MORE CLOD LIFE IN PANAMA

Photos and Film are at end of report!

Little Night Monkey

CONGO CARNIVAL IN PORTOBELO

Portobelo is famous for the Black Christ Festival and also for the Congo Carnival a most unique and colorful folklore. The traditional dances and the interpretation of the Afro-American culture are expressed with the Festival of dances of Devils and Congos of Colon. These dances have great historic value in the Afro-Panamanian culture.

The dance has very old African roots and is full of strong dance routines, rhythmic drum beats, music, colorful and often outrageous costumes, lavish masks, chants, magic, myth and songs. It is passed on from generation to generation, conserved to the present time where Afro-Panamanian legacy stays alive as part of its identity.

Congo is an upbeat Afro-Caribbean dance that has drummers, singers, and dancers. Usually, an elder woman leads the singing, and it is call and response type songs. Then the drums come in.

The Congos in Portobelo are descendants of the cimarrones; runaway slaves who fiercely fought for their freedom during the Spanish colonial time. The escaped cimarrones fled into the hills and rainforests and built fortified villages known as palenques from which they waged wars against their former enslavers. They were so successful in war that the Spaniards were forced to recognize their freedom. Today the Congos memorialize their ancestors during Congo Carnival in street performance of music dance and costumes.

It is a dance spectacle full of enchantment and spell that evokes fear and curiosity, in which men and women stage with dances, songs and drums. It’s an amazing ancestral drama of life and the fight between the good and evil.

Each community chooses Diablos with elaborate costumes and masks and they play during carnival. The idea of the Congo dance is that the characters represent the Congos and fight the devil that is said to be loose or unleashed during carnival. At the end they are saved by the queen of the Congos “Reina Conga”, with the help of little bird “Pajarito” and John God “Juan Dios”. This traditional dance exhibits fusion between the catholic religion and the Afro-Antillean cultures. 

Carnival is complete when all of the devils have been caught and baptized, thus cleansing the souls of the enslavers and the community as a whole of the evils of slavery.

It was an interesting cultural thing to witness but Cindy and I decided after you see one group you’ve seen them all, besides nobody warned me to bring some earplugs with me.

The road was filled with vendors selling jewelry and food. It was fun and definitely more enjoyable than the Black Christ Festival.

Back in Linton area, Jim and Heather on “Charmer” are in the process of building their house on their huge property. We heard the view was magnificent and of course wanted to see it for ourselves. We grabbed a cooler full of beer, wine, rum and coke and took the long dirt road to their driveway. The drive way up to their property seems endless with many turns through the dense jungle. The view from their house is more than magnificent as you can see the little islands off Puerto Lindo and also the Panamarina Marina. The house is going to look great with rounded walls and Heather told me that they will build a patio inside the mango tree to enjoy their morning coffee. The house will be run on solar panels and water comes from two streams, one on each side of the property. They are hoping to have a successful eco retreat for guests that love nature. No complaints about nature either, any wild animal that exists in Panama are daily visitor. Howler monkeys could be heard in the near distance and as the sun started to lower toward the horizon the sky filled with these weird looking birds all flying to one tree with minimal leaves and all settled in for the night. We could not believe our eyes when we recognized the long bills of Toucans. There must have been at least 30 of them and Heather said that is a daily occurrence, wow, amazing. This is a truly beautiful property.

Oli “the dog who belongs to many”. Nobody really knows who the real owner is. Oli chooses to freely come and go between Michelle and Francoise, Cindy and Reed, Binnie and now us as well. You never know when he shows up for his meals. One evening Oli showed up in the dark, way after doggy feeding time. While setting the food bowl in front of him a beam of light lit his face and ohmyghosh, poor doggie had a swollen nose I almost didn’t recognize him. We turned the light on immediately to investigate. Poor Oli got into a fight with who knows what, maybe another dog but we suspected a cuadimundi, he had bite marks all over. After he ate I took him downstairs and Sid and I put some chamomile compresses on his face. He must have been in mortal pain as he let us do it; he even pushed his nose into Sid’s hand which was holding the warm chamomile compress. We kept him for over a week until the wounds were healed enough.

