This month marks our 2 year
anniversary of living in Panama. We are still enjoying it here.
This months’ CASA event was
a Wine & Cheese party at Louise’s bohio. We met a couple of new people. It’s
low season here and of course there are fewer of us here this time of year,
though Wednesdays at Picasso is still pretty busy.
Susan introduced us to
another couple who want to get more into birding. Had a nice lunch at Gourmet
Pizza and set up to meet to go birding on the trail here in Coronado. They are new at it and Judy admits she is more
into it than Andy. So, we planned to start with a walk on the local trail here
in Coronado and will probably do a day trip to El Valle with them at some point. We
didn’t see a lot of birds on the walk, but did see a couple of large lizards
mating. We debated fighting or mating as it was a flurry of them going round
and round, but it definitely turned out to be mating. Lots of jokes made about
“50 shades of Lizard” and the husband says “if that is sex I have been missing
out” and without skipping a beat his wife says “and you will continue to do
so”.
What a great night of TV
with watching the Triple Crown and that was followed by game 2 of the Stanley
Cup and our Tampa Bay Lightning won, tying the series. Our Lightening did lose the Stanley Cup, but
it was a close series with only 1 goal difference in final scores until the
last game where they lost 2 to 0.
I also got inspired to
finally add photos from the World Cruise 2013 to my blog. Internet was just so
maddeningly slow it was nearly impossible on the ship to add them to my Picasa
Web Albums and then add them to the blog which needs to be done directly from
Picasa. I also filled in the gaps from our arrival to Panama to when I started
adding photos.
We only had 1 group dinner
this month. (too many people traveling at different times) We had 10 of us at
Buena Cocina. As always good food and good company. It’s an unassuming place, but very good food.
Jennifer said when they drove up she thought “where is she bringing us to this
time?”
On our monthly trip into the
city for Pricesmart and the Discovery Center we went to Parque Metropolitano
for a hike. Then off to Lenos Y Carbon for lunch. The Pricesmart that is close
to the Westland Mall (the one about 45 minutes from here) opens the 25th
of this month, so that will save us driving into the city just to go to
Pricesmart!
sloth high up in a tree
Dot-winged Antwren
Fasciated Antshrike
Southern Bentbill
Western Slaty-Antshrike
Cocoa Woodcreeper
Scaly-breasted Hummingbird
Rufous-and-White Wren
Red-throated Ant-Tanager
Squirrel Cuckoo
We saw a very young coyote
pup on the trail one day. It was making its way out of the woods towards the
trail in front of us. I don’t think it sensed we were there until it turned and
saw us and then didn’t really run away, but a slow trot down and across the
path. It was really skinny and probably not doing a very good job of surviving
on its’ own.
We did a day trip to El
Valle. While it was great that we had nice weather (it didn’t rain until we
were leaving), but it was probably the least birds spotted on any trip there.
We did have a nice lunch at Carlitos.
male Yellow-faced Grassquit
female Yellow-faced Grassquit
Black-headed Saltator
large ant hill
trail
Oropendola nests
local school girl in uniform catching local transport
female Barred-Antshrike
We booked the Gamboa Rainforest
Resort for July 1 & 2. Hopefully, we will see more birds/animals there.
We drove to Chica’ for some
birding on our way to Costa Verde to pick up a few things and like El Valle
there really weren’t many birds to be seen. We had lunch at Mi Ranchito which
turned out NOT to be Mexican food, but a very good Panamanian style food place.
Greg had the Garlic Octopus and they did have nachos and a quesadilla as
appetizers so I got Nachos since I really wanted something “Mexican”. We ran
into Louise and Sheila having lunch there as they had just come from the brand
new Pricesmart and they said it wasn’t that busy we should go check it out.
Clean and new (it was the Grand Opening) and well stocked. We checked it out,
but didn’t buy anything since we had recently done a run and the freezer is
full. Nice to know we can now go to Pricesmart without driving into the city.
cattle at the top of the hill
wasp nest
I love that these grow wild
Our morning walks in the dry
forest have had lots of baby birds and just tons of butterflies. This one
tree/bush has blooms that they seem to really love. Here are a few of the
photos Greg took:
Banded Orange Heliconian Butterfly
Banded Orange Heliconian Butterfly
Monarch Butterfly
Many-banded Daggerwing Butterfly
Orange Daggerwing Butterfly
White Peacock Butterfly
Malachite Butterfly
Mimosa Yellow Butterfly
Banded Peacock Butterfly
Common Buckeye Butterfly
Mexican Fritillary Butterfly
Malachite Butterfly
White-patched Skipper Butterfly
Tanna Longtail
Here are some photos of other things seen on our walks on the trail and the beach:
Orion Cecropian - Stinky Leafwing - beautiful butterfly.....the long yellow thing is it's tongue
Whirlabout Skipper Butterfly on Greg's pants - see the tongue licking sweat from his pants
Dragonfly
Cane Toad
Rufous-breasted Wren
Red-crowned Woodpecker
male Lance-tailed Manakin
female Lance-tailed Manakin
Blue-crowned Motmot nest
female Thick-billed Seedeater
Golden-fronted Greenlet (young)
Rufous-capped Warbler
our beach
Pelicans from the balcony
Yellow-crowned Night Herons
Frigate
Orange-chinned Parakeet
I’ve gathered information on
all of our ports for the World Cruise and have a few tour operators lined up to
contact after the first of the year for private tours. Some really interesting
ports with quite a few that are pretty “off the beaten path”.
We are especially excited
that several couples that we met on the one in 2013 were already considering
the one in 2017 as well. Looking forward to seeing Karen & Steve, Bonnie
& Dennis and Rick & Janie and maybe a couple more may join. It will be
nice to see some familiar faces on board. Just heard that Julie & Jeff may be coming
on the voyage as well.
We finally booked our hotel
stays for Buenos Aires. Same hotel, but we have 3 different stays. 3 days before the Antarctic Expedition, one
night after we return before flying to Iguazu Falls and then 2 nights when we
get back before flying home. I also have the tours for BA figured out and the
couple days in Ushuaia figured out as well.
We also booked a 7 day birding
trip to the Darien area here in Panama for May 1 next year. It’s part of the
Canopy family that is geared towards “birders”. They have one in Gamboa, one in
El Valle, a B&B in Gamboa and then a new one that is “Africa style” tents
in the Darien which is the area that separates Panama from Colombia and the Pan-American
Highway stops part way there. It’s the least explored area of Panama and is
very bio-diverse. There are many species that only live in that area so we
should see quite a few new birds. http://www.canopytower.com/canopy-camp
The Pan-American Highway
starts in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska (aka Deadhorse) and ends in Ushuaia, Argentina
(about 30,000 miles), except for a rainforest break of about 60 miles called
the Darién
Gap. Because of swamps, marshes, and rivers, construction
would be very expensive as well as concerns raised by environmentalists as well
as concerns from the Embera-Wounaan and Kuna (indigenous peoples that still
live there). There is evidence that the Gap has prevented the spread of
foot-and mouth disease as well as drug trafficking, arms smuggling, kidnappings and paramilitary
groups.
We are only 5½ weeks away
from our Africa trip!
Until next time!
