Birthday Bird Watching

In amongst all our adventures, I had a birthday.  No, I’m not going to tell you how old I turned.  I'm just going to say OLD.  Inspired by our line handlers, who eagerly watched the birds fly by and could name each and every one, we decide to go on a bird watching tour at the Soberania National Park for my birthday.

Bright and early at 5am, we get up and make our way to the main street to await the tour bus.  A white van pulls up, and after a stumbling spanish discussion with the driver to check we had the right bus, we jump in.

A 45 minute bus ride later, and we are at the National Park.  First stop, the Canopy Tower.

picture care of www.thevisitorpanama.com

We walk up a tremendous amount of stairs to the very top of the tower to take in the view.  I don't know what I was expecting.  Probably something like the movie Avatar where birds and wildlife would be sweeping past us at close range, colourful birds with large beaks coming to sit on my outstretched hand.   At the top of the tower, well I could see a lot of trees...  I could make out a brown blob fairly close by, that with my cameras zoom revealed a howler monkey.

But the main thing I wanted to see on the tour, and had informed the tour guide as much, was a Toucan.  Our tour guide pulls out his telescopic lens and points it at a distant hill.  "Here" he calls me over and instructs me to look through the lens.  And yes, there was a brightly coloured Toucan on the other side.  I pull back and try to find where the lens is pointed, to see the bird with my own eyes.  I just can't make out where they possibly might be.  There in the far distance I can see a tree with no leaves.  With my cameras zoom I can make out that there are birds on the tree, possibly Toucans.  

We do see a number of small, sparrow sized birds close by covering many colours of the rainbow.

Down from the tower, my legs now resembling the consistency of jello, we embark on a walk through the bush, to a pretty pond.  I look out for crocodiles, but alas, see none.

We continue to walk on for another hour or so, finally completing our circle back to the visitors centre.  As we walk up the path we hear the loud flapping of wings.  On the deck of the visitors centre, we see strange plastic contraptions with tens of humming birds coming to drink from them.

Another tour group arrives, this time with an unusual pet in tow.  The local tour guide has domesticated a racoon as her furry friend.  I go in for a weary cuddle.

After 3 hours of trekking, I am relieved to see our tour bus close at hand.  The tour guide has other plans and leads us back down the road we drove down, to see more birds.  This part of the track apparently holds the world record for the most species of birds seen within a 24 hour period.  

As we walk the guide makes amazingly realistic bird sounds, and we hear the birds around us replying.  Every so often, the guide would just stop, point the telescope at a distant tree where there would be a pretty bird.  Through only the use of the human eye, we could barely make out that there was even a bird in that direction, mostly they just looked like a leaf on a tree to us. We took a few pics of the birds that were close enough for our camera's zoom to make out.

We make it home late afternoon, quite weary.  I am treated to a dinner at the local Lebanese Restaurant and attempt to say things like "hummus" and "falafel" in Spanish, which puts emphasis on different vowels.  We manage to order something which looks great when it arrives.  

A fun day out, but now back to boat preparations!

Playing in Panama City

We have been hanging in Panama City for a few weeks now, after only planning to stay a few days.  So what have we been doing?  “Not keeping me up to date!” I hear you say to your computer screen.  Well, yes, that’s true, but we have been doing a bunch of other things too.  

The anchorage here in Panama City – La Playita, is full of a fleet of boats all just waiting to cross the Pacific.  Everyone is fixing, buying and provisioning like crazy.  We have met up with a bunch of “young” boats here in Panama City, and have been social butterflies fluttering from one event to another while we wait for parts to arrive from America and tick off our to do list.

On one of the first nights we arrive, we are invited to a Try-Tin-Night, where everyone brings a canned meal for everyone else to try.  The logic being that we will be buying the good ones in bulk for our Pacific crossing, so we get to try a lot of different canned meals from different supermarkets, all in one place and all at the cost of one can.  Brilliant Idea!

One Sunday, we all take a day off fixing our boats to head to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, set amongst the National Park and Canal.  The Resort puts on a buffet brunch/lunch for $35 that we hear is good value.  We rent a car, big enough for 6 adults and 2 children and hit the road to Gamboa.  With Patrick (from "Living") driving and wife Lisa doing a fabulous job on navigation, not to mention Sally in the back entertaining the kids, we make it to the resort in record time.  We chowed down on prawns, smoked salmon stuffed with cream cheese, paella, lobster, sushi, stuffed fish, NZ green lipped mussels, and pasta salads just to name a few...and then there was dessert!  Lets just say, we arrived at 1 and didn't leave until 5.30.

Coming home after the weekly cruisers' pizza night, we notice something hanging in the trees of the parking lot.  After closer inspection, we realise there are three sloths munching away on the leaves.  I reckon they look like Chewbacca from Star Wars.

Another day, while watching the world go by, we see a very unusual boat that has just passed through the canal.

