Day 4 - birds, beasts and a hike

Still jet lagged and after an early night, our 5:30 alarm was easy as pie and we lay in bed for a while listening as the night sounds gave way to the daylight ones. Then it was up, dressed and down to breakfast before discovering what Eliecer had in store for us today.

Our morning outing took us over to La Mesa which was a combination of secondary rainforest, cleared pasture and land starting to be reclaimed by the rainforest yet again. This mix of terrain made it particularly good for spotting a wide variety of birds and animals.

We started off in rainforest similar to what we'd been in the day before (second growth), and almost immediately we started spotting small birds.

And butterflies

Then all of a sudden, we came out into an area that had been cleared and was now mostly pasture.

Things still had a tendency to grow, whether you liked it or not. Like fence posts

It was here that we saw a number of the birds of prey, including a tree full of vultures.

And more butterflies than you could shake a stick at

After that we got back into the forest proper, and spotted more hummingbirds

Then it was back to the Lodge for lunch and a bit of a rest before our afternoon outing. Rather than something strictly dedicated to bird/wildlife spotting, we asked for a hike, and Eliecer recommended a relatively short trail that would take us up to the rim overlooking the valley. We thought this sounded a treat so it was off through town to the trail head leading to La India Dormida (The Sleeping Indian Woman), named for the outline of what the locals think looks like a sleeping woman. 

Over and through secondary rainforest, it was quite steep at times (including a decent bit of scrambling), but worth it, not only for the waterfalls that we came across intermittently on our way up,

And even some pre-historical petrogyphs

but also for the stunning views from the top that indeed showed us the entire valley almost at a glance.

It was particularly picturesque as the clouds started rolling across the hills.

Aside from being beautiful to look at, we soon learned that this also meant that some of those clouds were bringing rain, and given the hour we also needed to get off the mountain before dark. So with one last glance at the 

We made it about half way down before the heavens opened and our ponchos got their second use of the trip. Still, in the twilight under the canopy with the rain bucketing down, it was rather a more challenging descent than we anticipated, but we made it with a good 15 minutes of light to spare. Just in the nick of time. We even managed to spot a frog (smooth sided toad) by the side of the path that we would never have seen had it not been for the rain. And after all there is something rather fitting about ending a hike in the tropics being soaked by warm rain.

It helped that we didn't have to be wet all that long either, since it was a quick ride back to the Lodge for dry clothes and another tasty dinner awaiting us. 

In our discussion with Eliecer on our hike, we had learned that Panama was playing the US in the regional World Cup finals that night. Having seen a sports bar on our way through town, we made plans to head down there and watch the match with the locals, thinking that would be rather fun. Unfortunately, the sports bar didn't appear to be open. Something to do with the fact they closed when the weather was bad (?!?). So while it was a good idea in theory, didn't quite pan out in practice. 

It turned out to be just as well, because being well fed, well exercised and with the sound of rain, we found our eyelids drooping sooner than expected. Not having anything else pressing to do, we figured if we were sleepy, it must be bedtime regardless of what the clock said - after all, that's the luxury of being on holiday. This time, the night sounds didn't even register.

(as always, these are only a selection of the pictures I took on the day. For the rest of the set, head over to my flickr page. You can also see Stephen's pictures too here.)

Day 3 - Transfer inland

One of the best things about being jet lagged, is that all of a sudden I know what it feels like to be a morning person. Stephen, of course, is super pleased by this.

So on Monday, we were quite literally up with the birds and decided that a it would be fun to go and watch the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean - Panama City being one of the few places in the Western Hemisphere where that's possible.

As it was, we didn't quite see it come up over the Pacific, because part of downtown was in the way. But it was still quite beautiful in its own way, with the buildings silhouetted against the lightening sky and seeing the dawn rays reflected off other surfaces. 

Then back to the hotel for breakfast and getting ready to head off to our next base - Canopy Lodge in El Valle.

The driver from the Lodge picked us up mid-morning and then it was off on a drive through the countryside to reach El Valle. While we love seeing cities, it was a very interesting contrast the drive through the countryside and see quite literally how the other half live. 

