We got back from
Gamboa Rainforest Resort on the 3rd
and were invited to 2 different 4th of July pot lucks. One was at
noon at the Pink Towers Bohio with Jill & Don and lots of people and the
other was here at the Bay at the rooftop social area. I think Carol &
Smitty organized it. Way too much food consumed (but worth every calorie) and a
few fireworks after the sun went down. Nice, but wouldn’t impress most Panamanians
who really put on some fantastic fireworks shows. Lol
us at the pool
sitting with Bruce & Judy (or Juice & Broody as many call them)
view from the roof at night
While we were
grocery shopping on the 5th we ran into a couple (Terry & Clyde)
that we had met at Picasso and CASA meetings. They have been bitten by the
travel/nomad bug and we chatted about our mutual love of that. They invited us
to dinner at their place that night and we had such a great time talking with
them and seeing their beautiful home that they are selling to follow their
dream. Terry made the most fantastic mango salsa and Clyde make chicken on the
grill with sweet potatoes with other veggies and spices on the grill. Yum!
Mary & Adam
moved from the house they had been renting to a condo in Vista Mar and they had
a few of us over to see their condo and as always good food and company. Their
place is lovely!
The couple that went
birding with us left a picture of an eagle found in the Philippines on our car
window that we found after we returned to our car after our morning hike. Left
a message saying they see our car there all the time and wanted to say Hi. I
told Greg “see, we DO get mail delivery in Panama”. LOL (our electric bill is
slid under the door of our condo)
For our first
group lunch we went to Penonome to El Mezon de Santa Cruz. Half of us had eaten
there before so it was new for the other half of the group of 8. It’s the place
that is a Spanish-themed monastery or used to be a monastery. Not sure which…. It was closed for a couple of days doing some
remodeling and we ended up at Peruvian place that half of us had already been
to, but the other half hadn’t. Actually it turned out to be 10 of us this time.
They do have pretty good food there. We took a new back road towards El Valle
to get to Penonone and drove past the rice fields on the way home.
some sites along the way
some of the lunch bunch
filete stuffed with ham & bacon & mashed potatoes
seafood & rice
on the way to the rice fields
Clay-colored Thrush bathing in puddle
Yellow-headed Caracara
Black-necked Stilt
Smooth-billed Ani
turtles & Wattled Jacana
We saw a pretty
rare bird for our area while hiking on the trail here in the neighborhood… a
Hook-billed Kite. Greg got a pretty decent shot considering it was high in the
sky. It was confirmed by a local bird guide that Greg sent it to for
verification.
Hook-billed Kite
Here some are some other things seen on our daily walks:
Striped Cuckoo
Striped Cuckoo
Rufous-breasted Wren
Pale-eyed Pygmy-Tyrant
Blind Snake (smallest snake that is smaller than most worms)
Speckled Racer
very young Green Iguana it was smaller than most fence lizards
butterfly on horse poo
dung beetles carrying away some of the horse poo
Banded Longwing Butterflies
this guy was on our window
Powdered Grey Spurwing
Powdered Grey Spurwings
Swallowtail
dragonfly
not sure if it's a butterfly or a moth
our trail "littered" with fallen lavender flowers
Yellow-green Vireo
Crested Caracara
Caiman and turtles
Turkey Vulture
Panama Flycatcher
Yellow-faced Grassquit with nesting material
Found a couple of
starfish on the beach….
On one of our
hikes on the trail here we heard blood curdling howls of at least one coyote
that seemed to be about 50 to 100 yards off the trail.
We went to El
Valle for an all day trip with Judy and Andy. We had perfect weather and saw a
few birds, but not a lot. Judy was excited to see the Oropendolas flying in and
out of their long nests and making their beautiful sounds that sound a bit like
water drops plopping in a bamboo bucket. Had a nice lunch at Carlito’s.
Oropendola and nest
Saltator
Gray-headed Tanager
Gray-headed Tanager
Rufous-capped Warbler
Swallow-tailed Kite
Tawny-crested Tanager
Lineated Woodpecker
female Thick-billed Euphonia
Orange-chinned Parakeet
this little guy was asleep
We just found out
that we needed to have forms filled out by our doctor stating we are in good
health with no disabilities in order to go on the Antarctica trip. So, we made
a quick trip to Dr. Levy to have the forms filled out. We had physicals in
February so there were no issues to report.
Just over a week
before we leave for Africa! I’ll do one more post before we leave with our
itinerary. I doubt there will be enough time or availability of wifi to post
anything while we are gone, so will post the day by day after we return. I’m
envisioning thousands of pictures to wade through to pick out some gems.
Until next time……
