday, May 18, 2014

May 1 to 18, 2014

Hello everyone! Happy Mother’s Day to all you mom’s out there!

Great Mother’s Day! My son & daughter-in-law called on SKYPE and we managed to figure out how to do a 3 way call including my dad. (Panama, Arizona and Iowa) Dad had just gotten back from an Honors flight. A nonprofit organization puts together these trips to honor our veterans. The Brushy Creek Area Honor Flight honored WWII and Korean War veterans on this flight to Washington D.C.  Veterans visited the WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and Lincoln Memorials.  They also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial. Dad served during the Korean War. It was nice to talk to everyone at the same time.
We have something called Oferta Simple here (like Groupon in the States) and we had been waiting for the off season for The Gamboa Rain Forest Resort offers. We bought a few nights and this month we used two of them. We got up early and drove to the Gamboa rain forest and within 5 minutes of being on the trail we saw a troupe of Howler monkeys. We also saw lots of toucans. Only got a hazy photo (it was raining) of a Keel-billed Toucan in a tree by the pool, but we saw several flying by every day we hiked. We also saw one new kind of Toucan (no photo). The first time I saw one fly over the lake and I thought it’s got a big bill, but wasn’t as colorful. Later we saw quite a few of them high up in the trees. I finally got a good look at them with my binoculars so we could identify them. It’s a type of Toucan called Collared Aracari. Its’ bill is black and white split in half horizontally. The rest of the bird is quite colorful.
 Howlers


 
We were surprised to find out that they no longer offer “store credit” when you pay for admission to the Canopy Tower. It’s $30 for visitors, but since we are residents it’s only $10 per person and they used to give you $5 per person back as credit to use for water, sodas, snacks or anything they sell at their small store. Ah well, it’s a safe place to park and there is a bathroom there. Since we couldn’t check in until 3:00 we had packed a picnic lunch which we ate at the visitor’s center and the lady working there asked if she could take our picture to post on Instagram. The next day we noticed she set up a picnic table. They have a counter with stools that we used the day before.
We had great bird sightings over our 3 days there. We also saw a Coatimundi right off the trail and he was tearing an old tree apart looking for food. He didn’t seem bothered that we were there. He had a lovely long tail, but Greg had it more head on so no shots of that. We also saw a Rufus Vented Ground Cuckoo. In total we saw 26 new birds making our total around 182 birds since we moved here.
 Coatimundi
 
Here are a few of our “new birds”
 Western Slaty Antshrike
 Wattled Jacana
 Wattled Jacana
 Wattled Jacana (see the huge feet)
 Greater Yellowlegs
 Ruddy-breasted Seedeater
 Common Tody Flycatcher
 Greater Ani
 White-whiskered Puffbird - female

 

 female Flame-rumped Tanager
male Flame-rumped Tanager
Southern Bentbill 
 Song Wren
 Ocellated Antbird
Bicolored Antbird 
 Slaty-tailed Trogan
 Slaty-tailed Trogan
 Gray-headed Tanager
Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo 
 Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo
 Rufous-vented Ground-cuckoo 
 female Black-crowned Antshrike
male Black-crowned Antshrike 
Black-necked Stilt
 Green Heron fishing

 
kissing Orange-throated Parakeets

We did the night safari one night and saw some Capybara, an iguana in a tree, a peresoso (sloth) and a couple of house cats. (technically, they would be yard cats, I guess) The house cats seemed the most put out over having a spotlight shined on them. lol
The resort was very busy. A couple of huge tour groups were there and since May 1 is a Holiday many locals were there as well. It did rain both afternoons we were there. One day really hard!
We have been to the resort twice now and both times weird things have happened to trees. The first time we visited we were walking around the grounds and heard and saw a huge tree just split in 2. It was a  LOUD CRACK and half fell to the ground. This time during the rain storm with lots of thunder and lightning, lightning struck a palm tree and caught fire.
 
The resident pool cat was there and though I doubt she remembered me, she followed me to a lounger and patiently waited to be invited up and instantly curled up and fell asleep on my lap. Both of us in hog heaven! (I do miss having cats)

Here are some shots of the lake and other shots from the trails




Mascovy duck & Black-necked Stilt 

 wild orchids
 cool bug
 cool bug on Greg's shirt
 mushroom
 slow moving caterpillar
 frog
 mushroom growing on rock
 trail
 view from Canopy Tower


 baby spiders


 hazy pic of Keel-billed Toucan near the pool
 view in the rain of hotel
 wild orchids






walking bridge over stream
 
We had lunch at the Marina the last day before driving home.
 

