GAMBOA, PANAMA - 1 - 7 OCTOBER 2017

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GAMBOA, PANAMA - 1 - 7 OCTOBER 2017





We flew into Panama from Nicaragua and the flight was really quick and easy taking under an hour and half - a really short journey for us. It was a speedy process through customs as well and we soon had our luggage off the rack and wandered outside to meet up with our driver who was waiting for us.





The journey to Gamboa was also quick and easy and about an hour after we set off we reached an iron and wood bridge crossing the Chagres River which is the only access road into Gamboa our destination. This old bridge was well past its ‘sell by date’ and falling apart, vehicles waited patiently at the traffic lights to cross since it is only capable of providing space for one lane of traffic at a time and the road across was badly potholed. The narrow bridge also has a single lane rail track running parallel with the road, the Panama Canal Railroad was completed in 1855 but made no stops in the Gamboa area at that time. Our driver told us that in December 2010 the bridge was the site of massive flooding with huge floating islands passing under the bridge. Trees rammed into the bridge caused more damage and the flood led to the temporary closure of the Panama Canal and the road and rail links causing chaos.



We noticed a few yards up the river that a new bridge was being constructed with massive concrete bridge supports strategically placed across the river, waiting for the bridge to link them altogether - this should make it easier and faster to cross in the not too distant future.



As we waited at the traffic lights we saw a large ship appear from nowhere and cruise past us - the road and railway line run parallel here with the Panama Canal - quite weird seeing this massive ship pass by whilst we were sat waiting for our turn to cross the bridge.





PANAMA CANAL



The renowned Panama Canal is an artificial 50 mile waterway that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean cutting across the Isthmus of Panama and is a key maritime trade route.



France began work on the Canal in 1881 but stopped due to engineering problems and a high workforce mortality rate, with many workers dying of malaria and other diseases. The USA took over the project in 1904 and opened the Canal just 10 years later in August 1914. The canal greatly reduced the time ships had to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans enabling them to avoid the lengthly and hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drakes Passage or the Strait of Magellan. It was amazing to think that we had completed this very same journey ourselves a few months ago travelling from Buenos Aires in Brazil to Valparaiso in Chile around these very same waters.





To join the two oceans there are locks at each end that amazingly lift the huge ships up to Gatun Lake which is 85 feet above sea level and then the locks at the other end lower the ships back down to sea level. A two-step flight at Miraflores, and a single flight at Pedro Miguel, lift ships from the Pacific up to the Lake, the ship then crosses the 19 mile waters and then a triple flight at Gatun lowers them back down to the Atlantic side. The whole trip from one ocean to the other takes between 8-10 hours but saves the ship 8000 miles going around the treacherous Cape Horn.



Gatun Lake was at one point the largest man-made lake in the world, and vital to the existence of the Panama Canal which drastically reduced the amount of excavation work require when building the Canal. The original locks were 110 feet wide, ample for the boats of the day but with bigger and bigger ships the locks needed to be updated as they were far to narrow. So between 2007 and 2016 wider locks were built alongside the existing ones to accommodate the huge ships of today.





Depending on size and weight of vessel, a private yacht’s toll is about £1500 whilst the average commercial ship would cost around £115,000 to transit the canal one way, Huge sums but the cost is still a lot less than it would be to sail around South America … … and all that extra time involved as well. The cheapest toll ever paid to travel the canal was 36 cents in 1928 by Richard Halliburton, who swam the length of the canal! The draft of vessels using the canal is limited to 40 feet whist the lake is at 85 feet. Now controlled by the Panama Canal Authority annual traffic has risen from about 1000 ships in 1914 to over 900,000 passing through the canal waters bringing in a very nice earner for the country.



Surprisingly the current Nicaraguan President made recent headlines news around the world when he announced that a Chinese firm was going to build a new Canal turning his country into a global shipping power overnight which of course would also have a very different outcome for the Panama Canal itself!







CANOPY B&B



After passing the Canal we soon arrived at our accommodation. We were staying at Canopy B&B, a 5 bedroomed wooden canal house in the town of Gamboa. It was within walking distance of the Panama Canal but also offered brilliant opportunities to spot wildlife being surrounded by primary rainforests, so should keep both Paul and me happy for a while. With a backdrop of the Cerro Pelado reaching up behind the B&B and lots of hiking trails into the mountains we were looking forward to our stay in the old ‘company’ town.







