Panama

Hey Guys!
Next stop, Panama City. It was a lot like any other massive metropolis, full of skyscrapers and traffic. It was pretty at night, but once the next day dawned we headed out for the jungle. We stopped at the Panama Canal along the way to see the locks. We just caught a boat going through the system.








The basic principle behind the Canal is really quite simple. There are locks on the Pacific side, locks on the Caribbean and a lake in between. The lake was artificially created by a dam, and it is 26 m above sea level. So to get in, the boats go through three locks to gradually raise the level. They then sail through the lake, and then use three locks on the other side to drop back to sea level. It all works on gravity, but there are train engines on rails flanking the ships that pull them through the locks. It takes about 8-10 hours to get through, and it isn’t cheap. The most expensive tariffs are over $800,000!

















A boat making its way through
The thing I was most excited for, more than the Canal itself, was the rainforest it cut through. When the Panama Canal was built (1903-1914), it cut through some of the most virgin rainforest on the globe, and there is still a lot of really interesting wildlife to see here. The main draw are all the birds, beautiful and colourful. We found a place to stay with a real character of an old man, Don Mateo. He had a house that backed out on to a garden and then jungle, and we stayed in a little cabana out in the garden.








These were some agouti hanging around looking for food.








The turquoise crested mot-mot, which also happens to be the national bird of Nicaragua. Check out those tail feathers, they groom them to look like that themselves!








Don Mateo called this the ‘gato solo’ It was like a raccoon








Trying to get bird pics








Woodpecker








Here we are the next morning, walking out in the jungle at dawn. At the start of the Second World War, the United States built a supply road into a remote part of the Canal in case the Japanese bombed their existing lines. The road kind of leads to nowhere now, so there is no traffic to scare away the wildlife. It just makes for a great opportunity to walk through the jungle and watch for whatever pops out.





Can you see the brown frog hiding in there?





Old bridges crossing the jungle streams. Just stable enough to get across 😉





Just us and the jungle











Seeing the micro-fauna was really cool





But nobody does ‘macro’ like the jungle!





Can you see the monkey flying through in the middle of the shot?





Leaf-cutter ants traversing through the jungle. They chew little sections of leaves, carry them back to a pile and then a fungus grows on them, which they feed on. Nature is crazy!





As we emerged from the jungle, we saw an ocean liner going through the waterway. It was a weird feeling coming out of the bush onto the Panama Canal, one of the most famous waterways in the world.











A few more bird shots as we packed up and got ready to head back into the city

















Marmoset





Don Mateo feeding his creatures

Next stop is Belize

Until Next Time!

Sailing from Columbia to Panama

After being in South America for over 10 months, it was time to move on to Central America for a short stint. We had heard really good things from fellow travellers about the sailing trip through the San Blas islands to Panama. Roberta was worried that she might get sea sick, but decided to give it a try after talking about it with others.

We got onto our 50 foot catamaran around 5 pm on the first evening. We introduced ourselves to the other 6 passengers, to the captain and his girlfriend, and to the owner of the boat who was serving as the cook. It was a beautiful sunset in Cartegena harbour. Shortly after sunset we started cruising and had ourselves some dinner.







The first leg of the journey was out in the open ocean for about 44 hours. The captain and owner switched spots every 4 hours as we went nonstop. There were a few rain showers overnight, so we had to close the windows in the cabin which was a bit stuffy.

Overall the seas were quite calm to our relief. We tried fishing a bit by just trolling, but were unsuccessful. It was cool to be cruising and not see any land in sight. We only used one sail the first morning as there was a head wind most of the way.




At one point, a pod of dolphins raced in front of the boat.







On the second morning, we woke up to the sight of land which was Panama. Around 10 am we anchored at a spot between 4 small islands.










The San Blas islands consist of around 350 islands off the coast of Panama. They are inhabited by the Kuna Yala people who are almost self-governing. Upon anchoring, many canoes came over to sell numerous handmade clothing, jewelry, and other crafts.







A couple fishermen also stopped by to sell us some lobster which we thoroughly enjoyed that night.




It was nice to be able to jump off the boat to cool off in the water. We spent much of the day snorkelling. There were a few coral reefs around and there was many fish although most of them were quite small. I saw a few squids ripping around as well.







That night we headed over to one of the islands and played a little beach volleyball and then returned to the boat around dark for an amazing lobster dinner.










The next morning, we lifted up the anchor and drove along for a couple more hours to the next island stop. Hear there was some really good snorkelling. There was lots of soft coral, sea fans, many fish, some squid, and a few spotted eagle rays. We spent much of the day in the water. There was also a huge barracuda that hung around underneath our boat for most of the day. At one point he must have been spotted by a Kuna fishermen as he came to us later trying to sell it to us for dinner.




The kuna are spear fishermen which involves free diving and shooting a spear with an elastic apparatus that has a line connected to the spear.

The next day was our last of the journey. After a morning of snorkelling around a shipwreck, we headed to customs. Once we got our passports stamped, we jumped on a fast boat to the mainland. After going upriver a bit, we got off the boats and headed in SUVs to Panama City.



Our captain flirted with some Kuna women a bit and here they are giving him some bracelets.





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