Escudo De Veregas, Rio Euero, Rio Chagres August 17-27 2009

Escudo De Veregas, Rio Euero, Rio Chagres August 17-27 2009

The packages containing electronic equipment to fix the boat after the lightning strike arrived by plane and boat, we installed the new equipment, replaced the seven AGM batteries with the seven new ones, checked everything again, and Sea Star was ready to sail within a month of her hit. At the time we thought our little group of Windsong, Sea Star and Tregoning were going to move on together yet again. We said our goodbyes to newly made friends in Bocas, thought about the things we didn’t get to do, yet it was time to leave Bocas Del Toro behind.

Windsong, still without propulsion other than sail, left a day before us heading to Escudo De Veregas, an Island that was reputed to be the “Jurassic Park” of Panama. The bird life was said to be exceptional. Sea Star and possibly Tregoning were going to meet Windsong and explore the island together. Jamie made the anchorage just at dark and spent a rather rolly night on the hook, leaving the next morning. At our regular SSB radio communication time of 9:00AM he was considering leaving Escudo unexplored unless a suggestion for a different anchorage could be found. No luck. In the west wind there were no good anchorages. Windsong, after managing with difficulty to raise his anchor in the west wind and not be blown onto the shore, left the island.

Well, Sea Star was not to be denied this island paradise, while Alison and Randall on Tregoning were delayed waiting for their mail to arrive, we made our way the 45nm to the very same anchorage that Jamie had left, and in the same wind. In the afternoon at anchor Sea Star was very comfortable and the weather was cooperating. Dan and I were sitting in the cockpit at sunset when the caretaker of the island Tortugas (sea turtles) and his son arrived in their motorized cayuco. This very interesting and friendly man explained to us in a mixture of English and Spanish how he and his son count and record the Green Turtle numbers and births and keep the natives from killing the adults for food. He welcomed us to Escudo, saying we could go ashore, walk the beach and see the turtles, fish if we wanted, because it was not a restricted park. A contribution was expected and we were happy to give the man $10.00 and two beers he hinted at as our way of contributing to turtle conservation efforts.

We had planned to go in to shore to birdwatch, explore and take our dinghy into the many mangrove lined coves but… as had happened with Jamie the wind picked up bouncing the boat around and pushing us ever closer to the land. At dark, the wind was gusting to 20kn and by 10:00PM torrential rain was falling and we were bouncing bow to stern and rolling, too.

Around midnight we heard a huge “clunk”, and each time the bow rose and fell it sounded again. We had anchored with our all chain rode and had 150’ out protected by a 30’ nylon rope for a snubber. The snubber had let go, so we in our raincoats and nothing else in the pitch black had to go out on the deck and replace the knot that had loosened while the boat pitched, thumped and creaked. We did not sleep very much and in the morning when the time to communicate by SSB came, we were still hoping that the forecast of very light winds and mild seas would occur. We took the big boat (to put the dinghy down would have been dangerous in the swell) around the south side of the island looking for a calmer spot to anchor. Since we could not find one, and the coral reefs were hard to see under the dark water with no sun on it, we were chased out of Veregas, just as Windsong had been! I'll bet it is a fascinating place and when the weather is right, a real gem.

So what to do? The Captain, Dan, wasn’t ready to just go on yet without some adventure. He checked out our guidebooks and compared notes between them and we decided to try another day stop at one of the jungle rivers along the mainland coast of Panama before going to the Chagres River. The guidebooks showed many to choose from; one where natives sell shark parts to Japan, one with a native village, some fishing villages where you had to surf over waves to enter the mouth of the river. We had about 45 nm to go after we motored along the south coast of Escudo De Veregas, so we hoped for good wind and weren’t sure where we would head to-how far along the coast we could get.