GAMBOA



The town of Gamboa has seen so many changes in its brief lifetime. It was initially built near the site of the former local village of Santa Cruz on a sharp bend of the flooded Chagres River, nestled between the Panama Canal and rainforest of Soberanía National Park. Further south and the lake and the river meet the Galliard Cut where the Canal cuts through the Continental Divide. So although Gamboa is closer to the Pacific side of Panama, its watershed is on the Atlantic side … …



The town was primarily built in 1911 during the Canal construction phase and was initially populated with about 700 workers and their dependants. By 1914 when the Canal was completed the town then decreased drastically to under 200 residents. In the mid 1930s the Canal Dredging Division wanted to move its base to the area as Gamboa’s strategic location about half way along the Canal enabled the dredging and maintenance to be carried out more efficiently. The US Congress finally approved a fund of 2.7 million dollars for the construction of the new town of Gamboa. The project included schools, post office, fire station, police station, clinic, theatre, sports complex and 6 churches for the different denominations. The wooden multi-family houses that comprised the main street housed white American families and part of the interior for some of these houses were constructed with wood from the giant Sequoia trees from the north coast of California. The dredging division workers and their families started arriving in the town and the town became alive once again on a grander scale to its past. These new residents built their own Civic Centre and the Gamboa Golf and Country Club with their own hands and funds. The men doing the building and the women supplying food and drink for the workers as they constructed the buildings. The Club was opened on 1st January 1939 and eventually included a nine hole golf course - within six years the town reached its peak with around 4000 residents.



With the outbreak of war US military personnel and their families lived in Gamboa due to shortage of housing on the local military bases. The life of the town was not to last though as over time the Panama Canal Company and the Canal Zone Government began to transfer some of their operations and with the demise of the Panama Railroad in the late 80s the town started to become a ‘ghost town’ again even though US personnel continued living there until the withdrawal of troops from Panama in 1999. The schools with their dwindling numbers (down to 40 students in 1988) closed and the few children remaining were bussed out to nearby schools.



So, its heyday has long gone, still inhabited, but as a shadow of its former self, without the vibrancy and spirit it must of once enjoyed. It was quite surreal walking around the area and seeing all these closed up buildings, which were once the centre focus of the town slowly falling into decay. The central roads and pavements covered in debris from the trees, the street signs slowly fading, the large green parks with stone seats and picnic areas covered in weeds, childrens' playgrounds with the swings all broken, the wooden Stadium overlooking the playing fields falling apart, now home though to many birds. The Schools long closed, the steps inside covered in moss which must have once had the pounding of so many feet up those steps into the classrooms. The Catholic Church still had a large stone cross outside and an empty icon shrine on the side but the walls were falling in and covered in wire to keep people out. The town Swimming Pool with its numbered lane markers was still full of water but ‘brown water’, we think it was being used by the local firemen as a giant holding water tank for emergencies in the town and on the canal docks across the road. It was funny reading the ‘safety’ signs; Walk, No Necking, No Rough Play but sad to see all this emptiness.



There is still some life in the town and a newer Church near the canal as Gamboa still remains the primary headquarters of the Dredging Division of the Panama Canal Authority. During the week there were still plenty of workers around judging by the number of cars parked around the Canal Docks but most seem to come in from the city which is only 45 minutes away and not live in the town itself. During the week two local Soda vans park outside the docks serving local Panamanian fare to the workers but close at the weekend when they have all gone back to the city.





There is a long street leading up to the Rainforest Resort Hotel from the river and canal with an avenue of large wooden houses well spaced apart, this was the main street which originally housed white American families, the location on the ridge of the Cerro Santa Cruz gave them a lovely view over the Chagres River and easy access to all the recreation facilities as well. The houses are still being maintained on the outside and freshly painted in four different shades of colours. They look magnificent until you get up close and see that many have their ceilings falling down inside, although a few seemed to be occupied by caretakers on the ground level. They all had large carports on the ground floor underneath the main house which were being used to store large rowing boats. At the weekend we saw these boats being towed down to the Chargres River for a weekend of fun by people coming into Gamboa from the city.







