Panama Day 1: Hiking the Pipeline Road

We took a week off from work and headed to Panama - a destination chosen because we wanted to see the canal and there was a direct flight from Trinidad. If we stick with the "we'll go anywhere with a direct flight" strategy (which also took us to Suriname) our other vacation destinations would be Barbados, Venezuela and Guyana.

But the strategy has worked well so far - Panama City was a great city and it was just 20 minutes from hiking in the jungle. On our first full day we joined a birdwatching hike in Soberania National Park along the Pipeline Road. Our guide helped us spot monkeys, butterflies and lots of birds. He seemed most excited by the spotting of this black hawk which he thought was unusual for the area - but he seemed really blase about all the other hawks that we saw - along with toucans, flycatchers, and others.

We saw several packs of monkeys traveling through the treetops. They were most often in groups of ten. This is a white-faced capuchin monkey and we could hear howler monkeys during most of the walk.

Pretty flowers!


Smithsonian biologists making their morning rounds in the park



Early in the hike we encountered this trapped opossum, way up high in the trees. The critter and trap were gone when we returned. He was tagged and released, don't worry!





















Panama's beloved Harpy Eagle. This one was rescued from the chilly North American continent, where he was kept in an environment so cold part of his talon froze off. Now he lives in captivity at a fancy Sony-funded exhibit in the Botanical Gardens.

Panama City skyline