Panamania

Portobelo, Panama

So it turns out the boat dropped us in Puerto Lindo, a 15 minute taxi ride from Portobelo, our intended drop off point in Panama. The 6 of us bailed into a taxi and Virgil made his way behind us on the bike. The prospect of finding somewhere to stay in Portobelo was much more likely compared to the tiny village we were dropped in. Or so we were led to believe by our crew. Little did they know however that there was a fiesta on in the town that day and everywhere was full. And it was now raining!

Luckily a man around town who I think worked at one of the fully booked hostels took pity on us and squeezed us all in his van and drove us to a place just outside of town which he thought might have space. And so it did. This is because it was only half built! It was the current ongoing project of Tom, one of 6 middle aged brothers from a Pan-American family. He lived on site with his older brother Angel, their slightly senile Dad, a couple of their own dogs and about 8 strays. The sister lived across the way and no one likes her.

For $10 each we had the use of a big but basic room that contained 4 beds. Seeing as though there were 7 of us, we thought this a little steep, especially given the lack of any bedclothes, running water or working toilet in the apparent ‘ensuite’. Still, it was shelter for the night, and after 7 nights on a boat, we found pleasure in the smallest of things, such as being able to wash with un-salty water, albeit from a bucket. In fact, a few of us got lucky and had just enough water pressure to stand under a narrow stream of cold water in the shower. To be honest though, the rain from earlier had been harder.

Sander and Alison missioned it back into town with Angel and bought back culinary delights such as fried chicken, chips and cornflakes for breakfast. When we combined this with all the other bits of leftover foodstuffs that people owned, such as the odd can of tuna, bit of bread or popcorn, we had quite a dinner, sitting out in the courtyard of the hostel to be. 

Tom, whose family bungalow was directly opposite provided us with bottles of beer for $1 but this came at the price of having to sit up with him into the night and listen to him continuously slag off his sister, who he seemed to be in a long running feud with. The drunker he got, the more intense the slaggings became, so it wasn’t long before most of us politely excused ourselves and made our way our beds or blow-up mattresses on the floor.

Our first dinner in Panama - fried chicken, followed by popcorn cooked by Virgil and Alison

Panama City

The next morning, after a bowl of cornflakes and a bowl of coffee (we didn’t have many cups between us), we all headed to Panama City. 

Boat gang leaving the half built hostel and heading off to Panama City

Waving Virgil off, who was cycling to Panama City

Two short bus rides and a taxi later and we were outside the chosen hostel in the old part of the city, only to then find out it was fully booked! Being a group of 6 makes finding beds together a lot more challenging, especially in high season. We eventually found a hostel with space and jumped back into taxis as it was right across the other side of the city.

This gave us a good chance to see the city and I enjoyed gawping at all the impressive looking skyscrapers and hotels. One skyscraper has been modelled on the famous hotel in Dubai that looks like it has a sail. Another building looked like a huge badly built jenga tower. It was really cool and such a contrast to the previous desert island landscapes I had grown accustomed too.

Casco Viejo - the old, nice part of Panama City

On route by foot after refusing to pay the high taxi price, to the other side of the city in the hope of finding a hostel with space for us all

One of the crazy looking skyscrapers (apologies - taken out of a taxi window, after accepting the fare!)

After being dropped off at the wrong hostel initially (the taxi drivers don’t have a clue where anything is), we walked a few blocks and found the right one. It was spacious and clean, with A/C, hot running water, even a sandwich maker. It was the best kitchen I’ve seen since leaving England. This part of the city seemed quite wealthy. Everyone drove around in big SUVs and it was hard to find a pavement anywhere. There was a huge mall with a food court containing every fast food option you can imagine. Although this is where most people opted to eat for the night, me and Tim conservatively went to the supermarket to find a healthier and cheaper option. In fact, we even tracked down some baked beans! It was like being in Walmart in North America, right down to the yoghurts they stocked being those exact ones we eat each morning storm chasing. This then resulted in me getting all excited about storm chasing again this year!

The next day, whilst we were awaiting Virgil’s arrival by bike, the rest of us, with the exception of Suzi, who was on some personal missions, did the whole Panama tourist. Firstly we visited Parque Natural Metropolitano, a 2.65 sq km park right in the heart of the city. With the draw of being a great place to spot birds and other wildlife we set off late afternoon. It way exceeded expectations. We saw leaf cutter ants, an unidentified mammal, butterflies, birds, lizards, tortoises and can you believe it, Tim spotted a toucan! A keel-billed one this time. I again got so excited that I started jumping up and down like I was a Toucan myself. Unfortunately though I couldn’t really get a good shot of it, but the image is still strong in my mind! Toucan number 2! 

Mr Toucan hiding in the trees. This one is a keel-billed toucan. Known by us now as the Kill Bill.

Leaf cutter ants hard at work

Tortouise basking in the sun

Lizards that can run across water

After the park, we visited Miraflores docks on the world famous Panama Canal. It was huge and very impressive but unfortunately we got there a bit late, leaving only 45 minutes of time available to wander around the visitor centre. Also, we found the $15 entrance fee a bit steep, so a few of us just opted to take photos from outside through the fence! Walking back from the docks we spotted an alligator in the damned waters, shortly after laughing at the sign warning that alligators may be present in this much industrialised area. 