As we sailed along at about 5kn, we noticed a great deal of bird life out in the open sea, so I put out our trolling rig in hopes of catching a Mahi Mahi. There was debris in the water; small and larger logs and limbs, floating sea weed and grasses. We saw rafts of hundreds of terns, brown bobbies, Frigate birds and even one bird that could have been an Albatross working the waters while shimmering fish were splashing and jumping out of the water. The small birds were cute as they floated by us perched on logs. If it was a long log there might be twenty birds all in a line whereas a small stick might have just one. They would fly off only when the boat’s bow came near to hitting their perch.

My first catch was a small shark, a three footer. I don’t know what kind and we cut the line and lost the lure. Maybe an hour later I caught a Cero, which Dan decided wouldn’t be a good eating fish and let it go! Then in quick succession I hooked and Dan gaffed aboard two Black-fin Tuna of at least ten pounds each. It took me a while to clean them using directions from a book, “The Cruisers Guide to Fishing”, and it was a bloody affair on a sailboat. We haven’t eaten any yet as I need a few good recipes and some lime or lemon.

When I came up from the galley after cleaning the fish, Dan knew we would have to really bring our speed up if we were going to reach the Rio Euero anchorage before dark. We turned on the motor, took in the sails as there was little wind and cranked up to 2700RPMs and put the anchor down in a strange river right as the sky grew pitch black. On the way we were traveling at ODS-optimum dolphin speed! (I think it’s about 7kn) We had a pod of the sleek bodied creatures playing, jumping and whooshing under the bow of Sea Star for about an hour as we headed for the coastline and shore. All told it was a very exciting day on the water and sort of made up for our missing Escudo De Veregas.

The next morning was pretty and sunny-the anchorage hadn’t been calm but we did get some sleep and Dan was ready for his jungle adventure. I took one look at the surf outside the mouth of the river and questioned his sanity. We gathered the usual gear; my camera, his camera and lenses, binoculars, water bottle, sunglasses, shoes and socks and started off to the mouth in the dinghy, sighting and photographing a Black Hawk on the way. We saw the waves at the entrance and landed down the beach to go take a look. Dan waded in to his chest to check the depth and current strength, then we took all the gear out of the dinghy on shore, and hand guided the boat in through the chosen path. Of course waves lapped in and filled the dinghy with Dan in it. He bailed as I steadied the dinghy and without further mishap, gathered the equipment and went for our river ride. It was great fun and there were lots of birds. We heard howler monkeys and parrots in the trees. We saw trees full of Toucans, Arricari and other birds and paddled quietly while the rain started again. When it poured we were able to tuck under trees and vines with huge leaves. After about two hours in the river we decided to go back. Leaving the river was easier than the entry. Apparently the current had quieted and the surf was nowhere near as high as previously so we just blasted our way back into the bay with our gear in a dry bag in the bow locker.

We had been the only cruising boat there and at Escudo, too. We discovered we could trust our newly installed instruments even though the chart plotter showed our anchorage as on land -since we also have paper charts and guide books as backup, we knew the error was not the instrument’s malfunction. Now we were ready for our 52nm trip to the Chagres River.

The next morning early we started for the Chagres and arrived there by 2:00PM after a rollicking but comfortable sail at about 7kn as the current was helping us along the coast. It wasn’t easy for Dan to locate the Lajas Reef, a marker to guide the Captain’s choice of path into the Rio Chagres past the San Lorenzo Fort in the rather rough seas. We followed the Bauhauss and Zydler guide directions and did pass in 13 feet of water but no less. We found Windsong anchored well into the mouth of the river and we dropped our hook there, too. Tregoning was still in Bocas Del Toro and we hoped that they would soon receive their mail and join us, but it was not to be.

