The pipeline is 17 km each way an boasts 1300 different plant species, 525 bird species, and 105 mammals. The road was built during WWII by US soldiers to transport oil to the Panama Canal encase it was bombed. Entry is $5 for non residents and $3 for residents.
The trail is wide and easily accessible with a jogging stroller.
PJ was having fun in the beginning walking through nature.
But after an hour he was hot, sticky, and tired so we headed home.
Loved the walk and decided to return.
Saturday we drove up to stay at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort set on the bank of the River Chagres, located inside the Parque Nacional Soberania (National Sovereignty Park), Panama. We booked last minute and when we arrived they had our reservation but had not processed it so we waited in the steamy lobby for an hour and a half while they processed the rooms and cleaned them.
We went for a little stroll and some critters of the rainforest.
This is the common agouti (ah GOO tee) that can be found in Central and South American rainforests. We had seen them in Brazil and Ecuador but not this close. The agouti has 5 toes on its front feet and 3 on its back, it walks on its toes.
No idea what this bird is called.
There was a sloth brought in from a wildlife refuge center at 5 pm and we listened to the beginning of the presentation and left early to go to our room, well a room. Turns out they only had 1 room ready at 5:15 pm at night but they gave Mike keys to our room and said in 20 minutes it would be ready. We gathered our stuff went to Ted and Michelle's room, changed into bathing suits and cooled off in the pool. 6 pm we were hungry and PJ needed to start his nighttime routine so off to our rooms to change. We opened the door to our room and it looked like a tornado had gone through it. Back to the front desk and he gave us a new room.
We had supper in the monkey bar as the buffet was $25 per person. A wee bit steep for what was being served. The meal was not great but filled our tummies.
We turned in early to go for a hike at 5 am on Sunday.
4:30 alarm rang and we were up and out of the hotel by 5. Ted drove to the Camino del Oleducto (oil pipeline road) trail head we had visited on Friday and we took off with our flash lights. We were the only people we saw headed up.
The sun rose around 6 so we had a nice cool "night walk". The howler monkeys began promptly at 6 and the rest of the rain forest awoke.
Two capuchin monkeys chased each other across the pipeline road incessantly.
Fast moving crimson chested woodpecker, could not get him well as he was far away. Check out his eye!
We crossed a few bridges
that did not look too stable.
And saw thorny trees.
We were told you could see the pipeline along the trail but onlt saw it once in our trek.
We were being chaperoned on the trip by a howler monkey.
Slaty backed forest falcon flew in to make an appearance.
Mike focusing on his animal sightings!!
No idea what this bird is either but extremely colorful when he flew.
Parrot, really far away.
We were fortunate enough to pickup a guide, agouti, half way through the ascent.
Black-cheeked Woodpecker
The capuchin monkeys settled in for breakfast.
Color was limited to green and this red flower close to the ground. The tops of trees had some purple and yellow flowers as well.
Dragonfly for me
and a lizard for Mike.
Astrapes fulgerator
Leaf cutters hard at work clearing the debris from howler monkeys.
We did not complete the 34km hike but went about 5 1/2 hours.
We saw 4 blue morpho butterflies that are nearly impossible for me to capture on film. They flew fast and darted around. He is in the photo but blurry and small.
We returned to our origin and spotted a family of ring tailed coati feeding off a palm tree.
Awesome morning hike!!
No comments:
Post a Comment