First though, we got to drive over the famous Bridge of the Americas, this time it was clear and provided us the first proper view of the canal itself. Suitably busy with plenty of shipping at various stages of loading, unloading, departing and arriving. A bit of a taste of what is to come later in the week.

Then through the countryside proper. There were quite a few villages and fair sized towns, some obviously quite prosperous, others less so. Building materials were obviously different than what we were used to (what with the rampant termites and very high humidity), but still I have a sneaking suspicion that the Gini coefficient is rather high. It was rather incongruous to see luxury oceanside villas advertised on billboards situated above what looked to be just one stage above a slum. 

The countryside, however, was still beautiful and transitioned several times from standard tropical, to somewhat seemingly arid and deciduous and back to montane forests before we dipped back into the tropical valley where the lodge is housed.

The lodge might as well be a slice of heaven. Set back from the main road and designed in a very open, airy way with plenty of places to view the local wildlife.

The front of the main "living areas"

One of the viewing areas - overlooking the feeders (or as I misheard originally, the "cheater" area)

One of the banks of rooms - each with its own balcony.

And we arrived just in time for lunch. The first taste of what would be many lovely meals - nothing complex or contrived, but very wholesome, seasonal food cooked simply and served family style. After lunch we had a little bit to take it easy and were told someone would be with us around 3. So we unpacked quickly and headed back to the "cheater" area to watch the birds - we kept this eggcorn because it was totally cheating. So many beautiful birds in very close proximity to the viewing area.

See? Totally cheating.

Still cheating.

Promptly at 3pm, a guide introduced himself and told us that he would be taking us out for our first birding walk! I had been fully expecting to have the afternoon "off", but this was quite a treat to hear we would be started on the wildlife viewing right away.

So we quickly dashed to the room to get booted, camera-ed and ready to go. Excited for what we might see. Our guide for the day (and indeed for the rest of our stay) was the lovely Eliecer. A better guide for a pair of complete newbies couldn't be imagined - he was very patient and did a great job of explaining exactly which direction we needed to be looking when. And our first day yielded some wonderful first viewings.

Before we were even out of the grounds, he had already pointed out a pair of basilisk lizards sunning themselves by the stream.

Walking down the road a little bit, spotting lots of birds here and there (many of which sadly I did not get good pictures of, but Stephen will soon do a recap of some of those), then up in the top of a tree, was our first sighting of a sloth!! A real live sloth!!

In motion no less!

Although not for very long.

After, we headed back into the waterfall area to see what we could see, crossing bridges over the waterfalls.

Bridge

Waterfall

And then, Elicier quietly told us to look to the left, having set us his scope while we were ogling the waterfall. . .through it we saw an owl!

A mottled owl to be exact.

After exploring the waterfall area a little longer, he took us a bit further up the mountain to an area where he knew a certain kind of bird, tended to be - motmots. And we got to see two of the four resident in the area! 

Before we knew it, it was starting to grow dark and then started to rain, so back to the lodge we headed, giving our new ponchos their first outing as well. Like most rain storms in the tropics, it went from sprinkles to all out downpour in a few minutes. Fortunately, we didn't have far to go.

Then Eliecer handed us our official Canopy Lodge checklist and walked us through officially marking off the birds and animals we'd seen. We were very grateful at this point for Eliecier's good memory because in all our excitement we hadn't really taken any notes while out. This was something we would start doing, though, just to help ground some of the birds in our memory.

After another tasty meal and getting to know some of the other guests (all quite serious birders), we were rather more tired than we realised and so made it an early bedtime. Our cabin was well apportioned with screened windows and doors allowing for the sweet night breeze to keep things cool.

It was at this point we realised that there is no such thing as quiet in the tropical evenings. Between the steady rush of the stream to the chirping of frogs, birds and insects, it took a little getting used to before we finally drifted off.

(as always, these are only a selection of the pictures I took on the day. For the rest of the set, head over to my flickr page. You can also see Stephen's pictures too here.)

