Sunny January

January has been a whirlwind of a month, with visitors from cold Canada to being busy keeping up on locating the harpies, its been great. So here's a little update. Encounters with finding the harpies has been going well, and they are all doing quite well. Since its the dry season they are moving around more which makes it a little challenging to keep up on where they are moving to, but we re-find them at some point. Seeing them is still as exciting as the first day, and its nice to look out for them and make sure they are doing ok. Even more exciting is finding them with food, because by the time we see them we are usually at close range and they usually end up surprising us! So far I've seen them eating Two-toed Sloths, Three-toed Sloths, Northern Tamanduas and White-throated Capuchin monkeys. They will also prey on Howler monkeys and coatis and other mid-sized mammals.

The harpy eagles are quite curious birds so they tend to stick around when we find them, checking us out and doing their typical harpy eagle daily routine, not too bothered by our presence. When we find one, we look at their overall physical condition, whether there is prey present (either feeding or in the vicinity), species, age and gender of prey, whether there are mutes present, crop size, and feet colour. We also note their perch location and height, and the weather. We also take their UTM position as their dispersal and movements are being analyzed as well. A couple of the birds tend to stay in a particular area of Soberania and moving minimally, but there are a couple eagles that are quite 'nomadic' and move all over the place within the park. Keeping tabs on those eagles can be challenging!

We still continue to see the coolest things out in the rainforest... the other day while waiting on an eagle a Tarantula Wasp flew by, this huge wasp pretty much made our jaws drop. They hunt tarantulas, paralyze them, lay their eggs on the tarantula then when the eggs hatch the young aquire their nutrients from the tarantula, eventually killing it. Crazy! There is a species of cicada here that sounds like a little chainsaw or electric drill working up in the trees, and lately its started to become a little annoying! We unfortunately found a dead White Hawk on Pipeline Road that appeared to have been eaten by some mammal... it was missing its head and breast muscle, basically just wings and feet were remaining. Not just wild animal life either, its amazing what your coworkers will do, one day Rigoberto climbed a tall tree barefoot, very impressive! I wish I had a photo...

I took a day off and went out to Santa Clara Beach and El Valle with my mom while she was visiting, and what a great day trip it was. The beach was beautiful - white sand, warm Pacific Ocean water, and since we went during the week, it was quiet. Couldn't beat the weather either - sunny and hot with the right amount of cloud to cool you down periodically while laying on the beach. After the beach we took a stop in El Valle, which is a little town situated in the crater of an extinct volcano. A great area for birding, but unfortunately didn't have time for that on this trip. We did visit the marketplace, which has a little artesania section to buy Panamanian souvenirs and jewelry, and a fresh fruits and vegetables stand.

Here's a bit of a road block we experienced last week...
... this tree had fallen along Pipeline road, preventing us from getting to three of the eagles. Luckily, it was cleared within a few days. Check out the size of those epiphytes!

Isla Grande and Portobelo

Becky was visiting for a couple weeks, and although I was working during her visit, I decided to take a few days off for us to go on a bit of a getaway from Gamboa. After discussing options (Bocas del Toro, Chiriqui highlands, Caribbean coast), we decided the best place would be to visit Isla Grande, which is an island close to the coast of Panama on the Caribbean side. We, fairly spontaneously, hopped on a bus to Colon (2^nd largest city in Panama, at the Caribbean entrance to the Canal – not my top choice of places to go in Panama, quite sketchy!), then another bus from Colon to Portobelo, then yet another to La Guayra. At the end of the road, we stepped off the very crowded bus and immediately grabbed a water taxi to the island (only a few minutes by boat). It was a long day of sitting on buses, but we were finally there.

Isla Grande has a small population of locals, a couple resorts and numerous cheap places to stay. We found a room at the Super Jackson Cabanas for $20 a night. There were restaurants, bars (including one dedicated to Bob Marley) and a tribute to the Nazareno, the Black Christ, out in the water. Apparently there is good snorkeling near the island, but unfortunately we did not see any signs for where to rent gear. We enjoyed the island regardless... beautiful scenery, fresh air, the Caribbean Sea, and a relaxed atmosphere (we were two of only a small handful of tourists as it was mid-week).

On the bus to La Guarya, we met a german guy traveling through Central and South America. He was staying in a hostel on the mainland (but near the island), and the next day he came to the island with a couple other guys from the states. We hiked up to a lighthouse with them that gave spectacular views of the island. The weather was mostly cloudy during our time on the island (but no rain), however, during the time on the lighthouse, the clouds turned to white and the sun came through, it was perfect. That afternoon we swam in the sea, collected seashells for Becky, and walked the strip, taking photos and being your typical ‘tourists’. Hoping to try different restaurants at each meal, we ended up eating at the same place 3 times because nothing else was open! Oh well, it was delicious anyways.