Poor Oli used to such freedom did amazingly well on the leash and I truly enjoyed our twice a day walk through his territory which I tell you is huge, this dogs puts some miles behind him. I am speechless how much pee these dogs can hold in their bladder. He had to reclaim all his territory and unmark the dogs who had tried to claim it. After an hour or so walking and marking he ran out of pee, but no problem for him the next little stream he found he walked right into it and laid down and started drinkin. 15 minutes later he was up and marking again. He’s a real gigolo as every female came running up to him sniffing each “other’s” you know what doggies do. The boys on the other hand growled and some tried to attack. I had to kick one dog out of the way; Oli I think enjoyed it because he walked with tail high up tall and proud not leaving my side.

Tigre the friendly unfriendly cat, depends who it is, moved in with us. He loves the indoor life as he is not allowed indoors at Binnie’s. The funny thing with him is, he follows me down to our gate but before he comes through the gate he goes into the bushes and does his business before entering the house. We don’t have a litter box for him and yet he lets us know when it’s time for his business. And when he spends the night around 4 o’clock it’s his time to head out and he scratches gently on the sheet to wake us up. He’s a kewl cat and loves his toys which are spread all over the living room floor.

And then of course there is Dooger:

The animal life here is amazing. We had a two toed sloth in one of the trees on Binnie's property while in the tree next to our house a three toed sloth was sleeping. My 5 hummingbird feeders are swarmed with uncountable colorful hummingbirds emptying the containers in just a few hours. I have to fill them sometimes twice a day with sugar water.

Did you know that hummingbirds must eat more than their weight in food each day, so they eat often actually as often as 14 times? They continually face the danger of starving. Hummingbirds feed on a variety of flower nectars with caloric values that may vary from 10 to 82 calories per meal (1/1000 fluid ounce).

Imagine them finding a feeder is supernatural. A small, hungry hummingbird can solve its immediate requirements for food. The less sugar I add to the water the more a humming bird comes to eat about every 15 minutes. The more sugar I add the less they need to eat and the longer the feeder last until all sugar water is gone. Hummingbirds might very quickly starve to death if it does not eat in a short time.

They eat during the day and fortunately they can lower their body temperature over night to conserve energy like hibernating mammals. They only do so if there is the danger that they actually may starve. Having found this info I add extra sugar to their feeder to make it easier.

On a trip to Colon a Toucan almost collided with the windshield of my car. He was being pursued by three little birds; he must have raided their nest. Toucans may look beautiful but they are mean birds.

On another drive to Colon this time with Debi, a loud pop noise got our attention then we saw this poor little gecko glued to the windshield holding on for dear life while his head was bobbing from side to side in the 50  knots of wind. He fell from a tree and landed on the wind shield. I pulled over and saved him from this wild adventure. He was fine and happy to be off into the bushes. He probably has now a nickname something like, “Big Foot” or “Flat Feet”.

The mangoes, guavas, guanabana (soursop), avocado, noni and papaya are getting bigger on the trees and some are ready to be harvested, I love the tropical fruits. One of the trees on this property is called Malabar/Guiana Chestnut tree, provision tree or saba nut. The big brown pods hanging on the branches, will eventually explode and to release the nuts. They can be eaten raw or roasted. Roasted they have the flavor of Chestnuts.

It’s been a busy month or two, had a couple of Fondue dinners in our little house and celebrated Debi’s birthday which was a lot of fun.

For Easter I organized a brunch and decorated the tables with little nest made out of napkins and filled them with colored eggs. The only coloring I could find was green and red; after all we are boaters green for Starboard and red for Port. The food was wonderful and the trivia was fun. I made a Buffalo Milk concoction and the winner of each question won a shot. They did not have to drink the shot but could designate a drinker. It was a lot of fun. I think Linda had the most fun had she answered 9 questions out of the 20 and drank shots herself.

Sid flew to Miami on the 11^th and stayed in Key Largo with our friends Dale and Sandy of Snow White. He signed up for the VA and of course he enjoyed boat part shopping. He said Dale fed him too much steak and lobster, poor guy. They did a few days of fishing, caught Dorado and tuna between VA appointments and shopping.  He enjoyed it. On the 21^st he rented a car and drove to Coconut Grove and visited with Phil and Nell of Moon Dancer and stayed with them in their incredibly beautiful condo on the 18^th floor overlooking the anchorage, wow what a view. After an almost three weeks trip he arrived with many suite cases and many presents. Yeah, it’s nice to have him back.

