Coffee, Costa Rica, and Rolling Home (Saturday)

Once again, we got up early, though not quite as early.  I headed to the showers first of all, and there were the Ngobe women getting ready for their days.  I returned to the room and packed everything up - not difficult since I never really unpacked.  The guys took all of our luggage out to the bus before breakfast and we trooped to breakfast.

Then we climbed in the bus and went on our way.  Onto the Pan American highway and into David's outskirts where we picked up Anna who was to guide us today and several professors from UTP-Chiriqui in David.  Then we climbed up into the mountains again.  This time, Elba had an antiemetic from Anna which really helped her endure the climb.  Winding and laboring up, then quickly heading down just to turn and climb again.  Once again, no AC - except in the rainy bits.

We arrived in Rio Sereno in sunshine.  I recognized the main street - the shops, the people, the traffic.  It felt really good to be returning somewhere that I knew.  We turned up to the border patrol and the official border crossing.  There, we immediately all queued up for the one toilet in the border patrol!  How funny!

While they were waiting, several of the lads posed with one of the Border police.

We walked up the muddy road to a station similar to the one we went to yesterday, except that this one was on the Costa Rican side of the border.  It was still under construction.  There, Anna explained what they were doing there.

Then we trooped back down to the border crossing, where we posed as a group.  Those photos are supposedly in a shared Dropbox folder and I'll add one once I have it.  But for the moment, these will have to suffice.

From there, we walked down and into Rio Sereno itself.  Some of the kids picked up snacks at one of the many M/S stores.

(It was the best photo of the parrot, not
of the woman, however)

Then we climbed back in the bus for our final descent.

Down we went, not stopping at the coffee fields as we had hoped because by now it was late, and the rain had started in earnest, no longer a gentle drizzle but rather an energetic downpour.

We reached David and dropped off our local colleagues, and then hurried back to get as far as we could before nightfall.  Unfortunately we didn't make it as far as we would have liked.  We bumped and slewed and shuddered across Chiriqui and then on into Veraguas where we took a brief pit stop in Santiago again before we hustled back on the bus to make tracks.

On through the dark we rode.  I had decided to make bracelets for the girls on the trip and was almost done, but I worked most of the way across the country to get them all done in time.

As the time grew later and later, it seemed that we sped up.  And so we did.  The driver was only authorized to drive the UTP bus until midnight!  So we raced the clock. And pulled into the entrance to UTP at exactly midnight!  By this time, the gates were already locked, and most of the people who were there to pick us up were locked in.  But with our arrival, they opened the gates and let us all out.

Wonderful Elba's cousin and aunt had driven to pick us up and they delivered me to my doorstep.  A long but fruitful journey.

Golden frogs and golden showers

Today was a fabulous day - even though it's David's last day in Panama <sniffle>

Rogelio took us to El Valle de Anton.  He picked us up at O'dark:30 (aka 8 am), still in his cast since the doctor delayed taking it off by a week.  He was understandably annoyed.

We sped off on the Pan American Highway, crossing the Centennial Bridge and then heading off into the countryside.  There were a lot of billboards that are now "Disponible" (for rent) - recently vacated by the political parties, although there are also a lot of flags and other signs that remain.  It seemed from an unscientific view that many - even most - of these were for Jose Domingo Arias of the Cambio Democrático, or  CD Party.  This is the party that would have been heir to the current government and that even included the current President's wife as Arias' Vice Presidential running mate.  I mentioned this to Rogelio who said that complaints about this had recently aired on TV.

I hadn't really noticed how many new developments there are just outside Panama City - or how many properties are for sale even without new development.  It's kind of insane.  In other places - like Colorado for instance - development has spoiled many special places and homes have often remained vacant or unsold.  It is too bad that this appears to be happening here in Panama, although it is certainly understandable that people want to live in these lovely places.

We turned off on the road to El Valle and twisted and turned our way up to the lip of the ancient (and extinct) volcano that encircles El Valle.

This way!

