Beauty and the Beast!

 Beauty and the Beast!

There is much beauty to be found in the jungle. (I wish I knew more about this gorgeous butterfly. It is a picture I took in the garden of the house we rented.) In addition to the beauty, there are also mysterious creatures making unusual, “Beast-like” noises. Probably the loudest among them is the howler monkey. They can often be heard all over Gamboa and we have encountered them along almost every walk we have taken. Today they cheered as we were leaving The Pipeline Trail. Give a listen to them in the video below. They are the size of small dogs but can sure sound fierce.  

I haven’t managed to get a photo of the howlers, although Kirby caught a glimpse of one today.  I did manage to get a better video of The Capachino monkeys that are plentiful and even swing through the trees surrounding our deck. Usually there are too many leaves to see them clearly and there’s no guessing which tree they’ll swing to next.  Today, there were probably a dozen in this area and I was able to capture them because they were using that vine as a kind of highway to travel along. 

Even some of the plants and trees can be “Beast-like.” We have learned that some vines grow down from the tree tops, stealing nutrients from the tree until it can take root in the jungle floor - eventually killing the tree they have highjacked. (I guess this is why Tarzan could swing from tree to tree.) 😳 Other vines climb from the forest floor up trees to reach sunlight. The trees in the following photos have unique ways of posting their own “No Trespassing” signs to keep this from happening. 

Enough jungle beasts for one day - let’s get back to Beauty! Following is a video and still shot of two butterflies we saw on The Pipeline Trail today. You can see how the brown butterfly camouflages itself. Wouldn’t  it look like the eyes of a much larger creature to whoever might be contemplating it as a snack?

Pictured below is the Blue Morpho Butterfly.  I used to teach my students about them because they are beautiful and so unusual. In the first picture, the Morpho is at rest and you must be wondering why it has Blue in its name. We were told that it’s wings are translucent and pick up fragments of light that gives it the blue appearance - similar to what makes the sky blue. I have tried many times to get a picture of them in flight, wearing their finest outfit. Unfortunately, the blurry photo is the best I could do.  Good old Google supplied a shot of one in all its splendor.

Flowers in a rainforest are few and far between.  Maybe God thought it would just be too much for us to look at.  What flowers we have seen are understated.

We seem to find beauty in unexpected places - like the bark of this tree or the mushrooms and algae that grow in the shadows of the forest.

And then there are bromeliads - EVERYWHERE! 😊 These plants piggyback off of other plants, trees, even electric lines and their poles.  They don’t really fit the beauty or beast category but they are plentiful. And they catch and hold rainwater, making them drinking fountains for forest birds, animals and insects.  They say sometimes you can see tadpoles swimming in the center of bigger bromeliads. 

And at the end of an adventurous day - Ahhhhh! Lake Gatun sunsets - definitely BEAUTIFUL!