Miraflores docks in Panama City, through the fence

Shortly after that, in a tree at the side of the road, toucan number 3, 4 and 5 were spotted! I’m not kidding. They were just flitting about in the tree, as regular as blackbirds in England. I was a bit sad to be honest, because their presence seemed a little out of place in such a built up zone. The trump card of ‘man invades nature’ has to be seeing a vulture circling above us, using the rising hot smoky air billowing out of a chimney to gain height; a kind of dirty man-made thermal. I wanted to give him a little mask, poor thing. 

I understand that it’s all in the name of progression and engineering and I know that often this is done at the expense of certain animal’s natural habitat, but it was just a bit weird to see such ‘exotic’ animals larking around near main roads.

That evening, we succeeded in hunting out Panama City’s only Irish bar to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. It was funny suddenly being surrounded by people with Irish accents talking in English. The pub itself was like a small social club, with a bar at one end, set just in front of a Holiday Inn on the main road and across from the Canal. After a number of rounds of drinks, some food and an awkward situation with the waitress charging us too much or us not putting in enough money, we grabbed taxis back to the hostel, where Virgil was waiting having completed the trip to Panama on his bike. 

Panama's only known Irish pub

Getting into the spirit of St Patrick's Day

Finally the full boat gang were back together again, but not for long as the next morning, me and Tim were flying solo and heading to Boquete in the Chiriqui highlands for a bit of hiking and bird watching in an effort to spot the elusive resplendent Quetzal (affectionately renamed to Pretzal) – the sacred bird of the Ancient Mayas that lives in the jungles of Central America. If we’re lucky, we may catch a glimpse of one. I’m going for a feather.

Boquete, Chiriqui highlands

The journey to Boquete was easy enough but took most of the day. This is because it is all the way across the other side of Panama, which I’ve realised is wider in a west-east direction, than north-south which I previously thought. In fact, one of the most interesting things I’ve found so far in each country is learning the geography and layout. The penny only dropped yesterday with Panama as I questioned why the country had been rotated 90 degrees on a flag I saw, only to then realise I’d had its orientation the wrong way around in my head.

Our plan was to spend a couple of days here before heading either to a jungle lodge 2 hours north or the Bocas del Toro – a group of islands in the Caribbean that had been recommended by a Canadian couple we met and were likened to the San Blas islands but with more to do, more infrastructure, more trampolines in the sea, that kind of thing!

But before the second bout of island life debauchery, we needed to get some walks in and Boquete seemed like a good place to do it. We were surrounded by hills leading up to cloud forests. Trails included the chance to spot Pretzals and passed by many waterfalls and watering holes where you can swim. The area sounded beautiful. 

Unfortunately however, our first day hiking started much later than planned as we both ignored the 6am watch alarm and every 30 minute repeat thereafter for at least the next 2 hours. The reason for wanting to start so early was for a better chance of brighter skies and increased early morning bird activity. So instead, we opted for a shorter hike around some nearby waterfalls that were more accessible and closer to town. The early stages of the walk were fun, but after 3 hours of walking along a road away from town, in the constant drizzle and still not finding the entrance to the trail we gave up on the day’s hike. Instead, we headed back into town to play some pool with the aim of trying again the day after.

I have never seen so many onions

Natural rock formation where basalt has been pushed into curved horizontal lines. In front of this is a carved wooden trunk featuring the Questzal - sacred bird of the Mayas

 The next day we only slept through one hour of alarm ringing and were on our way up to the longer hike to hunt for the elusive Pretzals! We had spent some of the previous evening listening to recordings of their call from different birder sites and researching what they feed on in the hope of arming ourselves with enough information to hopefully spot one without the need to hire a guide, which people are encouraged to do if they want to catch a glimpse of one of these birds.

After about an hour of walking, we heard its call. We stopped in our tracks and told the woman from Finland who was just behind us to also be quiet. We moved slowly along the track, our eyes scanning every branch in the direction of where we heard the call. Then I spotted it, sitting there on a branch much closer than we expected it would venture. It had its back to us, but it occasionally looked around, showing the full profile of its super cute head and little yellow beak. It stayed there long enough for us to get a few photos before flying off towards where we saw another playing in a tree very far away. Bosh. Pretzal photo no 1.

Sendero Los Quetzales

We found a Quetzal!

We carried on up into the forest, stopping at a mirador point for lunch, before heading back down slowly to hunt down more Pretzals. Again, we heard a call and stopped to look and listen more intently. At this point, it’s good to watch out for big movements up in the canopy as it jumps between branches. Then all of a sudden one swooped down to near where I was standing and I took a quick snap. Then he was joined by another before they both flew off in a flurry of squawks. Pretzal no 2 in the bag!

The amazing colourful scenes of the cloud forest

Quetzal number 2!

The rest of the walk was quite uneventful after this, partly because any previous drizzle was now turning into quite heavy rain, lowering our chances of spotting anything else due to getting an eyeful of rainwater and wincing every time you looked up to the sky. We were over the moon with the result though. The whole walk had taken 7 hours there and back and we’d caught sight of 5 Pretzals. Two instances of two of them and one mid-flight through the trees but we only saw its underside. Still no feather, but their habitat stretches all the way into Mexico, so there’s plenty of time left. You never know, I may even come back to England with one perching on my shoulder.