My journey started at 4:23am with a phone call from my
friend who I was supposed to meet at 4:20am on the street corner to walk to the
bus together. My alarm didn’t go off, and I sprinted out the door past my mom
who was in the middle of making me fried plantains for breakfast. Made it on
the bus and started our long bus ride to the Rio Suerte. We then got on a big
river boat and made our way up the jungle canal. I swear that our tour guide had different
kinds of eyes than normal beings because all of the sudden he would point to
the bushes and the boat would veer over, stop, and he would point out a green
lizard that he somehow saw in the green leaves from a speeding boat. Thank goodness
for his keen eyes because I got to see some amazing full grown Jesus Christ
Lizards. Later in the trip we were lucky enough to see the young ones running
across the water.
Our hotel was surrounded by jungle and I saw an enormous
amount of wildlife by just walking around the pathways between buildings. Every
morning at 5:00 am we were serenaded by troops of howler monkeys outside of our
windows. It sounded like a raging war zone. After that wakeup call, I would
walk the paths and bird watch.
I saw:
Keel billed Toucan, Collared Aracari, Chestnut-colored
Woodpecker, The Great Curassow, Little Blue Heron, Yellow Crowned Night Heron, Boat
Billed Heron, Black Throated Trogon, Slaty Tailed Trogon, Northern Jacana, Anhingas,
and more that I have most likely already forgotten.
We also saw quite a few sloths, both two and three-toed
sloths, caimans, a porcupine, a crocodile, and the highlight of my trip…turtles.
I paid to go on a night time walk with the rangers to watch as green sea
turtles hauled up on shore to lay their eggs. It was a freaking magical
experience to sit on the beach with these mammoth mothers (they were huge!!) as
they dug their nests, laid their eggs, buried them again, and scooted back down
the beach to disappear into the Caribbean ocean.
The next place we went was Bocas del Toro, Panama. To cross
the border you have to get off your bus and carry all your things across a very
old bridge that spanned a pretty large river. Having to walk the border just
made everything more exciting. We got onto another bus and bused to the town of
Almirante where we then boated for 45 minutes to the Island of Bocas del Toro.
This part of the trip was about snorkeling and pristine
beaches. By boat, we island hopped and saw some incredible marine life.
We saw:
Redbilled tropic bird, Brown Boobie, Magnificent Frigate
Bird, Everyone’s favorite fish (Yellowtail Damselfish, flat needle fish,
Stoplight Parrot fish (my favorite), and soooo many more.
After four wonderful days, we all woke up to enjoy our last
breakfast on the balcony of our hotel in Panama. It was cloudy and I was happy
to see a rain front coming toward us across the bay; it would nice to get a
little drizzle. The weather had different ideas. All of the sudden we were
blasted with huge winds and all the plates, cups, food trays, and part of the
roof of a bar next door were blown away by the wind. It started to pour and all
the cleaning ladies were screaming and running around like the world was
ending. The bay got really rough which was a problem because we had a 45 minute
boat road off the island. Everything was delayed until there was a break in the
weather and we all loaded onto a little boat and took off through the storm. It
was quite a ride and there were a lot of people who looked like they didn’t
think we were going to make it.
We made it too the bus, but the entire country side of
Panama had been ravaged by the storm. For miles, giant trees had been snapped
in two, all the power lines were down, and the bushes were beaten up. It was
quite a shock to see so much damage.
Until next time,
Pura Vida!
