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
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.
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
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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