Traveling by the Dozen

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June 26th 2010

Published: June 26th 2010

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Shalea

Tower

From Allie

Sunday morning we were doing surprisingly well considering the night before. We did, however, take it very easy and get off to a slow and mellow start. At some point we decided to head to the old part of Panama City and check it out.

Between the rental van and Miguel’s car we managed to get all of the family and the friends from Michigan to a museum. It then took us a ridiculous amount of time to decide what to do from there. This is where we decided that from then on we would only leave the house with one plan. Trying to make decisions with this many people is not easy and doing it while standing outside in the sticky heat is just makes people crabby!

Some people stayed to check out the museum. Others of us went to an artisan market nearby and passed the time looking at molas and other goods. Afterward we met up and climbed up and around the tower and other ruins of Panamá Viejo (the old Panama City that was burned down by the pirate Henry Morgan). We all went to dinner together at a vegan Chinese food place that was

Hiking

From Uncle Don

delicious—especially the “weed balls” made from watercress greens. I even bought an extra plate of food to take back and eat later. It’s all about getting protein where I can--and stocking up.

Monday morning we had one plan and one plan only. That way we could get it done. Heather had to leave at mid day so we were going walking in the rainforest at the Parque Nacional Soberanía. We went to the ranger type station where you pay, and fill out random information. They gave me the paperwork for organized groups (yeah, we recognize that we’d proved ourselves not organized at all!) and I got to tell them how many people we had in each of a great many random age ranges. (57-62 was one of them, for example). We got a recommendation for where to hike and headed off.

The walk we took was on a well marked path that was actually a road through the trees. We were occasionally passed by vehicles with researchers and such in them. We were on the look out for sloths, but despite Allie spotting a questionable black blob (which was surely just a termite nest) we didn’t see any.

Ruins

From Allie

We did see some beautiful butterflies, wasps and other interesting bugs. We also heard lots of different birds and, howler monkeys. They are loud and make quite a ferocious sound!

One of the most interesting things we saw was the leaf cutter ants. They are everywhere so you don’t really think much of them carrying their huge leaf pieces across the path in front of you, but to stop and watch them is really fascinating, especially when you find where they’re cutting from on a leaf. You can watch as they cut around a section of the edge of the leaf (a section often much larger than they themselves are) and then sort of grab on to it at the end before it falls. Then they carry this leave piece down the plant and fall in step with all the other hundreds (thousands maybe?) of ants in a trail back to their colony. A couple of days later on Isla Barro Colorado we would learn about how they clean their own trail through the forest because they use it repeatedly. It’s very cool as well, but at this time we didn’t know to watch for their ant made trail

Sensitive plant--it closes up when you touch it

From Elissa and Jeff

into the forest.

After our hike we took a trip to the grocery store and I was truly amazed by all the stuff they have. Everything from Silk soy milk to Amy’s canned organic soups. Like, wow! Anyway, we went nuts and Elissa, Uncle Don and I bought a ton of food. That evening a bunch of us went for a swim in the pool by the apartment. Then Aleyda (Miguel’s mom) came over, she’s always super fun and Jeff grilled chicken and veggies and we ate outside. It was very nice and relaxing.

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