 our room
patio of our room

The National Election Day here was on a Sunday. To enforce a dry rule, the sale and consumption of alcohol was banned from noon Friday, 2 May to noon Monday. So, all bodegas, cantinas, night clubs, dance halls and any other places that sell alcohol were closed. The only exception is if you are a tourist staying at a hotel. The dry law is supposed to guarantee a calm and peaceful election. So, Panama now has a new President. Ricardo Martinelli is out and Juan Carlos Varela is in. He was the vice president, but had distanced himself from Martinelli because of differing policies. He won with around 39% of the votes. Most Panamanians we have encountered seem happy with the choice. It seems all local elections are also held on the same day.
Back at home we continue the “Manakin Diaries”. On the Sendero Eisenmann, we have heard tons of them and have seen quite a few as well. Lots of pings, trills and wrahs. (why yes, we ARE the life of the party…ha ha) Greg has also found what are probably Mot Mot nests. He recorded the sound and it sounds like baby ones in there. Also had another coyote sighting on the trail. I have been recouping with bursitis in my left hip, so I have been missing all the hiking action. UGH! It is starting to feel better, but it needs a few more days.




 
Mot Mot nest
We went to CASA’s Cinco de Mayo chili dinner at Louise’s bohio. Around 45 people were there. They provided the chili, rice, cole slaw and bread and we each brought a dessert, salad or appetizer to share. Good food and conversation. Yes, leave it to Norte Americanos (US and Canada) to celebrate a Mexican holiday in Panama.
We continue Spanish lessons with Jasmine. The repetition is really helpful as is listening to the accent which she turns up and down as we progress.
Claire (the owner of Picasso) is having a Spanish Chat Club before the Happy Hour. So, it starts at 3:00 and we just stay for Happy Hour around 5:00. She leads the conversation and then we break off and chat with another person. The first chat had about half that knew a lot and half that knew virtually nothing. So, for the ones that already knew everything it was boring and the other half were overwhelmed. While I knew most all of it, I still found the repetition helpful. We will go a few more times to see how it goes. It all helps! She may change the format to suit the level of the people and I’m sure depending on who shows up each week it can be different. Claire is from the UK, but has lived in Buenos Aires and here in Panama for quite a while. She speaks Spanish very well and her accent is so good she sounds like a local. We should hope to get THAT good.
This week’s chat club was much larger. We got there late, as we decided to walk (to test my hip) and after about a block it started to pour rain. We tried to wait it out under the awning of La Cosita (local convenience store), but it was going to rain for a while. It had been cloudy all day and didn’t seem like it was going to rain. So, finally when it slowed a bit we resumed walking the couple of blocks there. Of course it opens up and pours. We were late and drowned rats. Claire offered us toallas. (towels) It was raining so hard it was hard to hear her while she guided the chat. (outside under a metal roof) By the time happy hour started the rain had stopped and the sun came out. Entertainment started at 6:30 where 3 local musicians performed to earn money for a local family whose 5 year old daughter has leukemia. They raised over $1,000 from our small group that night
We tried a new restaurant (trying to try them all) I had incredibly yummy gnocchi at Buona Cucina and Greg had Penne Rustico. Every bit as good as any I have had in Italy. We’ll definitely be back!
I am back hiking again now that my hip is better. On our list of “must see” birds, the Common Potoo was one of them. Normally they are night birds and hard to find. On the sendero a large bird flew over Greg’s head and landed on a tree branch. He must have startled it as we were walking under him. They normally sit on top of a tree stump and with their shape and coloration they just become an extension of the stump. Or they sit in trees looking like a rogue branch. They have bright yellow eyes so they normally are seen with their eyes slit so they aren’t seen. They also have huge mouths. (seen online not in person)
 Common Potoo
 Common Potoo
 Common Potoo
 large Whiptail

 Saltator
 Striped Cuckoo

 Roadside Hawk

 Caiman

 immature Little Blue Heron
Squirrel Cuckoo 

Boat-billed Flycatcher
storm over the sender
 
 Pale-vented Pigeon
 
 
While I was recouping with the sore hip I have had time to work on Safari planning. I had been reading Fodors & TripAdvisor reviews of tons of operators, which parks to visit, lodging options and trying to time being there for the Great Migration with hopes of seeing river crossings.
I got both the Gorilla Tracking portion and the Safari portion booked. Phew! I booked the Tanzania portion with Duma Explorer http://www.dumaexplorer.com/safaris and the Rwanda portion with Gorilla Trek Africa http://www.rwandagorilla.com/
It’s not until August 2015, but even that far in advance one of the luxury tents was already fully booked for one of our nights, so we shifted everything a day earlier. The driving force was the gorilla tracking as only 8 people can visit a given gorilla family per day. 80 permits are issued each day. So, they recommend booking 15 months in advance, especially in the high season. 
I have to say planning a safari was in many ways more complicated than planning all of the private shore excursions for the World Cruise. If anyone is interested in my process I will post the details in my next post. Obviously, if you are on a group tour there is very little planning as you just pick your date and go with the flow of where they choose for you to visit and stay etc. Yes, you guessed right, I prefer to research and plan it all. In my next post I will talk about the lodging choices and the places where we will visit and potential things to be seen in each area.  

Til then……
 
 

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