Editor's note: Since I am using Blogspot as more of a web page than a blog, I've had to arrange the posts from last to first so that they may be read in the order that they occurred--thus you should disregard the publish date and instead view the date with Hansi's close to know when each occurred. Also, only so many entries fit on one page, so at the end of the Tram Tower post, click on "Older Posts" to continue reading the next post. Cuz Susan.

Gamboa Rainforest Reserve, Panama

Dear Family  and Friends,

Here we are in Panama, after three long years of not being able to travel (Covid).

Although we really didn’t have a firm idea where we wanted to go (we were thinking Costa Rica again), our travel agent at CAA suggested The Rainforest Resort in Gamboa, Panama -- located in a National Park. (Internet photos below.)

Internet photos showing aerial views of the hotel, the Reserve, and the hotel swimming pool.

Our resort looks out over the Chagres River, which connects to the Panama Canal.  Quite a view from our balcony which sports two chairs, a table and a hammock.

We have a lovely large room with a/c, thank Heavens, as it is muy caliente here, and HUMID.

Our room is located about 1000 miles from the front desk in a newer section.  (There are several buildings connected together with wooden walkways--see opening pix.)

This is the view from the open-air atrium restaurant, called the Monkey Bar. Entryway and Front Desk also found here.

It is at the Monkey Bar that we had dinner last night. Service is S-L-O-W when it’s full of diners (we saw reviews to that effect) so we have learned to go early or late!

Monkey Bar terrace (Internet)

Monkey Bar dining room/bar  (Internet)

A few floors down is where the breakfast (and I presume dinner) buffet is found. Some interesting choices on offer, but I was delighted with the fresh fruit.

After breakfast, we walked around the grounds on a path you can see from our balcony. We saw many birds, heard many more, and Rob did manage to snap some photos with his iPhone.  Here’s the kicker.  He has discovered that his good camera is now giving an error message that the Image Stabilizer is not working. This means that his photos are not clear if expanded. There is absolutely NO PLACE around here to get this fixed or even to buy another camera.  

When we spot a bird with our binos, we can often identify it using the Costa Rica Bird book Rob has on his phone.  Otherwise, we use Google with WIFI back at the room. Hopefully, we will have some pictures to share.

We stupidly did not take water with us on our long hot walk (won’t do THAT again) so stopped at the Monkey Bar for muchas aguas, coffee and a piece of flan (below).

There are so many interesting flowering plants and trees here, as well as palms with masses of ripe, as well as green, fruit hanging. The ground seems littered with little nuts or fruits (no way of telling) and this morning I saw these seed pods, in an almost complete circular pattern.

We will book some tours.

Hansi, Saturday, March 25, 2023, 11:45 am

Hello Again

 Hello again,

Yesterday we walked down the road our car had originally brought us - past historic multi-family houses built for Americans in Gamboa during the construction of the Panama Canal.  Sort of on stilts. Some, but not all, are fairly run-down now at close look but this was a “happening” place with churches, stores etc. in its day.

This road, which meandered its way down to the bridge crossing the river, was absolutely littered with fallen flowers, seed pods, nuts, or fruits (?) of every description.  I am a pod and seed hound!  

I showed you the circular pod I found yesterday - called the Elephant Ear Tree or Guanacaste.

Well, aside from them, there were Jacaranda pods everywhere, and overhead, the Jacaranda trees with their purple flowers on bare branches - no leaves.  The pods are a bit thick and VERY hard. 

And the flowers . . . 

Then there were little fruits -- probably some kind of fig, because the crushed ones seemed to be full of tiny figgy seeds.

. . . and the close-up

I sure hope cutting this in half works.

Hansi, Sunday, March 26, 2023 4:20 PM

More seedpod talk

I’ll bet most of you have tuned out with all this pod talk.  Sorry.  But there is one more.  The tour organizer I spoke to this morning was holding in her hand (because she was snacking on “her favourite fruit”) the amazing pod below. It is referred to here as the Machete pod or guava here in Panama though of course it is NOT a guava as we know it. In Ecuador, it is called Guaba. Huge pods with pithy looking covering to the shiny black beans inside. You suck the “meat” off the bean and throw away the bean.

She said they sell for 25 cents at the market near her house, and she kindly gave us the one above to try.

  

Or in the market . . .

