| This page was created in response to friends who seem to have a hard time keeping track of my frequent changes of venue. Currently, this consists of a few simple maps and some descriptive text- I hope to gloss things up in the near future. For photos and journals from my most recently-completed excursions, check out my current trip page. Whenever possible I will add photos and written updates to this page during the course of my ongoing trip. although the limitations of technology and my personal energy often conspire to render this impractical! |
|
I'm about to embark on another grand adventure in Latin America; on June 26th I leave for two months in Panamá, with a side trip to
Trinidad and Guyana square in the middle of it all. More about South America later; I have a rather ambitious itinerary planned for my time in
Panamá. July is completely booked, and plans are afoot for August. After a brief (and social) stay in Panamá City I'll be heading to Gamboa
for a few days, staying with my dear friend Ivan Ortiz (Ivan's Bed-and-breakfast, Gamboa).
Then I'll move on to El Valle de Antón, where I will catch up for a few days with my regular Panamanian hosts, la familia Rodríguez.
Next I'm on to the rugged hills of El Copé, where I will connect with a fellow ex-pat American, a brillant woman named Julie Ray,
who studies reptiles of the region. She has begun the fund-raising process for the construction of a research center in El Copé ( check out the website),
and has established an eco-tourism organization serving the area (AGLAC Ecotours).
Then I move on to the lowlands, coastal town of Aguadulce for a couple of days, where I will sweat my tail off but enjoy the finest
Chinese food in Panamá! My next stop will be the lovely and tranquil town of Santa Fé de Veraguas, where I will join other
members of the Panamá Audubon Society on a birding field trip. I then return to Panamá City, where my mother, Patricia Allaire, will be
joining me for about a week-and-a-half. We'll spend a few days in Gamboa, a few more at The Canopy Lodge in El Valle (The Canopy Lodge website).
When Mom heads home for the U.S. I embark on my South American excursion- see below for details. All of this in less than 30 days!
My plans for the month of August are a bit more fluid; I expect, after a couple of days getting organized in Panamá City, to head west to Chiriquí Province, the most mountainous region in the country. After a brief stay in the western capital of Davíd I'll head north to the lovely town of Volcán, then hike across the Sendero Los Quetzales to Boquete. I'll likely spend a few days in Fortuna, on the Continental Divide en route to the Caribbean, and I plan to join a team of ornithologists from Colombia doing research near Changuinola, in Bocas del Toro Province. I'll then fly across the whole country to Sambú, in Darién Province, where I'll stay at a relatively-new lodge, the Sambú Hause (webiste here). Finally, I'm joining Audubon Panamá again for a field trip to Las Islas Frailes del Sur, a rocky set of islands off the southern coast of Los Santos Province, the southernmost part of Panamá. All of this is rather fluid, of course, but I plan to do my best to keep my Current Trip Page updated with my progress. Check below regarding my mid-summer detour to Trinidad and Guyana. |
On July 24th I'll be stepping away from Panamá for a couple of weeks to check out the birds of Trinidad, and then onwards to Guyana. I've been to Trinidad before, as part of my Caribbean Odyssey in July of 2001. I decided to spice things up by inviting a friend to come along as my treat. Harmodio (Moyo) Rodríguez of El Valle de Antón, Panamá will be joining me; Moyo is a birding guide for the Canopy Lodge, a dear friend, and fine birding company- when we work together we always seem to find something out-of-the-ordinary. This will be Moyo's first trip outside of Panamá, so he is justifiably excited. We'll be staying at the world-famous Asa Wright Nature Centre for four nights, and I expect that we will have a grand time. Asa Wright was kind enough to offer Moyo a complimentary stay as part of my nascent "Guides Exchange" program, whereby local guides at birding lodges would be offered free stays with their sister lodges to broaden their knowledge. I am most gratified by this gesture on behalf of the Asa Wright Nature Centre. On July 28th I'll be headed to Guyana (formerly British Guyana), the only English-speaking country in South America. This sparsely-populated country (fewer than one million people in an area twice the size of New York State) has recently begun to recognize the potential for the benefit of an eco-tourism industry. After a brief stay in the capital city of Georgetown I'll be moving on to the well-regarded Iwokrama Rainforest Center. After a few days at their main lodge they'll ship me off to their Canopy Walkway, a network of suspended bridges laid almost 100 feet of the forest floor. From there I will enjoy a brief stay in the Guyanan savannah at Rock View Lodge, a fine lodge run by an ex-pat Brit. I expect to find an extraodinary array of South American birds at all of these locations. Finally I'm back to Georgetown for a couple of nights at the lovely El Dorado Inn, taking a little time to see the city and to visit the local Botanical Gardens. Keep your eyes on these pages for a special journal regarding this trip to northern South America. |