Some of the housing in Gamboa is being utilised by scientists, technicians and students associated with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They have many different projects running in the town and on nearby Barro Colorado Island. Their mission being to increase understanding of the past, present and future of tropical biodiversity and its relevance to human welfare. We passed one such project, bizarrely opposite the crumbling walls of the old long abandoned Catholic Church. Alongside the road were several large glass dome structures - think Eden Project in Cornwall if you have visited the gardens there. The institute built these solar domes to simulate extreme future climate scenarios and enable them to tell what will be the ‘tipping point’ for tropical plants in the future and hopefully enable them to do something!







With the demise of residents Gamboa's golf course became a Boy Scout Camp for several years until the Rainforest Resort was built on it. The resort has in turn developed two local Indian reservations (Embera & Wounaa) and many other attractions to try and bring new life into the sleepy town. I must admit we did not see much life whilst we were visiting but we were ‘out of season’ - it maybe a different place during the busy season. In the past Gamboa must have been a very pleasant place to live judging by all the infrastructure there had been for the residents, who in turn had the stunning rainforests, canal and rivers all around them.





PIPELINE ROAD, GAMBOA



We set off early one morning from our B&B to hike hopefully part of Pipeline Road, as it was quite a walk just to reach its entrance point. We finally arrived at a small hut (tin roof hanging off) with a sign saying $5 to enter but no-one was about so we walked on … … … The track was good, quite flat but a little muddy which was a mecca for many noisy Frogs, some as small as my little finger nail - they would soon hop off though as they heard your footsteps approach. We saw and heard plenty of birds too as well as the much stronger and deeper call of the Howler Monkey but did not see them. It was hot and humid which was the pretty usual weather pattern and you could not walk far without being soaking wet. The skies were overcast and it was very dark inside the forest canopy as we walked along the muddy road not meeting anyone else - we were glad though that the sun was not out.



The Pipeline Road was actually built as an access road across the isthmus of the country as a precautionary measure during World War 2, in the event that the Panama Canal was shut down or attacked. It was never used, and remnants of the pipeline are still visible in the forest today. Over the years this 17km road has been engulfed by the lowland tropical rainforest of the Caribbean slope of Panama and is now renowned as one of the best birding areas in Panama. It is home to 400 species of birds as well as an abundance of mammals, reptiles, amphibians and insects and also the reason we were visiting Gamboa hoping to see the wildlife in the rainforest.





We walked for ages along the pipeline before deciding to branch off towards the entrance to the Panama Rainforest Discovery Centre within Soberania National Park. This had a large entrance building with some signage detailing birds you may find but again this was all boarded up and there was a rope across the road to stop any vehicles going any further. The entrance fee was $30 but we walked under the rope and carried on as again there was no-one about to take our money … … …





We finally saw two other people viewing a bird high up in the canopy through a scope and we chatted for a while before moving on to try and find the Tower located within the centre - they were surprised that there was no one about as well. We came to another boarded up Visitor Centre and outside there were several Hummingbird feeders. We stopped to watch them speeding passed into the canopy and back to the feeders and we saw three new species of Hummingbirds that we had not seen before. Sadly it was so dark and the humidity so bad that the camera could not cope and just gave up . ……



Again no-one was around but a map on the wall indicating where the tower was located. So we followed the trail and soon came across the metal 100 foot tower which extended high above the forest canopy. We climbed and climbed around and around but again we were disappointed as we did not get to see much at the top - all the birds must have been hiding from the damp overcast skies and by now we were exhausted … … … so headed back down and took the long walk back along the pipeline road which seemed to have got much longer now!







AMMO PONDS



We made several hikes alongside the canal which led to what is called the Ammo Ponds which a little further on fed into the Pipeline Road. During World War II when the US had control of the Panama Canal they stored ammunition in bunkers to protect the canal from the Japanese. It was in this military zone (called the Canal Zone), which is about 10 miles on both sides of the canal, where they dug a bunch of ponds so they would have easy access to water in case of fire. The US of course are long gone but the ponds remain and now provide a brilliant small wetland - we saw many birds around this area including some very large Herons and Northern Jacanas as well as the Wattled Jacana which we had never seen before. All around the area there were also so many beautiful Butterflies and we even saw the amazing Blue Morphe on the outskirts of the rainforest and in the garden of our B&B. Butterflies and Moths can be found in almost every ecosystem and there are estimated to be over a quarter of a million species worldwide and hundreds of these can be found in Panama and other Central American countries - we have certainly seen and enjoyed watching many different species on this journey.