I remembered visiting the Chagres on our previous trip eleven years ago. I remembered watching a Bat Hawk, dinghying up river tributaries and hearing howlers and noisy birds. I was wondering if it was too much to expect the river to still hold its magic. It was even better than the last trip. The Panamanians have taken the canal area and are managing the resources there as a National Park. We found the river and its banks clean of trash except very close to the road to the canal and pristine with no development allowed, the paths and walks filled with wondrous sights from butterflies, birds and orchids to larger animals such as monkeys (White-faced and Howler)and sloths. We dinghied some of the tributaries, visited Fort San Lorenzo and walked near the dam on Gatun Lake and along the Panama Canal. The birding find of the trip was a pair of Southern Lapwings with young. Dan saw them distressed and hopping about when he was walking near the Gatun Dam area and a caretaker mowed down a meadow in which the birds were nesting. When we left, the baby bird was alright and burrowed into the mowed grass, and the adults were dive bombing us as we walked and every car, truck or bus that passed on the road to keep everything away from the nest. You had to feel sorry for them. They were frantic. We think the is a rare bird to see in this part of Panama.

And then there were the monkeys. We were able to watch a troop of howler monkeys eating fruits in a tree right on the Rio Chagres. There was a set of old concrete steps leading up a lump of dirt that we climbed and improved our view to looking right into the tree.The pictures speak for themselves.

We left the Chagres on Wednesday, August 26 for the 6 nm trip to Colon and are currently residing on the dock at Shelter Bay Marina. Jamie on Windsong is about to leave his boat on the hard for the next ten months while he returns to his teaching post in Windsor, Ontario. Tregoning may still join us here or we may see them in the San Blas. One of the hardest things about cruising is saying goodbye when plans don’t mesh anymore. Blogs are great! Both Windsong and Tregoning have written blogs at the same time as I have. Check them out at tripsailor.com/Tregoning and wincom.net/jhalpin/windsong.htm


Dan shot most of these photos- enjoy the slide show

Escudo-Chagres OL

Bocas, Batteries, Boxes and Booms! August 16, 2009

Bocas, Batteries, Boxes and Booms! August 16, 2009

At the end of my last blog entry I wrote that Sea Star was struck by lightning. The strike was on July 18th and was quite extensive, though, luckily, no damage of a permanent nature (that couldn’t be fixed) to Sea Star or her owners! I’m not really sure about Maggie, the ship’s cat. She has become much more skittish when she hears thunder and it’s raining.

We arrived in Bocas on June 18th in hot and humid weather. There were a few days where wind for a short time was 20kn or so in the anchorage but there were almost daily light sprinkles-“Hey, it’s sprinkling, finally some fresh water wash for the boat!” The skies did not open up on a regular basis.

It seems to me that the wet season is early as we have been getting daily rain, especially night and morning, necessitating popping out of bed and attending to hatches. “Son of a b****. I just opened them up and it’s raining aagain!” Hatches HAVE to be opened as the nights are hot and sticky, and the wind has dropped off to very little. When it pours, cruisers, wearing nothing but a smile, run around their decks setting up rain catching “gear” as well as closing and opening the hatches. We call it the “hatch dance” and it accounts for many yawns and a “cruiser midnight” of about 8:30 PM.

When we decided to take Jamie’s suggestion to go to Boquete I luckily asked the right person to care for Maggie. Apparently as soon as we left the skies opened up and Thor sent thunde ,and lightning from his mighty bow right to the mast of poor Sea Star. Sue on Waldon was feeding Maggie while we were away and watching out for our boat. Things can happen; we could be boarded by the locals looking to sell their langostas, we could drag anchor or someone could run too close.

Sue was confused when she noticed that we hadn’t done things we had talked about doing before leaving. Our switch for the anchor light was off. Not a good thing in an anchorage -and we told her we would leave it on! Then she noticed that the refrigeration was off and wondered why we would do that! She tried to call our cell phone many times but we were by then out of range. She grabbed some food as the refrigeration warmed to save for me and continued to care for Maggie- and think about our boat and the fact that the weather on Friday and Saturday was terrible with a huge storm having moved through.

When Dan and I were at the Avis Rent-a-Car return after our fabulous trip to Boquete, we checked the messages and finally called her back. She was on the boat and Dan had her turn things on and off and ..well..it was obvious we had been struck and things were not good on Sea Star- by chance we learned later, the only boat to be struck.

