I sometimes laugh at myself when I walk through the forest... I am still getting my 'forest feet' and there are always obstacles to contend with. Roots, vines, low branches, large palm leaves are all there to trip clumsy people like me. I've also discovered that going downhill is somewhat difficult. I think I'm just afraid of falling (who knows what you will land on - rock, thorn, Fer-de-Lance...) so I go slow. Combine downhills with roots, vines, rocks, low branches and large palm leaves and ME (wearing rubber boots) and its quite the sight... I'm getting use to it though! Good workout for the thighs and calves! I haven't done any really good faceplants though so I think that's a good sign.
Climbing is also fun. Soberania is made up of large ridges that we are constantly climbing to get to high points to check for signals. The other day when we were out we climbed a decent vertical... luckily there were solid roots to grab onto - sometimes I feel like I'm rock-climbing! I also sometimes feel like I could go on American Gladiators!
Regardless, because I am usually looking on the ground for things to avoid stepping on or tripping over, I see lots of little things that I wouldn't have noticed if looking up. I have noticed more spiders running over the dead leaves on the ground, and tons of little forest frogs and toads. The common toad we see here is Rhinella margaritifera (correct me if I'm wrong), and today on my hike I found a nice looking one and was able to get some photos. I see lots of lizards that are too fast for me to take a picture of let alone get a decent look at. The other day I was walking up a streamfall and spotted a Black and Green Poison Dart Frog (Dendrobates auratus), definitely one of the coolest things I've seen so far. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos, but I will hopefully see more! Another nice find over the last couple days has been tarantulas! Again, didn't have my camera, but they are a nice sight regardless. The first one I found was actually on a LONG hike that Rigoberto and I did out to the edge of Soberania (10 km distance round trip, then add the ridges). I found a hole in a shallow bank with a large series of webbing extending from it. Throwing a small piece of stick into the webbing brought the spider out for a second, but once it realized it wasn't food, quickly went back inside its burrow. We tried a few more times, but the tarantula couldn't be fooled again. The next day, we found another (likely the same species) while looking for an eagle on the other side of the Chagres River. This one was out on the forest floor, and we were able to get some nice looks! I believe the species is the Panama Red-rump Tarantula, but I am not sure.
Ants are everywhere. Leafcutter ants seem to be far more common here in Panama than I remember them being in Peru. I try my best not to step on them (because they seem so focused on their jobs of bringing cut leaves, flowers, berries and sticks back to their homes to make food) but sometimes that's hard to avoid because there are so many! Out of all the ants here, they seem like the least threat. Other ants (on the other hand) are not so nice! Red ants, army ants, and they just seem to get bigger and bigger... the larger the ant, the further I stay away from it. I'm sure they can give a powerful sting and bite that would last for a few days. However, I do enjoy finding army ant raids (as weird as that sounds), not for the ants, but for the birds that follow these raids. When thousands of army ants get together they move in a large swarm and disrupt just about anything in their path. Other animals, especially birds, take advantage of this. Antbirds, woodcreepers, tanagers and others follow army ant raids to pick up lizards, insects, and anything else that gets moved during the raids. We come across them quite often. Usually you can hear the Antbirds right away. There's usually a lot of bird activity going on. At raids, I've seen Ocellated Antbirds, Bicoloured Antbirds, Spotted Antbirds, Chestnut-backed Antbirds, Plain-brown Woodcreepers, Barred Woodcreepers, Gray-headed Tanagers, Red-throated Ant-Tanagers and Song Wrens so far. I usually have to move every once in a while because the ants will cover my boots if I stand in one place for too long, but ant raids are one of my favourite things to come by down here.
I've somewhat adopted a cat while I'm here, too. One of the graduate students down here with STRI has left and she asked me if I would feed the cat she adopted. "Cora" is a cute, little female cat who's been living with us now for about 3 days. She seems to wander off during the day but comes when her name is called (or when I bang her food dish against the side of the house) and LOVES food. She's a little pudgy, but if I were a stray found starving in Gamboa then I would take advantage of every bit of food possible too! She's a nice addition to the house.
I almost forget that Christmas is just around the corner. Gamboa is not very 'christmasy' at all - a couple houses have put up some christmas lights but other than that, it looks the same as it does the rest of the year. My housemates and I are putting together a dinner for christmas eve and we're each making a course of the meal. I'm looking forward to that. Here's another photo of LT, the female Harpy I enjoy looking for :) Enjoy!
Oh, and I know quite a few of you are interested in my bird, mammal, and other sightings, so I will try to get that organized and up here too within the next week or so.
On our way to find signals for eagles, we came to a screeching halt along the road to take a look at a Brown-throated Three-toed Sloth that was hanging out in the open on a bare tree near the entrance of Pipeline Road. He was quite funny to watch - scratching his throat, his belly, and moving about on the narrow branches. One of the past volunteers told me that we rarely see sloths alive (since they are the main prey for Harpies), but this is my 4th or 5th sloth so far, alive, in a few weeks... maybe I'm just lucky!
Pipeline Road itself is a bit of a thrill. On various levels... for the wildlife that you can see there, the random weather you can experience, and once you get further down the road where it is less 'maintained', the road turns into a rugged, crushed stone, partially washed out in places, with weather-worn bridges that look like they could give out if a coati walked over it. On a good day, it takes about 2 hours on the ATVs to get to the end (provided no ATV malfunctions or trees in the way), or what the end is now, as far as you can go (about 16 or 17 km). Everytime we head out to the end (one of the eagles we are tracking hangs out at the very end of the road) its like a thrill ride at an amusement park - simulator or track ride, whichever you prefer - extremely bumpy, ups and downs, big hills, narrow roads, worn bridges, weird sounds (howler monkeys like to scream when the ATVs go by), and add rain, heat and bugs to the equation and you can imagine what it may be like! 
One night last week I was invited out by some STRI biologists to do a creek walk along one of the rivers that crosses Pipeline Road. Just for fun, to look for frogs and night creatures. We found a decent assortment of Glass Frogs and their clutches, various species of toads and other tree frogs, Basilisks, night fish, spiders, and heard a Crested Owl and Great Potoos.
Lately I've been heading into Panama City, for various reasons, which is also an interesting experience! Panama City is fairly easy to get around, but takes a bit of planning and figuring out where to go, and being prepared to ask, in Spanish, how to get to places. The bus into Panama City runs fairly regularly from Gamboa, costs 65 cents and takes you to the Albrook Mall terminal, a large, extremely busy (especially now that its christmas time) mall that you can find just about everything in (I've been going there to see movies, too). From the mall terminal, you can get buses to just about anywhere in Panama, and to Costa Rica as well. I find the buses themselves quite amusing... the whole fleet is called the "Diablo Rojo" or "Red Devil", and they are all refurbished and repainted old school buses. Some of them have elaborate exhaust pipes and paint jobs, and they are ALL different. I will get pictures of them soon because they are quite the sight. Taxis are cheap as well and a good way to get around the city if you don't know the bus system (which is what I am still trying to figure out!). I don't think I would attempt to drive in Panama City, especially since most of the cars you see have big dents and broken headlights. 