Just a quick snippet of our transit through Panama and few days in Costa Rica. Next episode - Guatemala, coming soon :o)
Panama
The next pit stop on our journey (which is really a
transit stop) is Panama City. We were
only here for 1 night and most of a day so decided to head out to see the
famous Panama Canal. Even though this
has now been in operation 102 years its engineering is incredibly impressive.
The Canal enables ships to transit from the Caribbean Sea
to the Pacific Ocean through a series of locks that lift the ships up 85m to
the centre lake and then back down again to the body of water they are heading
towards. The Miraflores Lock, which is
where we viewed the Canal, is a series of three locks that raise and lower
ships of gigantic size that now only just fit in the Canal. About 40 ships
cross the Canal each day (20 each way) and they take between 8 - 10 hours to
make the full journey. It costs US
$300,000 for each ship to pass and the Canal has transmitted over one million
vessels since it's opening in 1914.
Before our airport appointment we also managed to drive
up Ancon Hill for great views of the city (and got to see a Sloth and Toucan),
and through the old Colonial city. The
old city is undergoing major renovations and is starting to look really
beautiful.
Costa Rica
Sadly Costa Rica is only a very short stop and San Jose
is very much the arrival and departure point only. Early the next morning our shuttle arrived
(7am) to take us through to Santa Elena/Monteverde (home to the unique cloud
forest landscapes).
Upon arriving in Santa Elena we worked on making the most
of our time here by booking a few excursions.
The first that afternoon was a tour of Don Juan's coffee operation. Our guide, Alex, was fantastic and really
passionate about the business and processes.
Really interactive we got to feel, taste, test and smell everything from
coffee beans in various stages of process, sugar cane and cacao beans (and of
course the decadent chocolate that comes from them). The tour ended with the group sampling the
coffee.
The next full day in Santa Elena consisted first of a
trip to Selvatura which is home to zip lining and swing bridge walks. The zip
line was great and a lot of fun - the longest zip line (done in tandem) was 1km
long and reaching speeds of 60kmph it's a wonder the line doesn't start
smoking! It's through and above the very
edge of the cloud forest so the scenery and views are quite something. The
other highlight is the Tarzan swing (which Gary managed and Lesley chickened
out off) which is an 8m drop and swing out - all in all a lot of fun. We also did the swing bridge walk while we
were there which was very peaceful as you walk through the forest and on 8
swing bridges along the way (the highest 50m above the ground and the longest
150m). The greenery was beautiful, as
were the birds serenading us through (although for the most part you could only
hear, and not see them).
That night we ventured out at 6.45pm for our night tour.
We wandered around the forest/jungle for a couple of hours with a torch and a
guide (and a few other people) looking out for anything that moved. Approximately 60% of the wildlife in the
region is nocturnal so there was a good chance we’d see something, and that we
did – scorpions, funnel web spider, tarantula (as well as multiple other spiders),
frogs and a toad, crickets, grasshoppers, ant armies, a sloth, toucans, a green
viper (snake), a possum, squirrel, coati (we think) and a seen but not heard
aardvark (or the guide thought it was one).
So the short trip was worth the effort and risk of creepy crawlies.
The following day we did what we came here to do and that
was to visit the real McCoy “Monteverde Cloud Forest”. The temperature is much cooler here (max 21
degrees, as opposed to 27 in town), and we are now inside a very fragile
ecosystem approximately 1500m above sea level.
Our guide, Adrian Mendez, was absolutely awesome and so unbelievably
passionate about the area and everything within it that his excitement and
enthusiasm most definitely wore off on the 9 of us on his guided tour. He had us running to get views of rare birds
and explained the environment, plants and everything in between. Walking through this forest was really
special and we got to see some very rare and very pretty birds – to name a few
the Golden Browed Chlorophonia (yellow and green small bird), Black Guan (a really
large black bird with red eyes), and the rare Resplendent Quetzal, both male
and female. They are both large and
beautiful but the male is something else with large long tail feathers and
gorgeous colouring. Adrian was most
accommodating taking photos of the birds, on our phone, through his telescope. The Resplendent Quetzal is the national bird
of Guatemala and can only be found in two places in Costa Rica. Apparently most Guatemalans come to Costa
Rica to see them as they are so hard to find and we were lucky enough to see 7
of these separately (some other groups didn’t see any) – am sure in no small
part due to Adrian’s perseverance and 23 years of guiding experience.
Before we finished we visited the Hummingbird garden
which most certainly didn’t disappoint.
They were everywhere, seven different species, so tiny and precious –
with wings that beat at 60-80 beats per second, and a heart that beats 1200
times per minute! It really was an
amazing tour in an amazing place and a fantastic note to finish on.
Our afternoon was pretty relaxed, on a beautiful day in
Costa Rica, and we let it all soak in before our big travel day which will saw
us bus back to San Jose and fly on to our next destination.
Best moment – seeing the
Panama Canal in action, what a marvel!
Most special – seeing
the Quetzal for the first time in Monteverde – an absolutely beautiful bird
Most surprising – no
rain and very little cloud in the cloud forest - rainy season hasn’t started
yet
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