Meghan shares a few words about Panama

Meghan On Amelie/Written on January 25th  2015

One word to describe this month would be: change. Change in lifestyle, oceans and perspective of life. 

First of all, we docked at a marina with modern civilization again after a month in the not so modern (but extraordinarily beautiful) San Blast Islands. Honestly, I think I looked pretty psychotic though when I laughed at every sip I took of my soft drink with ice in the air conditioned restaurant. It also felt pretty weird wearing shoes again and it was the first time I realized how uncomfortable those things are! 

Panama: On the Wild Side… Literally!

If you love animal watching and you are looking for a vacation, Panama is your paradise destination! Around 125 of the animal species in Panama are only found here and it is sometimes called “bird watchers paradise”. After my “not-so-friendly encounter” with a monkey near a small town called Porto Bello (read my mom’s blog: A Tale of One Monkey to find out about the encounter), I thought I would never want to return into the jungle again. Turns out, I was wrong because we did return back into the jungle a few days later and I am glad I did because I would have missed some pretty amazing things if I hadn’t gone. 

Also, if I hadn’t been bitten by the monkey, I would not be the superhero I am today. You know, because Spider Man was bitten by a spider and Batman was bitten by a bat so since I was bitten by a monkey, I am now Monkey Girl!

We found out a few days after we got to the dock that just behind the main marina building, there was a paved road that led into the animal filled jungle. We went almost every morning around 7:30 because that is when we figured out we saw the most things.

First of all, there were the birds. We tried to take pictures of all the different types but it was impossible since there were hundreds of types of birds in the forests. My favourite birds were definitely the toucans though. Ever since we saw them in a cage in the Rosario Islands off of Colombia, I have wanted to see a wild one. I have to say though, Froot Loops did not make a very good impression of a toucan because Sam looks nothing like the ones I saw!

A hawk that has found it's breakfast: an unfortunate crab

A local bird that we found fascinating but is apparently as
interesting to locals as a shoe!

We also saw some really fascinating monkeys in that same jungle. They were thankfully not spider monkeys (the ones that I had encountered before) but howler monkeys. When we first heard them, I thought it was coming from a big hound dog but when I saw it, I found it quite funny how small it was compared to what it’s howl made it sound like. The first one we saw came out on a tree and walked across it howling loudly as if it was making it’s morning announcement to it’s fellow jungle mates. When it climbed off the tree and further into the woods until we couldn’t hear it anymore, it was quiet again for only a second and then all the animals started calling again. We also saw them swinging from tree to tree and playing around by hanging upside down by their tails. When they made eye contact with us, I could tell that they meant no harm and I immediately fell in love with monkeys again. Oddly, we saw them for about three days in a row but then, we didn’t see them again after that so we are guessing they are nomads who migrate every few days to different spots in the jungles. 

Although the big animals are fascinating, you never know what kind of minuscule creatures you will see in the jungle if you just look carefully. We have seen some pretty cool insects and other small critters all over Panama. First of all, it is migrating season for the butterflies so we get to see many of the different types of flying beauties everywhere! My personal favourite were the blue morphos. Some other little wonders we saw were: 

Grasshopper

The two other animals we were hoping to see before we left Panama were: sloths and crocodiles. Luckily, thanks to our handy binoculars, we spotted a crocodile on a beach in Gatun Lake, during the canal crossing (which I will talk later about in this blog entry). Here,

on the Pacific side of Panama, there is an animal research institute that is also kind of a zoo that was said to have sloths roaming around freely. Sure enough, we spotted three two-toed sloths! We did have to look carefully though because they don’t move often. We were actually in the middle of looking at one, waiting to see if it would move when a man on the other side of the railing showed us another one making its way across this barb wire fence! We watched it for a long time as it struggled through clothes on the clothesline and moved slowly but surely all the way up to the roof of a house where it found poles to hang on! I don’t think it is correct that we humans say “we’re just hanging out” because that sloth was literally hanging out and trust me, that is not a position a human could do easily or comfortably!

Panama: On the Not-So-Wild (but still AWESOME!!!) Side

As magnificent and incredibly lucky it is to see the animals in the wild, it is fun to see them way up close even though that means not in the wild.