While he was gone I took up Guitar lessons in Portobelo and I am so tempted to also take piano and Congo drum lessons, but the week is only so long to cram anything else into the twice a week guitar lesson. It’s fun and best yet it’s private lessons and free!!!

Rainy season has set in early. The three weeks Sid was gone we had one storm out of the west just like when Paradise pulled the mooring into shallow water. The waves were breaking over the pier and reef we have to get through with the dinghy so our friends Regi and Debi on Runner, gave me rides out from a safe dock. Unfortunately the first day of this storm we had fierce lightening all day long and our buddies on North Star were hit by lightening in the San Blas and lost pretty much every instrument on the boat. Poor guys, just had a heck of a haul out in Cartagena, which should have taken 2 months, but some 8 months later they finally were back in the water and one month later they got hit by lightening which forces them back into the marina instead of being here playing with us for a while.

It started raining every day and tropical waves started coming across from Africa a bit early, hurricane season had approached already.

Sid arrived back from the States on the 31^st of April and since we had to be in town the following day to meet with our attorney for our pension visa, we decided to spend the night in Panama City. Carl Smith was happy to have us at his condo and was rewarded with a home cooked meal. As always it was great to see him.

Two days later we were back in Panama City heading to the immigration office with our attorney’s secretary Zulya. I guess we were lucky with our attorney giving us a detailed list of all the paperwork we needed. Of course all had to be internationally notarized in the States, which took about 2 months. Once we had all the paperwork it took three days to get our temporary pensioners visa. The immigration visit was an ordeal. A long line starting at 6 am builds in front of the building. The door opens at 9. Everybody has to go through the reception desk where they decide what type of ticket one needs. All are alphabetically numbered. We arrived at 9:30 and our number was “I 107” with about 50 people in front of us. Then Zulya discovered that we had the wrong number and had to pick another one, this time it was two B143 and B144, one for each of us. We had some 44 people in front of us and we waited patiently. At 11.50 our number was called, we hurried up to the counter where our Immigration monster sat. She took both our passports and inspected them, then started with my paperwork. After 25 minutes full of unfriendly questions she handed me a piece of paper and ordered me to go downstairs and pay 5 bucks. Done so, I handed her the receipt, she in return handed me my passport back, got out of her chair, another monster sat down and we watched the other one walk out the door for her lunch break. The new one looked at us and said “Que?!!” (What). Zulya told her that Sid was next to which she asked “what is his number” – “B144”, get this she said “well he missed his turn we are now on number 155 go and pick a new number!” WHAT!!!! His new number had now 57 people in front of us. We were so pissed we walked out and had lunch before returning and waiting for our turn which happened at 16:55. Imagine the page with the visa stamp they pound into our passport has to be copied then notarized then brought back to Immigration. Mucking refarkable that they don’t even trust their own stamps! Being after 5 the notary office of course was closed. Just good we had planned to spend the night in Panama City, our friends Dave and Jerry were in town. It was good to see them and after the first cocktail the immigration frustration was gone. We enjoyed an incredible dinner at the Casa Blanca restaurant in old town, a must if you are ever in Panama City.

To get ahead of the immigration game we decided to be there at 8 am already, while Zulya went to the notary, by the time she comes back we should be close to being next in line. Fat chance, after we made it through the door the reception desk refused to give us a ticket as we did not have our paperwork with us. Zulya finally showed up at 10am. While waiting in line out the door a security guy approached me and told me that I can’t enter with my top. Funny I was in there the prior day with the exact same top pattern except it was attached to a skirt = dress. Today it was a top with an unattached skirt. We know that any government office even banks don’t allow shorts even for women. Now we learned that shoulders have to be covered as well. It’s OK if it is a dress and also OK if the skirt is so short that if it was any shorter it would be called a belt and it’s definitely allowed to hang the fake boobs out to the point they almost fall out of the top, including another Immigration monster behind the glass counter wearing a tank-top. I just draped the dress from the prior day over my shoulders and they let me in. Later on a very young gorgeous woman with above described boobs including bare shoulders walked in. I guess I can count myself lucky that they did not put a bag over my head! At 2pm we left immigration with our new temporary pensioner cards in our hands, yeah. One week later I obtained my Panamanian drivers license. I am sooooooo legal now in this country!