So what did that mean to us? TRIAGE! What was not available that was essential? After calling Jackline Insurance and notifying them Dan got to work. When talking with Jackline they said they had an assessor “really close to us- in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.”
“Uhh.. not too close to us”, Dan countered-“600 or 700 miles, and the boat is not in sailable condition.” So the adjuster said to prepare our best estimate and submit it.

With Jamie on Windsong, and Jeff on Waldon’s help the trouble shooting began. We already knew we had no anchor light and that lights on the electronic panel were off. When the engine started Dan knew the engine was not getting charge to the batteries. LED lights on the boat were unable to be shut off and all sorts of weird readings came off our instrument panels. Our wind generator had shut down, we had no refrigeration or freezer (that was actually helpful as we had no way of keeping them charged up anyway), and one by one other items were discovered defective.

While Dan worked, so did I. I had three pounds of hamburger to cook, a turkey breast, easily ten pounds of beef, some for stew and some steaks. As I’m cooking away and in the middle of a turkey roast-the stove turned its circuit breaker off and stopped!

With an “oh, no, heard here and oh, shit heard there the guys did their best to assess the damages. We had NO autopilot, computer, Raymarine chart plotters-an E80 and E120 read seatalk failure, all depth, wind and speed gauges were out, tachometer and other engine sensors were no good- the VHF radio and SSB were not receiving, the entertainment centers-one TV and a satellite radio were not working- if Dan were writing this he could be more specific but you get the picture. There was to be no moving this boat-

On the positive side we did not see any outside or hull damage and since we had been anchored in 40’ water, a thru-hull failure would have been a disaster. We could have arrived back at Sea Star to see 20’ of mast above the water! So we can say with authority, “It could have been worse.”

Two weeks after the strike we had to get an estimate to Jackline. That was tricky because there was absolutely no way of knowing which components might work again if a part were fixed, or a wire was changed. We put together as conservative an estimate as we could to bring the boat back to her former glory-but in the meantime we had begun the ordering process for what were the essentials. The process was to check what equipment we had, search for serial numbers, and parts available, then list the item number on the sheet to put out for an estimate. This was an all encompassing task for Dan for a week. He ate, slept and perused the computer figuring out what we had, and what was the current replacement. Then I typed it, we submitted it to Jackline and sat on pins and needles—for less than a day- until the bottom line was approved!

How does a person get packages shipped into Panama? What will customs charge for a Yacht in Transit? Where the hell is Bocas Del Toro?? Other cruisers gave us leads and that was the best way to have discovered Arturo at Marine Warehouse, PackYa and other ways (ship and truck) to get items from the US to Panama City and then on to Bocas Del Toro by air- in the middle paying a great deal to Fed-Ex for timely shipments.

On one day we received the six packages from two different shippers by the Panama Air cargo at the Bocas Airport. Four of them were late in arriving because Panama City was having a severe storm, so in the morning we took our two huge packages to the boat followed by four more even heavier in the afternoon. Into a taxi and to the Pirate’s Restaurant dock we lugged them all, into the dinghy and onto the boat to open them, just hoping all would be as expected. About that time Jamie arrived, seeing our loot and because he is young, agile and really nice by that evening we had our anchor light and VHF operative.

Before we could really rest on our laurels, our second shipment came. This time it arrived by ship. BEFORE the strike we had ordered new batteries to replace our only 3 ½ year old AGM battery bank of seven batteries. Each battery is 35 lbs and needed to be taken from the truck that carried them on the supply ship, carried down a rickety dock and lowered three feet into dinghy. Dan and Jamie lugged them aboard Sea Star and installed them in place of the seven old batteries without blowing up the boat while working in such tight a space with such volatile wiring.