Whilst I was watching for birds and butterflies at the Ammo Ponds, Paul would be watching for the large ships cruising down the Canal. With just the railway line between the ponds and the canal one could get a good view whichever way you looked … …





BIRDS AND OTHER WILDLIFE OF GAMBOA



We were in Gamboa for a week and we walked every day and saw such a huge variety of birds along the Pipeline Road and the Ammo Ponds including;



Summer, Crimson-backed, Blue-gray and Palm Tanagers, Red-crowned Ant-Tanager, Red-legged Honeycreeper, Red-crowned Woodpecker, Clay-coloured Thrush, Orange-chinned Parakeet, Blue-crowned Motmot, Rufous-tailed Hummingbird, Cocoa Woodcreeper, Variable and Yellow-bellied Seedeaters, Great Kiskadee, Streaked Flycatcher, Social Flycatcher, Yellow-margined Flycatcher, Grey-breasted Martin, Mangrove Swallow, House Wren, Fiery-billed Acarari, Northern Jacana, Greyish Saltator, Osprey, Baltimore Oreole, Green Heron, Grey-headed Chachalaca, Black-headed and Slaty-tailed Trogons and the beautiful Keel-billed Toucan.





We even saw so many new birds that we had never seen before including;



Wattled Jacana, Southern Lapwing, Dickcissel, Mealy Parrot, Tropical Mockingbird, White-necked Jacobin, Paltry & Yellow-crowned Tyrannulets, Golden-headed, White-shoulder & Plain-collared Tanagers, Little Tinamou, Streaked Saltator, Long-billed Gnatwren, Western & Eastern Kingbirds,Yellow-bellied Seedeater and Red-crowned Woodpecker.



We also saw a pair of White-necked Puffbirds perched on a high tree and thought they looked like Kookaburras but no we were not in Oz, so we looked them up when we got home and found out they were Puffbirds. Another bird that was really colourful and we had not seen before was the Green Honeycreeper - although I would have named it the Turquoise Honeycreeper.



One of favourite moments though was when we heard the sound of an Owl just outside our B&B, we were joined by Jorge who was just as excited as us as we watched this giant Spectacle Owl gaze down at us before flying off.



That was most of the birds we could recognise there were many that we could not. As well as many birds, the garden and surrounding forests attracted a few mammals, although sadly we did not get to see a Geoffroy's Tamarin, also known as the Panamanian Red-crested or Rufous-naped tamarin, a type of small monkey, found only in Panama and Colombia. However every day we did see South American Coatis, Varigated Squirrels and lots of Central American Agouti. All of them visiting the garden to try and steal the fruit put out for the birds. It was fun watching them approach the bird table, of course the Agouti could not get on top as they cannot climb but would wait patiently underneath for the birds to drop something. Whilst the Coatis were able to climb up on top of the table and if there was not enough pickings left would then crawl under the lid of the nearby compost heap, spend ages inside before popping their heads out and wandering off again, only to return a few hours later hoping to find yet more tasty scraps that the staff had dropped inside.







CANOPY B&B OVERVIEW



We enjoyed our time at the Canopy B&B it was ideally located for both viewing the Canal and the wildlife. It was spotlessly clean and all painted white inside with white bedding and curtains. The windows had mesh to keep the insects out and let some air flow through which was great and an added bonus was the air conditioning which you really needed.



We only met a few people staying at the B&B and we were usually on our own so had the whole place to ourselves for the majority of the time. We met a family from Germany who stayed two nights and it was great as we could communicate with someone at last and spent a pleasant evening chatting to them. When they left we were joined by four Spanish ladies who also stayed two nights but again communicating was not easy, although we laughed a lot with them using hand signals etc etc, apart from that there were no other guests - just us and the changing member of staff (like changing the guard I suppose!)





