Wednesday, October 1, 2014

September 1 to 30

Happy birthday to my son Scott (Sep. 15th) and my Dad (Sep. 16th). I really enjoyed our SKYPE 3-way call.

We took a day trip to El Valle and hiked and drove around the Cerro Gaital area. We saw not 1, but 6 toucans in a tree. It was a large dead tree so they really stood out. They were being quite noisy and flew from tree to tree. We increased our new bird count quite a bit that day. We saw so many birds just standing in one place. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and hazy day and pictures weren’t easy to get. We broke for lunch and drove back down the hill to have pizza at Carlito’s. We debated whether or not to go back to the same place or do some other areas. The rain stopped so we drove back up the hill. When we first arrived we walked around a bit and it was so quiet and there were no birds to be seen. Then it was like someone flipped a switch and birds just came in large active groups.  We saw so many and there was no way to get shots of them all. We saw about a half dozen Blue-headed Parrots, Baltimore Orioles, tons of little birds, a new hummingbird and a new Woodcreeper. Finally, we decided it was time for the drive home with a stop at the bakery in El Valle for pastries.
 Keel-billed Toucans





 Black-striped Sparrow
 Blue-headed Parrot
 Plain Antviero
 Summer Tanager
 Plain Xenops
Yellow-bellied Seedeater
our car at Cerro Gaital trail head

On our daily walks we have seen male and female American Kestrals, some new Flycatchers, a Pearl Kite, some great new shots of Kingfishers, and our current new bird count is at 236!
 Ring-necked Kingfisher

 Kestral
 
 Pearl Kite
Pearl Kite
Pearl Kite

 Pearl Kite
 Bat Falcon
 Bat Falcon
 Bat Falcon
 White-tailed Kite
 Zone-tailed Hawk
 Zone-tailed Hawk
 Dragonfly
 Piratic Flycatcher
 Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher
 Orange-chinned Parakeets
 Yellow Warbler
 Olive-sided Flycatcher
 Fork-tailed Flycatcher
 Blue-crowned Motmot
 Southern Lapwing
 Yellow-crowned Night Heron
 Blue-gray Tanager

 snail on trail
 cool insect
 mushroom
 sapo (toad)
 mushrooms
 lone flower on the trail
 male Barred Antshrike
 Great Egret
Great Egret
Yellow-crowned Night Heron
Getting decent shots of birds is not easy. Small birds flit constantly so they never sit still long enough to focus and shoot before they move. Larger birds sit still longer, but are often much farther away. Then, identifying new birds can take a long time. We have a couple great field guides and back those up with various websites to try and do our best to identify them all. Some, just go as “who knows?” Even bad shots are saved until we hopefully identify the bird. Sometimes Greg records the songs/calls of the birds and uses that to identify ones we don’t get good pictures of or even see. Lots of sites have recordings of birds and it is not an easy task if you don’t even have a clue what kind of bird it is. That’s part of the process I don’t have the patience for. (and I wonder where our time goes?) I realize from pictures it’s hard to tell the size of Manakins and other birds. Manakins would fit 2 or 3 in your hand. Most pictures are shot through brush and not easy to find and focus on.We have lots of photos of bird butts or them flying away. I said we need a blooper file.
Greg is still going to our Spanish tutor, but I stopped. I just felt Greg could progress quicker without spending half of our time with me just reciting everything we have learned to that point. I really would like more time working on forming sentences than memorizing words. Honestly, I know and understand quite a lot of Spanish and I just got tired of spending all the time studying. It just takes a long time to cram new things into this old brain. So, I still continue with the Duolingo program on the computer and I enjoy doing that. Greg mentioned a few weeks ago that we go to 2 Spanish lessons and he is asked not to speak at both of them. (the chat club and the Jasmine lessons) He knows a lot and Claire would ask something for anyone in the group to answer and say “not you Greg”. Jasmine was good at going back and forth between us, but the only time he spoke in the first half hour was if I blanked out on a word.
I finally found a fantastic hair dresser! Thanks Susan for the recommendation. She recommended someone at her church and she came to the condo and did a great job!
One of our favorite phrases is “you never know what you are going to see” Driving around we saw a guy walking  along the highway carrying about 20 five gallon buckets on his shoulder stacked inside each other and sticking way out way in front of him and in back. It’s quite common to see guys carrying their empty or full 5 gal propane tanks, some carrying them in their hand, some propped on their shoulder or even a wheelbarrow to push it in. In the grocery store seeing a free item taped to the side of something else is quite common. It’s not always related to the item it is taped to. On a box of cereal a full size bottle of juice might be taped on. Once I saw a stick of butter taped to something. A can of soda was taped to something etc. Once a maintenance man on our floor was changing a light bulb in the hall and he was standing on an upside down rubber trash can. OSHA, we don’t need no stinking OSHA!
We spent 2 nights at an “all-inclusive” resort in the Colon area on the Caribbean side of Panama. The Melia Panama Canal consisted of three buildings names La Pinta, La Nina and Santa Maria. It’s located on the shores of Lago Gatun and is the former School of the Americas. It was built by the Americans in the first half of the 20th century when the Panama Canal was a reality and Lake Gatun dammed the Chagras River. After the Cold War ended the U.S. was forced to move the school to American soil and return the property to Panama. Damian Barcelo fell in love with the building and it became a beautiful hotel.