So now every cabinet in the boat was open and every tool in use or cast aside temporarily, leaving Maggie and me absolutely no place to be. From the forward cabin the mattress was ajar and folded to access the storage under the bed. The forward head had been acting up and was stripped of its plastic covering and unusable, large and small boxes of Raymarine equipment were piled throughout the salon and the new refrigeration units were sitting on the galley countertops. Electric pumps; bilge pumps, pressurized water had been shut down for safety, either the seven new or the old batteries were in the salon depending on how the project was progressing, the aft cabin was holding all the “usual stuff”, like the pillows and table from the salon, the water making bottles, cat carrier, diesel jugs and plastics from the aft lazzaret, and by now the guys were installing the refrigeration in the starboard lazzaret, working around the pedestal in the cockpit- and it was pouring allowing no hatches to be opened for ventilation.

At the end of Tuesday the 18th, Dan and I were out motoring around and calibrating the new autopilot, speed and depth gauges. The mess throughout the boat remains, but it’s a little less. Jamie, with problems of his own- NO engine and he “lost” his propeller right off his shaft a few weeks ago is waiting for us to get it together so he can move to where his new shaft is waiting- in Colon, sailing, only there is no wind. He kept himself busy climbing another cruiser’s mast today. Tregoning, the other boat we have been in company with, are awaiting the return of their broken inverter and for some mail, then they will head to Colon.

As I write tonight, we are planning a Thursday departure to Colon if possible. All the newly installed gear is being tested. Some works fine and some is acting funny. We’re hoping the windlass works and brings up the anchor, and the new components in the bow thruster can steer us to the diesel dock. We have not totally cleaned the boat of “old stuff” (only three years old), and I’m trying to make room in storage for items we may be able to resurrect “someday.” We can see the full fix is a long road ahead.

Why did Sea Star get the hit? Why not? From what we hear there is no way to prevent a strike. It’s the luck of the draw. I hate to site this couple, but a few days before our strike we met a couple on an Oyster sailboat who have been struck three times! Now that’s unlucky.

Sea Star is a well made Island Packet sailboat, has the proper grounding of equipment and a little brush instrument on the top of the mast that is reported to dissipate lightning. Dan and I are aware of the dangers. Before we left we tucked a few removable items in the oven, a make-shift Faraday Cage, “in case of possible lightning”, but the built-ins can’t be protected.

Cruiser’s laugh when the old saw is repeated, that “Cruising is the fixing of your boat in exotic places” and I used to laugh, too. Let’s hope these repairs to our three year old boat is all the “fun” we have like that for awhile, and Sea Star continues sail on without incident.

Here are a few pic of the repairs. And just to show you we still can have fun in adversity- check out the other fire story from Bocas Marina, Calipso Cantina. Hot, Hot, Hot!

lightning July 18th, 2009

Almirante, Chanquinola, David and Boquete July 18, -21

Through Almirante, Chanquinola, David and Boquete July 18, -21

“Let’s go to the mountains” Jamie on Windsong suggested. He researched what he felt would be a fun trip including a zip line through the canopy and a strenuous hike up the Vulcan Baru trail reached from Boquete, a town at the foothills of the mountains well known for the quality of its coffee. Immediately Dan and I thought we should go-we love coffee, but we thought we should slow the pace down for us. We agreed to accompany Jamie from Windsong and Alison and Randall from Tregoning, but at a birdwatcher’s pace that would not include a zipline or Vulcan hike.

BUT First:
All three boats have been in Bocas for a month, so to remain legally in Panama we needed first and foremost to renew our Tourist Visas by July 18 and not too much sooner, and not later as there are fines for lateness. We find the rules confusing. Because we live on a boat, we need something called a Mariner’s Visa even though the boat is covered for 90 days by a zarpe. If a person flies by airplane into the country, they are given a visa good for six months. For some reason a cruiser needs to appear before Immigration officials every 30 days to renew a Mariner Visa, but the Mariner Visa is only good at a few specified places, like Bocas, and we might have to do the Visa thing again as soon as we go to Colon.

Anyway…….the head man at Bocas Immigration suggested we have copies available for the Changuinola office of our passports, our stamps in the passports, all our boat papers and papers given us on our initial entry into the country and have two passport –size photos for each of us ready ahead of time, which we all prepared and did indeed save us untold issues in Changuinola the next day.