What didn’t we like about Canopy B&B - the constant change of staff for one, they were all very friendly but there was no ‘host’ as a different member of staff would arrive by bus each day, they would prepare our breakfast, place fruit on the bird tables in the garden, change the beds and clean as well as carry out any maintenance work - one guy painted the walls outside on his shift . …… In the evening they would cook their own dinner in the kitchen and would sleep in one of the downstairs rooms, locking the main door at 0930pm hours - luckily we were in bed early so this did not matter to us. Most of the staff only spoke Spanish so it was hard to chat to them which was a shame - we really must try and learn a little more Spanish…. Apart from Jorge Pineda that was as he had a good command of the English language and luckily for us he came back several days and was most helpful, he was in training to be a Bird Guide for the Canopy Family Group.



Canopy B&B is part of what is called the ‘Canopy Family Group’ and they have another couple of lodges in Panama, one quite near which is located in the forest canopy in an old Radar Station called Canopy Tower. We would have like to have stayed there as it is a good birding area being higher up in the forest but the cost was extortionate, selling mainly packages for birders. They even wanted $99 per person for us to visit for the day from the B&B which was only a few miles away so we declined, we had seen so much in the area in any event.



Finding good healthy food was another problem in Gamboa. On our first night we had pre-booked dinner at the B&B which was $22 plus 13 percent per head and this had been deducted from our credit card before we even arrived!! I could not eat the food, it had been brought in ready cooked from somewhere, probably their nearby sister hotel, Canopy Tower. As we waited we could see nothing being prepared and then we heard the memorable sound of the ‘ping’ of the microwave … … by the chap ‘in charge’. When it arrived the starter consisted of, just lettuce with some sort of slimy melted cheese dolloped on top … … Before we had finished or tried to eat this, the main course arrived, which was basically two dried and leathery, what we think were gammon chops but could have been anything, lumpy white rice, some sort of mixed lentils and plantain in a sweet mustard yellow sauce - just ugghh. The sweet course consisted of chopped up melon - I was hungry but not that hungry. The ‘good news’ was that it came with a ‘free’ bottle of red wine and I am afraid we did finish this but not the food so went to bed a little hungry but very merry anyway … …. We actually felt sorry for the guy who served it as he did not have a clue on what to do and we could not communicate with him in any event, although I think he realised when he asked us if we had finished and our plates were still full … …





After that we never ordered a meal again and walked to the nearby five star Gamboa Rainforest Resort mentioned above. We mainly ate their bar food, as the restaurants were overly priced for what you got, so we existed on fast foods for our stay - the bar though had a great view over the Chargres River and good red wine so not all was lost .…… The cost of living in Panama is high and much more than we would pay for similar fare in the UK. On our last night we remembered we had some dried pasta left over from our last accommodation so that day headed down to the small shop in the town.



There is only one small grocery store for the whole of Gamboa and this was run by an oldish man who loved Parrots - you walk in the store which is inside a terraced house and in the middle of the shop floor was a cage with a couple of noisy parrots covered in a blanket - they did get put outside if the weather was OK - not conducive with buying food though!! When we first visited we thought that someone was talking to us …. … Anyway we did manage to find the last jar of pasta sauce in the whole of the shop (and it was in date).



So we enjoyed our last meal in Gamboa cooked by ourselves in the B&B kitchen. There was no other guests and the staff member on duty that evening said he was going to eat later so we had free reign and of course cleared away afterwards. Plain pasta and a jar of tomato sauce which cost us pennies but was much nicer than anything we had eaten during out stay.





Dogs was another thing we did not like in Gamboa, they barked constantly as there were several homes by the B&B and they were allowed to wander whilst their owners were at work. One day we arrived back at the B&B and found a young girl crying on the bench overlooking the bird feeding tables. We rushed over and could see that she had a bad dog bite on her leg and she was trying to clean it with a bit of gauze. Two of the male staff were stood around holding up some plaster they had found but were not helping, obviously unsure what to do and the bite was on the top of her thigh so they were probably to scared to help her. I took over and managed to cover the bite with clean gauze, held together with the tape but said she must get it checked at a hospital as it did not look good and I was concerned about Rabies and infections. She was a sweet girl from Columbia and was working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and said the two guys had been great as she had no First Aid kit in her home next door and they had managed to find some gauze and tape. She lived in her bosses house attached to our B&B and she was just walking home from work on the road and the dog ran at her and started biting her. A while later a neighbour who knew the dog’s owner arrived and transported her to the hospital in their car. She came to thank me the next day and said that she had been lucky as the dog did not have rabies and although she was still very shocked she had been treated well at the hospital with fresh dressings and given the necessary injections against infection and any reaction to the bite. A couple of days later we saw her again, her leg was still sore but improving and she was smiling and said her sister from Columbia was coming over to see her.