After 2 nights on the island, we headed back to Gamboa by bus, making a stop in Portobelo to check out the Fort ruins. Portobelo was named by Christopher Columbus, meaning “beautiful port”, and the area has a history of attack by Henry Morgan (namesake for Captain Morgan’s rum). Apparently there are a few different locations that have ruins in Portobelo, but we just managed to see one of them (the 18^th century Santiago Battery). It overlooked the bay in Portobelo, where you could imagine tall ships with cannons firing at the mainland. The sun had come out by then, and even though our stay was short, I’m glad we made the stop, it was worth seeing. We also ran into the guys from the states we had met the day before, who had also stopped to take photos and see the ruins, and they offered us a drive back to Gamboa. That sounded far more pleasant than taking the bus so we graciously accepted (thanks guys!). The trip was short but I think we made the most of it!

After 2 nights on the island, we headed back to Gamboa by bus, making a stop in Portobelo to check out the Fort ruins. Portobelo was named by Christopher Columbus, meaning “beautiful port”, and the area has a history of attack by Henry Morgan (namesake for Captain Morgan’s rum). Apparently there are a few different locations that have ruins in Portobelo, but we just managed to see one of them (the 18^th century Santiago Battery). It overlooked the bay in Portobelo, where you could imagine tall ships with cannons firing at the mainland. The sun had come out by then, and even though our stay was short, I’m glad we made the stop, it was worth seeing. We also ran into the guys from the states we had met the day before, who had also stopped to take photos and see the ruins, and they offered us a drive back to Gamboa. That sounded far more pleasant than taking the bus so we graciously accepted (thanks guys!). The trip was short but I think we made the most of it!

A Gamboa Christmas, Panama City New Years

I had anticipated christmas and new years down here in Panama, curious to see what it would be like (or what we would come up with to do). We did a family christmas back at home in November before I moved down here so to me, I had already had my somewhat traditional family christmas, so this christmas was a bonus.

Since I (was) living with 2 guys from Spain, we decided to do a big dinner on December 24^th, as they do in Spain. We each took a course (I chose dessert). Also, since I live in a very male-dominated house, there was a lot of meat. Cold meats and cheeses for appetizers, salmon for course #2, and the main course was ham. By then I was about ready to turn vegetarian, and not to mention that I was belly-aching full, but we managed to cram down dessert too. Our cooking styles were limited, since our oven doesn’t work, so everything was prepared either stovetop, microwave, or cold. It was still delicious, and a nice way to celebrate christmas with my roomies.

Christmas day was probably the most relaxing day I’ve had here so far. I got up early to enjoy the day, went to the pool in the morning for a few hours, home for lunch, then since nothing too exciting was going on at my house, decided the best place for me to be at the time was back at the pool. I planned on just going for another hour, but ended up spending another 2 hours (at least!) at the pool. It was wonderful. There was a christmas BBQ at a friend’s place, where we continued to eat, drink and dance into the late hours of the night.

New Years Eve was not exactly what I expected for Panama City, but still an enjoyable night. My friend Becky was in Panama visiting me and had arrived a couple days before our ‘big night out’. We got all dressed up (thankfully Becky brought some nice shirts because I apparently overlooked that when I packed), jewelry, makeup, the whole works, and met up with some other friends in Gamboa to head into the City. We arrived in the Calle Uruguay area (where all the bars and clubs are) around 8:30, expecting lineups and tons of people, only to find the 6 of us to be alone on the streets. Baffled, we wandered around to find a place to eat dinner and get a drink, thinking that it would pick up at any time. After we finished dinner around 10, there were people just starting to trickle into the area. We went over to another bar, where we got served complimentary fruit and chocolate fondue (we figured because they wanted us to stick around for midnight, the bar was quite quiet!). But we decided it wasn’t the place for us, so we headed to another bar, just in time to “ring in the new year”. No line ups, no countown that we were all so ready for, and all of a sudden some fireworks went off in a nearby section of the city and there was a bit of cheering that lasted maybe 30 seconds. And that was it for new years in Panama! It doesn’t seem to be a very big deal down here, and in fact, most people celebrate new years with their families and then head out later. We stayed at the same bar until about 4 am, since it was comfortable, airy, and playing 80’s music videos (in english) all night!

The taxi ride home was probably one of the most talked about parts of the night! We think our driver was tired (or drunk, hopefully not!), because he would go really fast, start drifting off to the side of the road, slam on the brakes, then smack himself in the face a few times to wake himself up. Over and over again. In order to get into Gamboa, you need to cross the bridge, which is an iron and wood bridge with two wide tire tracks that you need to stay on. We made it halfway across and then before we knew it the wheels of the taxi had drifted off the the tracks and the bottom of the car was scraping against the bridge! We made it across thankfully, but sometimes I think that taking those crazy buses are safer!