We had the water taxi to Almirante, a tiny sea coast town, pick us up with all our luggage at 7:30 AM for the 30 minute fast boat ride to Almirante where we were rushed into a van-taxi and off for the 45min. twisty, bumpy ride with our driver animatedly talking with his girlfriend, driving holding her hand, and taking his hands off the wheel to put them on her many times- to the Capital of Bocas, Changuinola ,and the Immigration office.

We were the first group to arrive at the office in the morning and the young woman who had us fill out forms-laboriously- one person at a time-by hand was very pleasant and seemingly efficient. We had arrived by 9:00AM, done our homework in having the copies ready and things seemed to be moving smoothly, then more people came into the one room crowded office, and more people. The two 12” fans hadn’t a chance of keeping up. All the turquoise plastic chairs, desk chairs and wall space were filled with people and our luggage- and the woman who was head of the office was not there to begin our paper trail, so we all sat, and read and sat some more. We finally headed out for breakfast, walking through the Chanquinola version of a mall-open storefronts with a large selection of clothing and merchandise farther back in a large open room. We were called by cellphone when the head lady appeared-around 11:00 AM and were back to Immigration within 10 minutes of the call.

People came, went in to see the various employees, chatted, presented passports, kissed babies, had coffee and still the five of us sat in the turquoise chairs -1:00 PM, 1:30, 2:00 PM and finally after I nearly blew a gasket we were courteously waited on and given our Mariner Visas and we only paid $35 each, or $70 per boat in addition to the close to $300.00 the officials extracted in Bocas Del Toro the previous month when we arrived.

Now we were in a hurry. Originally we had thought, pick up the visas, and get to Boquete in one day. Luckily by now we had fatalistically decided this couldn’t be done. The bus we were now running through town to meet from Chanquinola to David would take 4 hours and from David to Boquete another 45 minutes. Once on the bus, we relaxed for the 4 hour trip to David and enjoyed the scenery, laughing about our morning in Immigration. Our entertainment on the ride consisted of watching the seats fill and empty with the indigenous people and their children and baggage. Seats were constantly full to overflowing.

The trip is over mountainous terrain and the bus has to sluggishly gear-up the mountain roads. To increase the power available, the driver turns off the air conditioning- but that is not too bad in the cooler mountain air as the passengers can open the windows-if the family sitting next to you wants them open and doesn’t bad-vibe. The bus made a stop at a roadside bus terminal cafeteria after two hours of travel. We were grateful for that as part of the ambiance is that you are hanging on and trying to stay in the seat the whole way. We got back on the bus and enjoyed the rolling hills and open fields full of cattle grazing as we entered the larger city, David. At the bus terminal we loaded up with our backpacks and bags, taxied to where we were to stay the night- in a cruiser recommended hotel named El Castillo. Our rooms for $40 were clean, had working bathrooms with showers, TV, and the hotel restaurant served passable food, so we rested well. We were going to have an early start in the morning.

Dan and I split from the others, deciding to rent a car and take a leisurely drive to Boquete. Alison and Jamie were planning on experiencing the zip line in Boquete at 10:00 AM that morning and they and Randall continued by taking the bus, supposedly 45 minute drive to Boquete- it took them 2 hours. Dan and I drove into Boquete in our fairly new rented from Avis, Toyota Yaris, a very comfortable car. We drove the outskirts of David on the Panamerican Highway, a very well kept road passing many beginnings of condo development and other construction, supposedly being built for the ex-patriot population moving into the area.

We arrived at the clean agriculturally based town of Boquete where fields of tomatoes,onions, strawberries and even sweet corn are grown. We parked because yellow detour signs were closing off the center of town where multicolored balloons and indigenous Guaymi Indians families, the women in long colorful dresses decorated in wide ricrac of various contrasts. There was a children’s fair there that day and these farm families were enjoying a day in the city square with their children.
Here are the traveling pictures to and from Boquete- Don't forget to come back to Blog to see the Finca Lerida set!