I host a day of canning (or should I say jarring?) on Toodles.  Vicky of Dolphin of Leith was really the ring leader, having been instructed on how to sterilise the jars, then seal them so that the little button on the top goes down.  Vicky summed up the day perfectly on her Facebook page:

"4 massive pots of food, 2 pressure cookers, masses of boiling water, 4 people, a palatial boat - thanks Toodles - and almost 3 litres of wine. Drunk, not used in the cooking. As a result we have 33 jars of meaty goodness to hopefully make our trip across the Pacific even better. Nothing like beef curry in the middle of nowhere. OK, not so crucial for those boats among us that have the luxury of a fridge and freezer, but the tent-dwellers among us who have no such mod-cons will be loving a good bit of proper home cooked spag bol mid-ocean. Here's hoping we don't all get botulism. But I'm confident it all worked, after all my Mum did for years and years with fruit.....what could possibly go wrong...."

Vicky from Dolphin and Sally from Orion

Dolphin's resident Mother in Law Laurie

Jen from Waka Irie

Caught with wine in hand

More wine, less work!

Lisa from Living has a birthday and a surprise party is organised.  It is a bit hard to surprise someone who lives on a catamaran, as they can see you coming from a mile away.  All the party guests meet up mid way in our dinghies, raft up, and proceed to charge on Living, singing "Happy Birthday" from the top of our lungs.

So, all in all, a very busy few weeks.  

Panama Canal Day 2

The next advisor was due to arrive at 6am and we set the alarm for 5.45am.  The alarm goes off just as Eric calls that the pilot boat with the advisor has just arrived.  Throwing on clothes and brushing teeth, we make an appearance as quickly as possible.  I make scrambled eggs for the crew, with Pepe on toast, as we cross Gatun Lake.

Gobbling up breakfast on deck, we watch the big cargo ships pass close by.  To make the canal, the Chagres River was dammed and the area flooded to form the lake.  We pass little islands that are in fact the tops of the mountains that once stood above the river.  We also spot the tops of trees that poke up from the forest floor that is now the lake bed. Very strange.  

We find out the yacht that had been on the other side of the raft, but we hadn't seen past the huge African Queen, is another New Zealand boat called Waka Irie.  To keep up speed, they hoist the sails and sail across the lake - an awesome sight.

Our new advisor works in the visitors centre and is a wealth of knowledge on the canal.  Work on the canal started in 1881 and finished in 1914.  The first attempt to build a canal was by the French who attempted to construct a sea level canal with no locks.  Ferdinand de Lesseps, the builder of the Suez Canal, headed this campaign.  After loosing 22,000 lives from accidents, malaria and yellow fever and US$287,000,000, the French abandoned the effort in 1893.  

In 1904, the US, under President Roosevelt, bought the French equipment, excavations and the Panama Railway for US$40 million.  The US also paid the new country of Panama US$10 million plus a yearly fee, as well as Colombia US$10million plus US$250,000 p.a. for 7 years so that Colombia would recognise Panama as a new nation state.  The US effort excavated a further 130,000,000 square metres (on top of the French 23,000,000 square metres), and lost another 5,600 lives to construct the canal - now with a locks system rather than a sea level canal.

Eric and our Advisor

The Culebra Cut section of the canal was the most challenging part of building the canal. As we approach the cut, we consider the lives lost.

Approaching Centennial Bridge in the Culebra Cut

Culebra Cut

Centennial Bridge

Dee and Eric enjoying a quiet moment

Today has two sets of locks in store for us.  We reach the first set, the Pedro Miguel Locks, by 11am and raft again with African Queen.  

Waka Irie preparing to raft

As we approach the lock we see a crocodile surface.  We aren't quick enough to get a full picture of him, but we do capture him as he sinks back below the surface.

Everything goes smoothly through the locks, and we wave at some passersby watching the excitement from the roadside on the other side of the fence.   We eat lunch as we transit through the locks - that's got to be one of the strangest picnic locations!  

Pepe our personal photographer and nerve calmer

Still rafted, we motor to the Miraflores locks, our final hurdle before the Pacific.  

line handler throwing the lines

Going down

Line handles walking the lines to the next lock

Practice target for the line handlers

In the final lock, before the gates open, we discuss at what point we are technically in the Pacific.  Some say it is on the other side of the gates, others when you pass under the Bridge of the Americas.  We decide that the other side of the gates is good enough for us.  As the final gates open and we pass the threshold into the salt water of the Pacific, we let out a big cheer and have hugs all round.

Leaving the final lock

As we head towards the Bridge of the Americas we blast the stereo loud with Men at Work "Land Down Under", Gary and I sing at the top of our lungs, followed by the New Zealand band the Black Seeds.  

Heading towards the bridge of the Americas

Looking across at the Panama City skyline

US Military Vessel - With that name, we had to take a picture

Our advisor lets us keep the daily schedule of the canal as a token of our transit.

A pilot boat approaches as we pass under the Bridge of the Americas to pick up our advisor.  Then it is on to Balboa Yacht Club where another boat approaches to pick up our lines and tires as well as our line handlers, to take them ashore.  We head on to La Playita anchorage, drop anchor and have just a few celebratory drinks.  

We are now in the Pacific Ocean.  Home is just over the horizon.

Note:  Huge thank you to Aisha, who provided us with the aerial photos of Toodles in the locks.  Aisha turned out to be the girl who we waved to on the other side of the fence at the Pedro Miguel locks.  After seeing us, she headed up to the visitors centre and took some pictures of Toodles in the Miraflores locks.  I am hugely thankful to this wonderful lady who went to the effort of seeking us out to provide us with the photos.