We arrived safely in Gamboa. Things went smoothly in our boat ride from ITEC to Boca del Drago, then by a bus to the town of Bocas del Toro—and then we arrived at the airport. Our flight was delayed by 2 hours and 45 minutes. Air Panama flew two 5:15 flights to Panama City, but they had only one plane to do it. We were the 2nd flight and had to wait until that plane had gone and come back from Panama City.
While we’re all a bit tired, all is well. We will get up a little later tomorrow than we had originally planned. After a little birding while eating our 8:00 am breakfast in the open diningroom, we will take a short bus ride to Pipeline Road in Soberania Natinal. This is a world famous birding site and it is chance for us to see a tropical lowland moist forest. The moist forest has a slightly more pronounced dry season than than the tropical wet moist forest (= lowland rainforest). We will some trees bare of leaves and some of these are full of blooms. After this we will take a boat ride out into Lake Gatun, which is a very large manmade lake that is part of the Panama Canal. The lake and the watershed that keeps it full are integral to the functioning of the Canal and it’s locks system. We plan a picnic lunch on an island on lake Gatún, before heading back by boat to our bus, which will then take us to the Miraflores Locks and the Canal Museum. Another full day! We will see if we can keep the afternoon short, so we can arrive back the Soberania Lodge to time with the arrival of the other group.
We’re excited to getting all back together again and we will post again tomorrow.
Steve