Boquete traveling

Finca Lerida-Boquete
Dan had checked online and found what we thought would be a great place to stay-outside of town at Finca Lerida, a coffee finca that advertised good birding. The authors of some of our most respected bird books had stayed at Finca Lerida and recommended it highly.

What a find! We were delighted by the beauty of the property- acres and acres of undisturbed forested area, jungle-like with huge trees and spreading canopy. We grabbed A Guide to the Birds Of Panama by Robert Ridgely and spent the rest of that day exploring on the Finca trails-there was so much birdlife that I might be staring intently into my binocular identifying one bird and he another when we might see or hear another and get distracted.

Blue tinged birds in the coffee plants, yellow along the trail, and hummingbirds in the flowers along the front and rear gardens all teased us with their hiding in the foliage and quick darts out for tiny bugs. We identified Blue-grey Tanagers and Flame-colored Tanagers and many more thrushes, finches and more.
These were the 10 room doors:

From Drop Box

The others joined us at the Finca and were just as delighted as we were-but Alison and Jamie were going to hike the Vulcan Baru in the early morning, a 5:30 AM start, so early to bed was necessary for them. We heard their stories about the zip line, a memorable adreniline experience, ate at the Finca restaurant and called it a good, long day.

The morning they started off was definitely cooler-cold than we had seen since Newfoundland , clear and lovely with the mountains looking purple and shades of blue when the mist lifted. Alison and Jamie were picked up by their guide and were on the trail early. The hike was to be about 7km and then an overnight on the trail, a quick ascent the next morning so sunrise would be on the Vulcan Baru mountaintop and the trek down. Unfortunately, Jamie became ill about half way up and had to stop. Alison, a little ahead with the other guide didn’t realize there was a problem with Jamie. She ascended to the top of the mountain, and also came down- part of the trip in the dark when she realized that Jamie was so ill he couldn’t make the trip. Both of them were disappointed by the changes in plans, and the guide warned Jamie he might need to go to the clinic for a blood test. They arrived back at their room at the Finca about 9:00 PM. What a long, exhausting day!

The same morning Dan and I were walking one of the trails on the Finca property and were thrilled when we were lucky enough to see a male Resplendent Quetzal flying through the canopy, and then landing in a tree among the air plants and bromeliads. We were able to see just glimpses of his brilliant iridescent green and red coloring through the branches when the wind blew some leaves out of the way using the highest power on the binoculars and looking almost straight up. At another vantage point we could see the tail and rump of the huge bird hanging through the foliage-keeping its balance. We searched for it again the next morning with Alison and Randall, while Jamie slept in, but no luck.

As we were leaving Finca Lerida of course we bought coffee. The Lerida coffee is prize-winning, rich and aromatic, and had a chance to speak with the knowledgeable bird guide, Victor, who had compiled a list of close to 200 birds that have been seen on the property. Dan and I were very happy with our selection seen and we had a chance for a few wonderful photos-and some not so great ones, and trail walks that were wonderfully scenic along twisty, slightly overgrown paths through the forest and fields! Lerida does maintain the paths very well, however.

Way down a hill in a path leading in from coffee plants we started to listen to the squauwking of some birds and did observe the Three wattled Bell bird, kind of the signature bird of the place, of course we heard its distinctive squawking call in the high canopy and had a very frustrating time spotting it. We heard the “ping” of the Solitaire but could not spot that bird, either. Outside our beautiful accommodation we spotted four of the perhaps 14 species of hummingbirds, two that are only found in western Panama and the Chiriqui area, many smaller birds, such as the flower piercer shown below, hawks, vultures, swifts and parrots, plenty of butterflies and interesting insects. Our road trip and time in Boquete had been a great.

Here are some pictures-mostly by Dan

Finca and birds

Then it was back to David, drop off the car and take the bus to Almirante and the water taxi to Bocas Del Toro---to find out that Sea Star had been hit by lightning the Friday we had left! More on the troubleshooting and needed repairs—at least we didn’t sink—in next entry.