We got up early to drive to Colon. Before we even left the neighborhood we saw a new bird hovering in the sky. Greg got some shots and we later identified it as a White-tailed Kite.  We found the hotel and then crossed the Panama Canal via the swing together bridge at Gatun Locks near the Atlantic entrance. This bridge is only opened to traffic when it is closed. The two pieces swing together to close in order for cars to cross in one direction at a time. Ship traffic has priority and the bridge folds into the concrete walls of the Gatun Locks to allow ships to pass. This bridge looks much like the lock gates that control the water in the locks. That was a pretty cool experience. Being right at water level being in the middle of the Panama Canal. On the other side, the road was lower than the canal so it was weird to look up at it.











 
We drove around the area checking it out for where to go the next day. We drove to Achiote Road and stopped at a CEASPA center where there was supposed to be a lookout and possibly a place to get a guide for birding. The sound of Howler Monkeys was deafening. The howling and barking was incessant. We found a trail “Sendero el Trogon” to go back to the next day. We found a new hawk and what I thought were 2 new birds, but we had seen them before, and TONS of Swallows and lots of Fork-tailed Flycatchers. We drove all the way through some small villages before turning around in Pina and driving back to the hotel to check in. Some of the locals were waving at us and some wanted us to give them a ride. We were greeted as we got out of the car by a loud Oropendola in a tree. Lunch was not included the first day as they preferred you use the included one on our last day. So, we went in to have lunch and for 2 it was around $60. Yikes! (made us appreciate the value of the “all-inclusive” aspect of staying at the hotel.) We checked in and the room was nice and huge with a great bathroom. We got unpacked and then we walked around the grounds. Stopped at the pool bar for a couple of “free” drinks. I eventually got a Pina Colada after they cleaned out a yukky looking blender pitcher and made a fresh one. Then, they were out of straws so it was hard to drink it was so frozen. We went in search of birds on the property. We saw some Blue-headed Parrots, a bunch of Orange Chinned Parrots, some Chestnut-mandabled Toucans and other birds we have already seen.
 Chestnut-mandabled Toucan


 view of lake from hotel
 front of hotel

 back of hotel


 lobby
 
There was a pool of water in our bathroom and we could hear it dripping. It appeared to be coming from a wet spot in the ceiling. We let the front desk know in case someone left water on in the room above ours.
We got ready for dinner and went to the evening buffet. Every lunch and dinner had a lot of variety. Always a beef, chicken, pork and fish dish as well as tons of side dishes and salads and of course desserts. For lunch there was also a paella. While everything was good, there was a lot of “sameness” to the food. If we were staying longer it would have gotten old fast. Breakfast was their best effort. Lots to choose from and everything very tasty. Unfortunately, I was having a bit of lower GI issues during our stay and I wasn’t that thrilled with eating anyway.
Next morning we were up early to drive back to Achiote Road. It was a rainy start to the day, but it cleared up and was a wonderful day. We saw tons of Howler monkeys with babies. We saw a few birds, but not a lot. We stopped back at the CEASPA and the “mirador” (hike to the lookout) was not much. The girl that worked there showed us a film on the Canal and the impact it had on the local villages. She tried to get us a guide for that day, but he was not available. So, we went and hiked the Trogan trail on our own. Heard lots of stuff, but didn’t really see much. We did see some Yellow-backed Orioles and a new Motmot. We drove back for lunch and then drove back to the San Lorenzo National Park area and we saw quite a few birds, monkeys and 2 kinds of sloths on the drive to Fort San Lorenzo. Got a great picture of a new Trogon for us. We saw Capuchin monkeys, but didn’t get any good photos. We saw another different Toucan though the pictures are quite backlit. We stopped at a bridge over “the French Canal” and there were literally hundreds of Orange-chinned Parakeets in the trees and flying between the trees. There were 2 guys fishing and one brought in a tiny ray. He was trying to get it off the hook without getting hurt. He eventually did and tossed it back in the water. We got back late to the hotel and cleaned up for dinner and then early to bed. On our last day the weather was perfect. No rain! We drove back to the San Lorenzo National Forest and stopped a lot and walked the road in search of new birds. Then, back to have lunch and check out of the hotel. The hotel was busy Sunday and fewer people on Monday, but on Tuesday we were what appeared to be the only guests there. Here’s this huge buffet and no one else came in the whole time we were there and we were the only car in the parking lot. (kind of cool and creepy all at the same time)
 3 Toed Sloth