Day 2 - The dinner adventure

So after a nice afternoon rest, we started flipping through the guidebook for a place to have dinner. One of the highest recommended restaurants ("possibly the best Chinese food outside of China") also happened to be located close to our hotel - Madam Chang's. So after getting cleaned up and with the location firmly fixed in mind, off we headed on foot.

We were assured that downtown Panama City where we were staying was perfectly safe to walk around in even at night. This proved to be perfectly true - at least safe from the dangers presented by other people. The sidewalks were rather intermittent and at times had the pedestrian equivalent of potholes in random places (which of course were full of water seeing as how it had rained for a good two hours that afternoon). So as we picked our way to the restaurant, we were walking under a series of low hanging ornamental trees when I felt something brush the back of my neck and felt a huge whoosh of air go past my head. I probably jumped 10 feet at the same moment that Stephen said "hey, look! A bat!". Yes, I had been clipped by a bat walking in the middle of the city. Welcome to the tropics.

After that little bit of excitement, we started getting close to where we thought the restaurant must be, made the turn on what we thought was the right street (Panama City is not well endowed with street signs, we discovered) and after walking a good 4 blocks, found no restaurant. Hmmm maybe it was a block too early.

So we turned around, went back to where we turned off, and turned at the following block. This time we asked a security guard for the street name (Calle 49) and were told it was the next street over - keep going and turn right.

So we did and found quite a few other restaurants - including another recommended Lebanse place and the French fusion place - but no Madam Chang's. So we stopped into Le Meridien and asked their concierge. Our first hint that we might be on the wrong trail was when she didn't know the name and so had to look it up - but she found the address in Master Google and sent us off back the way we came. Just two more blocks over.

This continued on for the better part of an hour, giving us a path that looked something like this. . .

 

And still no Madam Chang's. By this time properly hungry and having exhausted all possible locations for it with the address provided, we called it a loss and instead went over and had Lebanese at Habib's. A shared mezzo plate and two local lagers (not outstanding, not terrible, perfectly serviceable) set us up for the night. But what happened to Madam Chang's? Our guidebook isn't that old and I found references to it in several places online including check-ins as recently as September on foursquare. Asking the desk staff at our hotel, however, also yielded blank stares. So the rational explanation is that it must have closed . . .or perhaps it's the Chinese restaurant that can only be found by those who already know where it is.

Day 2 - Exploring Panama, old & older

After a great night's sleep, we were up with the dawn and just in time to hear the church bells greeting the new day. From inside our hotel room, it wasn't so much a ringing of bells, but more a roll of gentle sound much like waves on a beach. A wonderful way to start the day.

So we had a leisurely morning with a perfectly serviceable breakfast (the smell of the coffee was fantastic, Stephen assured me it tasted as nice as it smelled), before meeting our guide in the lobby for our tour. I didn't really know quite what to expect, but we were in for a quite a treat as it turns out. Our guide was the charming and extremely knowledgeable Hernan Arauz. 

The first stop was to the ruins of the original Panama City - Panama Viejo . I think someone should have warned Hernan that Stephen and I can spend literally hours at ruins, but he kept us very well to time despite our innate tendency to poke around every stone still standing and many which aren't. Part of his success in this line was keeping us regaled with as many facts and stories as we could wish.

The first stop was to the visitors center and associated museum for an overview of the historical context and some of the archeological artefacts (and it was looking at these that we learned of Hernan's mother's work in brief - looking her up later it is hardly any surprise that he has the love of history he does). 

One of the later fortifications was literally right outside the visitors centre and gave a taste of what was to come.

From there it was around the corner to the ruins themselves - we didn't really have time to explore all of them, but we did get to about 1/3 of what was visible, including the old tower of the cathedral. 

ruins - it was really interesting all the different kinds of stone were used. Some of it was clearly part of the restoration efforts, but others was original

Not too far from the modern city

The old cathedral tower. Photo courtesy of Stephen.

Looking down on the ruins.

And then out across the valley, the direction from which Henry Morgan would have come.