GAMBOA OVERVIEW



We walked through the old town many times and spent time sitting on a grass bank high above the Canal by an old lighthouse and watched the large ships with the pilot boat leading them as they made their way up and down the water. We were hoping to make the transit from one ocean to the other whilst we were here but sadly could not fit it in to our time frame but were happy to be able to sit and watch the ships cruise down the canal, particularly when two crossed each other coming from the different oceans right in front of us.



Alongside the canal the Panama Railway engines would hoot and pass by at the same time with their numerous carriages carrying containers with who knows what to an unknown destination. One day a huge Yellow-headed Caracara flew on to the railway line with part of a snake that had been killed on the road, he was lucky a train did not go passed or he would have joined the snake!











MOVING ON



On our last full day in Gamboa, Jorge said he would walk with us around the area when he finished his shift. He was training to be a bird guide and had some good knowledge on where to find different species and wanted to show us. And, indeed we were so lucky as we were only out for about two hours but saw many small birds that we would not have found on our own and Jorge new the names of them all and could mimic many of their calls as well.



We wandered past the Ammo Ponds and up to the entrance to the Pipeline Road. Walking with him quietly around the area we got a shock when all of a sudden he started clapping loudly and we heard a mimicking sound coming from the thick forest - inside we could see a beautiful yellow and black bird which he told us was a Golden-collared Manakin. I did try to get a photograph but we were being attacked by ‘a band’ of horrid biting mosquitoes so made a quick exit and only managed a very blurred shot - but we had seen this unique bird in its own environment. Just before we got back to the Canal we spotted two Keel-billed Toucans high up in the canopy - magic.







We finally said goodbye to Jorge alongside the Panama Canal, he was heading home as he had a day off and lived in the town of Colón on the Caribbean coastline so had a long journey with two ferries and a bus to get home. He only had one day off a week so was looking forward to some ‘downtime’. We were lucky as we had so many ‘days off’ and headed back to our B&B and enjoyed our own prepared pasta dish and had an early night - tomorrow we are moving on to El Valle, Coclé which is the central province of Panama - so see you there.

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Photos

Wind turbine blades ...
cruising down the Panama Canal

Panama Canal and road/rail bridge linking Gamboa
Chagres River flowing in from left

Old Swimming Pool - Gamboa
Walk, No Necking, No Rough Play

Old Town - Gamboa
Looking good on the outside only

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Solar Domes to simulate extreme future climate scenarios.

Rainforest Resort - Gamboa
Overlooking Chagres River

Pipeline Road
Entrance Gate

Green Honeycreeper (male)
should be renamed Turquoise!

Red-legged Honeycreepers (male)
Non breeding (green) & breeding (blue)

New Church - Gamboa
Love the sign ...

Yellow-headed Caracara
Landing on the Panama Rail line

Lighthouse
Looking out over the Canal

Gamboa
a not so busy roundabout now

Comments

[Ake Och Emma]

Nice butterfly
Since you have a picture of a butterfly and you are nature lovers I have to ask you two questions: 1 Have you visited the Monarch Butterfly Reserve in Mexico? If not I can recommend it. I wasn't there at the best time of the year but it was still awesome. 2 Have you ever seen when the Periodical Cicadas "erupt" in North America? If yes, I'd like to know more about that. /Ake

[silvernomads]

Butterfly
Hi Ake - Thanks for your nice comments and no we have been to Mexico many years ago but did not see the Monach Butterflys although we have friends who are heading out that way this month. Sorry but we have not ever seen the Periodical Cicadas "erupt" in North America but hope that you are able to do so soon. Paul and Sheila

[D MJ Binkley]

Panama
Beautiful, beautiful.

[silvernomads]

Blue-crowned MotMot
Totally agree such a beautiful bird as are all of the motmot species and we have just been lucky enough to see a Rufous Motmot yesterday but it was in the deep shade of the rainforest and we could not get a good enough photo.