 2 Toed Sloth
 3 Toed Sloth
 Howler Monkey
 young Howler
 young Howler
 me in front of huge tree trunk
 trail
 white mushrooms
 red mushrooms
 village of Escobal


 Castillo San Lorenzo






 Collared Aracari
 White-tailed Trogon
 Great Black Hawk
 Broad-winged Hawk
 Broad-billed Motmot
 pair of Ruddy-breasted Seedeaters
 Great Kiskadee
 Bowling Alley near hotel
Mosque near hotel
We stopped at PriceSmart and stocked up for another month before driving home. We had hoped to see more new birds, but as our numbers grow it’s not that we don’t see birds, just not new ones. We commented that we see lots of beautiful birds so often it’s like they are Sparrows. It was a nice get-away.
I finally booked the hotel for the 2 nights in Manaus, Brazil prior to the Amazon River Cruise. They finally released some really good rates. We got both nights for 2 people for less than the tour company wanted for 1 person for one night. (they charged per person instead of by the room) So, the only thing left to do for that one is to get the Brazil Visa next month and a visit to a travel clinic for malaria pills. We already have all of our other shots up to date. We leave for that one on January 22.
I also booked the Antarctica Cruise. After doing tons of research I had narrowed down the choices to about 6 different ships/itineraries. I knew I wanted to include South Georgia and really didn’t care if it actually crossed the Antarctic Circle. IAATO rules and regulations state that no more than 100 people can be on a shore landing at a time. So, to maximize time on land a smaller ship seemed to make more sense. Reviewers mentioned if they had it to do over again they would have gone with less passengers.
I had finally narrowed it down to 2 different Quark ships, The Ocean Endeavor (20 day that didn’t cross the circle) which has around 198 pax and the Sea Adventurer (23 day) with 117 pax. The Endeavour was a “good deal” as it included the internal airfare from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia and 1 night hotel in Buenos Aires and a short tour of Ushuaia before boarding the ship, but the one with less passengers won out.
While I have no doubt the larger ship wouldn’t have been a bad experience, we’ll only do this once and wanted to maximize our time there. So, we booked the Sea Adventurer Epic Antarctica 23 day itinerary. There will be 20 kayakers so everyone should be able to go ashore without splitting the time. We will fly to Buenos Aires and spend some time and then fly to Ushuaia where we will spend the night and catch the ship the next afternoon.

The cruise starts on December 18, 2015 and ends on January 9, 2016. Yep, my birthday, Christmas and New Years in Antarctica! The itinerary is: 

Day 1 — Ushuaia, Argentina
Day 2 — Embarkation Day
Day 3 — At Sea
Day 4 — Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
Day 5 — Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas)
Day 6 — At Sea
Day 7 — At Sea
Day 8 — South Georgia
Day 9 — South Georgia
Day 10 — South Georgia
Day 11 — South Georgia
Day 12 — At Sea
Day 13 — At Sea
Day 14 — South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula
Day 15 — South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula
Day 16 — South Shetland Islands and Antarctic Peninsula
Day 17 — Antarctic Circle
Day 18 — Antarctic Circle
Day 19— Northbound along the Peninsula
Day 20— Northbound along the Peninsula
Day 21  — Crossing the Drake Passage
Day 22 — Crossing the Drake Passage
Day 23 — Disembarkation in Ushuaia, Argentina

 Unlike regular cruise ships, these are expedition ships with ice enforced hulls. It’s more about the destination than about the ship, though they are quite comfortable and people report good food and service. All landings are done using a zodiac (like we did in the Galpagos Islands) and there are generally 2 landings a day and zodiac rides as well. (more or less depending on the weather) We have a lot of opportunities to set foot on the continent so hopefully we will!  The cruise line provides a Parka that we can keep and they provide the waterproof muck boots to use during the cruise. (all landings except Stanley in the Falklands are wet landings and the penguin poo can be a mess) We will have the opportunity to see whales, up to 6 types of Penguins, seals, dolphins and around 30 species of breeding birds as well as Shackletons grave site.  

The clothes shopping for this one will be “fun”. YIKES! I’m a tropical gal after-all.
 
I've added 3 albums to Picasa. 

Until next time……

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