Gringos in Panama

  Kirby does an excellent job of Uber-ing us around Panama but there is one place he won’t drive - Old Panama City (Costco Vieja) and for good reason: single-lane, cobblestone roads with traffic going both ways, parallel parked cars and cement sidewalks raised a foot in places, full of wandering people. Plus, we are a group of six in a vehicle built for five - someone has to ride in the trunk. I’m not kidding! :-) Luckily, Ivan knows people and hooked us up with a kind man named Armando who drove us around the city in his “air condo” van.  He walked us around, touring numerous churches. Maybe he thought we needed it??? Meredith decided we had our church going covered for quite some time.  Costco Vieja is a crazy mix of old ruins right next to updated high end hotels and apartment living. Then there’s the Panama City Sky Line where the skyscrapers stretch across the horizon. Until the 1970’s, the tallest building was the Howard Johnson’s Hotel or the Holiday Inn, depending...

Where to begin? That’s the question as I reflect on the last week and the opportunity we had to share this incredible place with family/friends - because these visitors are both. :-) This post begins while having coffee on the veranda and soaking in all the sounds of the forest, which are so different not only from last year but from 2 weeks ago. When we first arrived, insects seemed to be the predominant noise-makers. The loudest of them sounded a lot like our locusts, of which I have never been a fan. This morning the birds are the stars. Right now I hear parrots, toucans and so many birds that I can’t identify. To top it off, a humming bird just flew past my ear, made a razoo around the kitchen and headed back out into the forest! How can we not ❤️ Panama???  And we ❤️ that we shared this incredible place with others who I believe found it pretty awesome as well. 😁 One highlight of our week together was the day spent fishing with Gerardo on Lake Gatun - the man-made lake that c...

  This photo says it all! Our family survived the jungle and Gamboa survived us; it was a Win - Win! On Tuesday, Ed, Brandon and Meredith joined us and Greg arrived on Thursday. There were many early morning adventures to beat the heat but that didn’t end the evening shenanigans. When a planned BBQ went south, a 5 block walk through Gamboa led us to Ashley’s backyard pizza place and maybe a brew or two.  ;-) This sign was the topic of many conversations as we tried to decipher just what message it is meant to send. We would love to know your thoughts on this. 

  I’m not going to lie - I’m a little proud of this photo. I really did take it, as well as the photos below. The zoom on my new camera works well as these howler monkeys were a fair distance away. The wind helped by opening brief windows through the swaying tree leaves, giving me the opportunity to snap a shot. If I can do it again remains to be seen! :-) Yesterday we were reflecting on how different the Panama we flew into on Nov. 24th is from the one we visited last year. Kirby and I heard about the protests happening in this country and before boarding the plane contacted Ivan to see what was what. He informed us that there were issues in the cities but nothing around Gamboa and what he said proved to be true. However, the trickle down effect did reach the little community we love. Driving from the airport to Gamboa, we noticed Panamanian flags of all sizes attached to passing cars and flying everywhere. Handmade banners were tied to sign poles in front of the green jungle back...

  Yesterday we trusted Google to lead us to an old radar tower built by the US in 1963. If you happened to read the blog post “The Mushroom that Saved the Day” you know how well that turned out. 😳 Today we continued the search based on more reliable information - we hoped. The kind people at the Soberanía National Park Visitor Center suggested an alternate route to the tower.  We kept our fingers crossed as we set out, not because we doubted the accuracy of their directions, but because we doubted Julie’s ability to translate the Español and understand them. Reyna, we still have a LOT of work to do! Bug spray in hand, we headed out and found a road sign for Canopy Tower.  We pulled  in, only to find a trail map without mention of a tower.  Our choices were to embark on another trail that seemed eerily similar to yesterday’s Hero mushroom trail, or head up a paved one-lane road. Not in the mood to wander around lost again, we headed UP the road. And I mean UP. ⬆...

  I have to admit this is a terrible picture of such an important mushroom. I did come better prepared this year with a real camera in place of my iPhone - if only I knew how to use it!  Why is it such an important mushroom you may be wondering? It’s a long story.  After reading some of the history books here at the house, Kirby and I went in search of an old radar tower that the Americans built in the wake of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963. Relying on information from Google, we drove eight miles to the tiny visitor center for Soberanía National Park, figured out where to park (which was no small feat) and started out on a trail we hoped would lead us to the tower.  It’s only a few miles away but this forest is so different from the one that encircles Gamboa.  The trees were much smaller and the vegetation on the forest floor less dense. The trail was wide and clearly marked with large signs - even though the signs didn’t really say anything helpful. Mostly, ...