Internet pic

Okay, okay, no more pod stories. 

I will leave you for now with this great bird Rob captured on camera this morning - the Southern Lapwing.

I forgot to attach the Gamboa houses. Here they are.

Internet pic

Hansi, Sunday March 26, 2023 4:34 PM



More "pod" casts

Lo siento.  But there is one more pod thing.

Very few of these still clinging to a tall tree on the property.  Luckily, I found some on the ground underneath.

They are paper-thin, and large.

End on photo. From the Quipo tree

Geckos everywhere after dark as we go to the lobby for supper-- slim and around 2 in. long for the most part.  But this teensy tiny one intrigued me--thought it was an insect at first.

I found this yogurt amongst the others at breakfast.  Of course I had to try such an unusual flavour.  Delicious!

Editor's note: The taste of soursop yoghurt is often described as a

 combination of strawberry and apple, but with a little citrus mixed in.

My eye was caught by a tree with a distinct cinnamon-coloured bark.  I am told it is called The Naked Indian Tree, for the Indigenous Indians in these parts, but I hope it has a more politically correct name. It doesn’t look all that cinnamony in this photo, but believe me, it IS.

Editor's note: Internet sleuthing tells me the following: "This fast-growing canopy tree reaches heights of 50-60 feet and more, with a trunk that bears a striking red color and thin, paperlike, exfoliating bark. The Gumbo Limbo or Bursera Simaruba goes by several aliases such as the Spirit Gum, Birch Gum, Turpentine, Naked Indian or, more commonly named in popular vacation destinations, the 'Tourist Tree,' because of its red color and peeling skin!"

Tonight we went on a 30 minute nighttime safari which was a bit of a farce.  The little open vehicle had no muffler and belched out diesel fumes as we literally roared along.  Surely we would not be sneaking up on anything. The guide on board was nice, and had pretty good English, but he waved his big flashlight around in the dark like he was doing semaphore, supposedly looking for Howler Monkeys. I was afraid I might have a seizure trying to focus on it.

Editor's insert:  Don't know what vehicle Hansi and Rob were on but here is the resort's ad for the complimentary night safari:  "Step aboard our 'Chiva' truck for a safari-style ride around the reserve as a naturalist guide explains the nocturnal inhabitants and activities of the rainforest. This activity is complimentary with your stay."  

Can't think that this was the "little" vehicle Hansi described.
They seemed to be on more of a golf cart type vehicle,
 but this "leopard chiva" is pretty impressive

We did see a capybara down by the Canal, and two turtles and a croc in a swampy area.  So all was not lost and we had a nice ride.

A few bird pictures tomorrow.

 

Hansi Mon, Mar 27 at 7:35 PM

Leaf Cutter Ants Video

 I want to send this little video on its own, in hopes that it will transmit well.

When we were doing walk-about yesterday, we came upon this incredibly long line of leaf-cutting ants -- coming down a huge tree, and across the sidewalk into the bush. This line was as far as we could see both ways. The ants going in the other direction are going back for more leaves. This is a real production line. 

Google for why leafcutter ants do this: https://sdzwildlifeexplorers.org/animals/leafcutter-ants

Hansi Tue, Mar 28 at 9:14 AM

Birds

This place is chockablock with birds flitting around. It is difficult to focus on and identify many of them.

We have been lucky enough to see a few birds we haven’t seen before. Bear in mind, the limitation of Rob's camera on this trip. Sometimes it surprises him and focuses, and other times not.

The Yellow-headed Caracara

A closer look at the Caracara

The interesting Masked Tityra

 The Kiskadee

The Keel-billed Toucan

And this lovely big iguana which might have been planning to “do a line” of ants.

Thought I should give you some thing in focus.

Apparently, the giant anteater is found here.  I would love to see one.

Editor's note: I did see one in Brazil's Pantanal years ago while on a birding and leopard-spotting tour. See pic below. As Hansi reports, there are plenty of ants in the forests and jungles to go around. Our guide told us that this guy sleeps wrapped in its long bushy tail.

Hansi, Tue, Mar 28 at 9:31 AM

Toucans Agoutis, Geckos, Howler and Capuchin Monkeys

I started this note, yesterday, so will continue, and then create a new one for today.

Hi all,

Looking off into the distance from our front balcony, we can see the tall tree where Rob captured that toucan yesterday on camera. This morning, there were five of them, if you can believe it, and he again snapped, in hopes that his camera would behave.