It claims to be the only inhabited volcano and it is the only remaining place that the incredibly rare (actually critically endangered) Panamanian Golden Frogs live.  Or lived.

Although it is hard to see,
the yellowish blob on the
right is a Golden Frog

Although Golden Frogs have extremely toxic skin to protect themselves, they are threatened by both habitat destruction and, more importantly, by a fungal infection that has all but wiped the species out in the wild.  They are now kept in captivity to protect them from this fungus.  Unfortunately, they cannot be reintroduced into the wild at this time because there is no cure for the fungus that remains rampant in the wild.

Luckily, captive populations, including in El Valle, are thriving.  The San Diego zoo also has a Golden Frog Conservation Program which both breeds the amphibians and also sends money to Panama to assist them in their conservation efforts.  In addition, the Houston Zoo has provided money to fund the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center.  We were able to see this elusive animal at El Nispero Zoo and Botanical Garden.

Other frogs and toads (actually the Golden "Frog" is a toad) included these fellows:

A green poison dart frog whose
skin is so toxic it will kill you if you touch it
(although apparently, poison dart frogs
in captivity are less toxic due to diets that
don't include the things that make them
toxic in the wild)

This sleepy fellow was sitting
on a leaf.  Many of the others
were hidden or in places that
didn't lend themselves to
photography.

The center also has a number of plants for sale.  There were many that were simply gorgeous.

The organization uses the proceeds from the sale of these plants to help support that entire enterprise.


In addition to plants for sale, the organization also grafts different plants together to create interesting and unusual results.

There are also many birds.  I quickly lost count of them and forgot their names but I took photos for my birding friends.  For instance, look at the following beauties.

 Many, even most of them are not native to Panama, instead coming from China, like the Golden Pheasant on the right,  India, like the peacocks - here in full display, although in neither case did their display appear to be working for them as the peahens simply milled around them, totally ignoring them, and Africa, like the ostrich below.

 

OK, he's not exactly a beauty,
but he sure was friendly

 The parrots and hawks were native to Panama, however.  There were also many other lovely lorikeets and parrots, including Scarlet Macaws and Blue & Gold Macaws, who were too shy for photos.

And then there were the animals.  Monkeys and an ocelot (who insisted on continuing to snooze while whipping his tail in annoyance at the kids' noise) and others.

 


And then there was the tapir.

As we stood admiring the tapir, it came over as if to greet us.  But it quickly turned its back on us and sprayed David.  Whether it was threatened by him, or jealous of him (although I'm not sure that says anything good about either of us) or marking him as his own, or something else, he gave David a rather stinky "Golden Shower"!

Shocked, as you can imagine, but thinking quickly (of course!), David ripped off the sprayed shirt so it would not smell up the rest of his clothes.  The guide told him to wash it in the small waterfall leading from the Wishing Pond.  I'm pretty sure we both were wishing that the tapir had remained uninterested and had quietly stayed on the other side of the cage.  I would gladly have foregone a photo to avoid this rather nasty experience.

There were still a few opportunities for photos of us and of the guide.

We bid adieu to the guide and headed to the Craft Market.  There, we saw (but resisted) many interesting and beautiful things.  And many uninteresting and ugly things too.  We were well able to resist because we are definitely "Over-Stuffed" at home.  It was good to remember, as David mentioned to me (and as I had already thought), we had just gotten rid of many similar things - like wooden bowls and platters and tchotchkes.

There were some local pastries and candies however.  David got some yummy cookies and I got milk candies for my colleagues at work.  It started to sprinkle just as we got back into the car.

And then it started to rain in earnest.  Big, fat drops fell increasingly fast and, after a few minutes of driving around the area, we decided to head homewards.

David, who slept very little last night, fell asleep almost immediately as the car swayed from side to side as Rogelio drove up to and along the rim of the volcano and then down the other side.

When we arrived home, David washed his shirt by hand, and then we washed it along with the regular clothes.  And luckily, the entire load didn't become "Tapir-ized"!