A Barrel, Cartload or Troop of MONKEYS and A VIEW from Above!

Quite the View from Above! 

If we look a little hot and sweaty - it's because we were! :-)  But the view and all the adventures along the way were more than worth it.  Shortly after sun-up today, we hopped in the car and drove about 5 miles to the western edge of Gamboa and access to the Pipeline Trail.  It's called this because a pipeline was built along side the canal during WWII to transport fuel from ocean to ocean in case the waterway was attacked.  It was never used for this purpose.  Now it is a famous trail used by bird-watchers and today, two gringos in love with the forest!

The "road" to the trailhead looked a little "sketch" - an adjective Lisa used quite often during their visit a week ago. :-) So we found a wide spot in the road, parked the car and walked the extra 2 kilometers to the path to save the not-so-good tires on our rental car.  Below is depicted a Panamanian attempt at road construction along said "sketchy road." That is not trash but chunks of cement, bricks and even kitchen tiles.  That ought to do it!

Walking in order to avoid the changing of a tire, was a good plan but we didn't know how happy the walk would make us until. . .  about a mile up the trail we noticed the sound of twigs snapping and leaves rustling.  The source of this commotion - a barrel, cartload or troop of monkeys - whichever you wish to call it - all are technically correct.  Personally I prefer barrel - who knew that "barrel of monkeys" wasn't just an expression??

We hadn't even made it to the trail yet!  In fact, we never really hiked the Pipeline trail.  Instead we were enticed into the Canopy Discovery Center where we saw "Woody the Woodpecker" complete with red comb on the top of his head, a blue morpho butterfly of which my 3rd graders learned, (no pictures - I just wasn't fast enough) and a coati, which is related to a racoon and pictured below.

After visiting with 2 of the nicest attendants, we walked the 172 steps up the canopy tower which gave us a bird's eye view of the rainforest about 200 feet in the air and over the tallest trees in the forest.  There was no way around it - this incredible view was selfie territory and where the first picture on this post was taken.

We spent 2 more incredible hours touring the best nature has to offer and ended up at the humming bird pavilion.  These little hustlers weren't a bit afraid of us.  In fact, they would kind of dive bomb us just to keep us on our toes.  It was "muy dificil" to capture them in a photo - they just move too fast.  Here is my best attempt and hopefully the video works out so you can hear them as they scoot around.

The walk back to the car was enjoyable but at 11:30 am it was like walking with a blanket over our heads - hot and muggy.  The air conditioner ran on high speed on the way home and the race to be the first to a cool shower was on!  

The afternoon was spent recovering and watching the FIFA finals - France vs Morocco.  When the right team scores we can hear cheers from our neighbors up and down the streets.  Everyone's windows are always open so it's a bit like living in a campsite.  Some nights we hear violins and solos being practiced, other nights neighbors have a bit of a music war - classical vs rock but most of the time we hear the crickets, frogs and other creatures that God created.  He/She sure did good! :-)