In a small town called Porto Bello (on the Atlantic side of Panama), we had read about a zoo that Canada had helped open up just 4 months ago. We normally don’t necessarily encourage zoos because of animals being caged instead of being in the wilderness but this seemed to be more of a rescue centre and they designed some of the cages so animals could just set themselves free when they were ready. The enclosures were also so clean and perfect for each animal. What was also good for us is that we got to either identify the animals we had seen in the wild (if we didn’t know what they were called) or we could see the other animals of Panama that are endangered or extremely hard to find in the wilderness. Here are some pictures of the different animals we saw at Seafarik’s Zoologico:

Male Great Curassow bird

An ocelot

Very interactive and agile capuchin monkeys

A capybara, the world's largest rodent!

A female spider monkey which I kept my comfortable distance from!

I know I already posted a picture of a toucan but I thought you would like to
see his amazing colours up close!

Here on the Pacific Side of Panama, at the same place we saw the sloths, there was also a frog exhibit that showed us many of the types of Panamanian frogs. We were very excited to take that tour because we had been looking for tree frogs everywhere in the jungle and we had had no luck. We figured out that the reason we had had no luck was because the biggest frog they had at the exhibit was about the size of a large coin and the smallest were the size of my pinky nail! I was actually kind of relieved we saw them in a glass cage instead of the jungle because I could really look at them closely without getting poisoned since most of the Panamanian frogs are poisonous. My favourite type of frog was the adorable (but very deadly) Strawberry poison dart frog. 

Goodbye Atlantic, Hello Pacific

Yes, we did it! We crossed the Panama Canal and hey, no blood, no foul! To cross, we were required to have four line handlers plus the captain (my dad) so we talked to some cruisers and 3 (plus my mom) agreed to do it. We were very lucky because I couldn’t have imagined better line handlers than the four we had! We also had 2 advisors on board that ensured we were following the rules and to show us where to go. The first one came on board for the day and then left once we were in Gatun Lake and the second one (on the second day) came on board in the morning and went through the locks with us and then left that evening once we were through. My job during the canal crossing was to look after Matthew and take pictures since my mom, our family photographer, was busy line handling.

On the first evening, we crossed the first set of locks: the Gatun Locks. Before we entered though, we had to “raft” with two other boats. It was fun being the middle boat in the raft because we had one boat to our starboard and one boat to our port. It was actually kind of cool seeing the chaos of throwing ropes and tying on happening but for once not having to be a part of it. I just stayed on deck and made sure to take lots of pictures. It was so much fun being kind of like “three boats as one” but it felt more crowded than I thought it would be! 

The Gatun Locks had three water rising locks. That means that we started low and when the gates (which were ginormous!) closed, the water rose to the next lock level. Then, we (us and the two other boats we rafted with) all moved forward together to the next lock. Then, when the gates closed again, the water rose to the next lock level and we moved to the final lock. The water then rose to the height of Gatun Lake and we exited the locks. Every time the water got to the top and we could see the bottom where we had come from, Matthew kept repeating 1,2,3 because he thought it was a log ride! I explained to him that these were not the kinds of boats meant for log rides and that it wouldn’t be as fun as he thinks it would be to go down the locks at full speed on a sailboat! Once we were in the lake, we untied from each other and attached to mooring balls (which were more like giant floating concrete balls) for the night. 

The next day, we got up nice and early to the sound of the howler monkeys in the woods. We had gotten up early so we wouldn’t be asleep when the next advisor came but it turned out he didn’t come until 2 hours later at 8:00 (but we had kind of expected that). As soon as the advisor got on board, we got moving because it took 4 hours to get across Gatun Lake to the Pedro Miguel Locks. 

The Pedro Miguel Locks had only one lock and this time the water in the locks went down. It took a bit longer to go through this lock because there was a big cargo ship behind us that was being pulled by little trains and couldn’t go fast because that would definitely end the life of that ship! It did make for interesting photos though!

The last set of locks we had to cross before we made it to the Pacific were the Miraflores Locks which had two locks where the water went down again. If you did have a chance to check out the website of the webcams in the locks, it was these locks we were in when the camera was filming us. There was also, as well as the webcams, an interpretation centre where crowds and crowds of people were watching us from the balcony of this building. I felt like the Queen or a famous star but instead of walking on the red carpet, I was boating down the Panama Canal locks! 

When we made it to the Pacific, the adults all had a beer as Matthew and I enjoyed our Sprite which in my opinion, is 100 times better than beer! Here are some pictures of the amazing experience of crossing the Panama Canal! 

Well, that’s just about it for this month but I hope you enjoyed it. Now, my mom and I have to pack our backpacks for Machu Pichu this week!

Looking down the Pedro Miguel Locks