Looking out back towards modern Panama City from the top of the old tower

From there it was back across town to the other old Panama City - this time the one that was founded after the sacking of the original. Colloquially known as "Casca Viejo" or "Casca Antigua", it's actually continuous with the modern city (where we're staying), but is situated mostly on the promontory around the curve of the bay from the original settlement. Hernan warned us that it is currently under going renovation, and so not all buildings were looking their best. We assured him that this didn't really bother us (indeed, we said to ourselves, a little contrast often makes for interesting pictures). We weren't quite prepared for how stark the contrast was however. Some of the buildings looked nearly brand new, while others you wandered if they would fall down right in front of your eyes. 

Our first stop was the Church of St. Joseph, or Inglesia de San Jose where the golden altar from the original church was taken. Apparently the church was constructed around the altar. It seem the original intent was for the church to be a place holder until the main cathedral was built, but it ended up staying. It was beautiful and very hard to believe that it dates to nearly 500 years ago.

Stephen and Hernan go into the church. You can see the date above the lentil - 1675.

The altar in situ.

After exploring the church for a little bit (very quiet), we continued on our way, walking to the main central square to see the Cathedral Square (also called Independence Square). Unfortunately the Cathedral itself wasn't open, but it was an interesting mix of styles

And then Hernan pointed out the tops of the bell towers, inlaid with mother of pearl. Beautiful.

I almost wish that it had been more sunny to see them sparkle, but it wasn't to be.

From there we went into the old canal museum, held in the original headquarters of the French efforts to build a canal (highly recommend reading The Path Between the Seas for anyone interested in the full history of how the canal came to be built in Panama).

Alas, they didnt allow us to take any pictures inside, which was rather a shame, as the architecture inside is quite beautiful. Very classically french.

We spent most of our time going through a new exhibit on Balboa (the city is celebrating 500 years of the European discovery of the Pacific Ocean) and then a quick walk through of the permanent exhibition on the history of the canal. 

By then, our time with Hernan was at and end and we had the rest of the afternoon to explore the old city. The recommended restaurant, unfortunately, was closed, so we headed down to the waterfront, which afforded some really lovely views of the modern city.

See what I mean about the contrast? No idea what's planned for that building in the middle ground (or even properly what it is).

We even managed to see our first hummingbird! Quite big for a hummingbird actually, but it was very exciting regardless. I hadn't ever seen one sit so quietly on a branch before.

As you can see, the storm clouds were gathering for the afternoon rain. And we found a little cafe around the corner for our lunch. 

Nothing spectacular, but tasty in its own simple way - Stephen had a local version of chicken pot pie and I had a tortilla with sausage (the tortillas are thick like spanish tortillas but with coarse cornmeal instead of potatoes and egg). But we had a fresh breeze from outside and cover while it rained.

One of the charming murals across the street.

After the sun came back out, so did we, walking along the old waterfront back towards the Plaza Francia.

Our first view of the famous Bridge of the Americas, shrouded in misty rain.

The memorial to the original French engineers and leadership team who tried to build the first canal.

As you can see, it was only a matter of time until it started to rain again, and this time quite hard. So we took shelter under the balcony of the buildings to wait it out.

And we waited

And waited

and waited some more. Finally we got to a lull long enough to make a dash for one of the most famous ice cream shops - Granclement. 

And it was just as tasty as its reputation held it to be. Beautifully smooth and creamy and in a huge array of flavours. I had lavender and Stephen had "pan d'epices". 

By then it had stopped raining again, and so we wandered over to the Plaza Bolivar, for another look around. On the way, we saw our first vulture, a much more common sight than I expected.

So common in fact (and not at all sinister to them), they even put it on their monuments.

From there it began to rain, again (it is the rainy season after all), and so we decided to call it a day and hopped a cab back to our hotel to relax of the rest of the afternoon.

But our day wasn't quite over yet - dinner would turn out to be an adventure in and of itself.

(as always, these are only a selection of the pictures I took on the day. For the rest of the set, head over to my flickr page. You can also see Stephen's pictures too here.)