I know that the photo above isn't a great picture, but if you expand it, I think you can see some colour on those bills, AND there is no mistaking that shape.

This was early morning, but we discovered some of them again in that same tree, late afternoon.

The lawns of these US built houses are good grazing grounds for the fairly common agouti.  Like rabbits, they graze early morning or late afternoon.

From the time we arrived, we have occasionally heard some terrible kind of sound coming from the forest: half mechanical, half otherworldly.  Is it nearby, is it far away?  We couldn’t tell.  But of course it was confirmed that we were hearing Howler Monkeys. Their voice does carry a great distance, but now we know they are in the forest right around us too. Soooo… they could be ANYWHERE . . .(place eerie music here)

I am not going to try to record that noise, because I never know when I will hear it.  But I am sure Google will give you the howler monkey sound. The Howler itself has very dark fur so it is hard to spot on a limb.  It tends to have “Bitchy Morning Face,” too, so if you see one like that, you’ll  know it’s him . . . or her. 

Rob spotted the gecko below, which we had not seen before, on a large tree growing up next to the walkway (going past all the rooms).

So, day before yesterday, we signed up for the Gatún tour. This was a lovely, yet exhilarating boat ride out into the Chagres River (which you can see from our balcony right in front of us) to the Panama Canal. We had a driver and a knowledgeable guide, Juan, who pointed out birds along the way, gave us some interesting history and then stopped at two different islands. 

He managed to coax some capuchin monkeys down to the waters-edge, with hunks of bananas thrown as bait.  One in particular could catch like Joe Campanella and plucked almost every one out of the air for himself!

 

At the next island, several little Capuchin monkeys came out of the trees when we landed.  An adult with baby on its back (below left near Juan's hand) hung back while a more dominant capuchin came aboard and gobbled banana hunks. 

Juan said theirs is a matriarchal society and the fathers take care of the kids, so if true, that baby could have been on Dad’s back, and not Mom’s.

Most of these monkeys stayed well back and did not board our boat.  But the ringleader did! This guy was a real crowd-pleaser.

We did see a baby Tamarin but I  guess I didn’t get a photo there.

Geoffroy's tamarin (Saguinus geoffroyi), also known as the Panamanian, 
red-crested or rufous-naped tamarin

A little tamarin family of mom, dad and baby were right out front of the resort up a tree.  We did see a baby Tamarin but I  guess I didn’t get a photo there.

Panamanian Tamarin in tree outside our resort

Hansi  Thu, Mar 30 at 8:13 PM

Tram/Tower

Yesterday, we signed up for the Tram/Sloth Sanctuary combo tour.

The tram is a cable car up the mountain to a ten-floor-high tower from which you can look over the Rain Forest in all directions.

Internet photo

I wasn’t sure this would be much of a tour, and figured my knees couldn’t handle the
ten-floor climb. I was wrong!

The cable cars held six people max. Or less -- spaced appropriately for balance.  There were many, going in a continuous loop.  When one was getting new passengers, our car would stop in space (like a ferris wheel ride) and then continue to make its way up again until a new group was boarding down below.

Internet photo

This was an amazing, silent, slow,  long ride up through the rain forest - peering into the tops of palm trees and passing huge clumps of palm fruit close enough to touch.  Up, and up.  Like a bird!  It was wonderful. It was a slow, peaceful ride.

Going down, was just as great - in reverse.  However, thanks to the fast photo snapping of our fellow rider from Yorkshire, I offer you this  fabulous toucan we glided past . . . the Aracari.

Or this . . .

More toucans on our other side - the keel-billed.

You can appreciate that the foliage prevented us from snapping these guys in full sun.  Drat.

Anyway, I digress -

We got to the end of the tram ride, and then walked a short way to the tower.  Turns out there was a gradual ramp and not stairs going up, so I was quite able to do this. 

Internet photo

The view from the top was superb, and the cool breeze iced the cake.

Below, from the canal side.  The next photo was the view in the other direction.

It had been raining when we left and was overcast most of the day. That made walking around much more comfortable, as this sun can be relentless.

After descending,  there was not only an Agouti . . .

But further along, a coati

Side view . . .

That's it for now.

Hansi Fri, Mar 31 at 9:26 AM