Jerry was on a business trip in Panama and Dave just had to come visit us. Two days after our dinner at Casa Blanca, their taxi driver Louis drove them through the Summer Place gate. Jerry had been here a couple of months prior so he knew the place already. Dave was just in awe how beautiful it is here, he actually threatened to come back, we can only hope.

Sid and I discovered a new sport: We are hunting on Binnie’s property. Rainy season is in full swing and the land crabs are being washed out of their homes. These crabs are such a nuisance so we are hunting them with pellet guns, it’s a hoot. Really there is never a dull moment in, on or around Paradise. 

May 13^th I was just done decorating the patio for Cindy’s surprise Birthday party when I noticed a boat inches away from Paradise’s bow = adrenaline rush. After a fast run down to Casita Paraiso where Sid was nursing a hangover I grabbed the phone, called our buddy Reg on Runner, positioned myself in front of Sid with intense eye contact with him, asking Reg to meet us at the dock ASAP to get us out to the boat as Sara’s boat had gone walkabout….. (Our dinghy wheels were broken, so no way to get it in the water). Within minutes we were at the moorings, Sara’s boat had passed ours and was now hung up on our stern line. Luckily she did not come in contact with Paradise as we could not see any damage and also lucky for her that her boat hung up as it would have ended on the beach. It took us a while to get her boat off and Sara anchored her in her old spot. The mooring line broke from the mooring. Poor Sid hurt his ribs the prior day working in the garage and during the rescue of Orion insured it more. He was in mortal pain for days.

Pretty much right after the excitement Cindy’s surprise BD party started. We had so much fun with lots of friends wonderful food and challenging ping-pong games.

The following Thursday I found a card on my dining room table with an invitation to a dinner on Saturday 19^th, my Birthday, at Chateau Schulz and that I could bring my husband. Cindy, Debbie and Heather outdid themselves. They cooked the most delicious gourmet meal, Cornish game hens with an eggplant stuffing, stuffed tomatoes, asparagus, and for dessert cranberry stuffed apples cooked in cognac and the champagne was freely flowing. We must have drunk 20 bottles, well it seemed that way anyway. Sunday the next day, Cindy showed up early at our house before ping pong, odd??? Later going up to Binnie’s for ping-pong I realized why, a surprise BD party was waiting for me. It was a blast, one of my best Birthdays.

A few days later sitting on Binnie’s deck enjoying yet another incredible sunset, we noticed something on top of Paradise’s mast. Binocular revealed a bird’s nest, big enough that it could be the nest of an Osprey. Binnie jokingly said it couldn’t be the nest of a Kiskade. When Sid climbed the mast to remove it a Kiskade was attacking him protecting its nest. Luckily no eggs had been laid yet.

Just as we thought we were done with all the partying it started all over again. Roberto’s daughter Lori and hubby Pete came for a visit.  It was party time from the minute they arrive to the minute they left. Imagine having guests who bring their own food and spoil the hosts, that’s what Lori did, it was awesome. We organized a huge BBQ with all the cruisers who know her dad, it was a lot of fun and everybody showed up for the ping pong Sunday afternoon and the party just kept going and going. At the BBQ dinner one of the topics was scorpions and big spider in homes here. So far so good we never had any. Binnie mentioned she had many scorpions in her house also in her shoe and when she stuck her foot in it she got stung. Yikes, really didn’t want to hear that, but so far so good we only had one ugly spider tried to get across the door step but I stopped him. After dinner we had an after dinner drink in Casita Paraiso when I noticed something crawling on the floor. Under closer inspection I noticed a whole bunch of little ants trying to carry a really small (1/2 inch) scorpion baby, double yikes.

We also had a beautiful long but very skinny vine snake up at Binnie’s and 2 two-toed sloths in the same tree.

Day time was spent exploring the area whether on foot or by dinghy; relaxing under the shade of palm trees enjoying the beautiful view from Isla Mame; sitting on white sand in chest deep crystal clear water cooling off and visiting   Regi on Runner enjoying a gentle roll in a beautiful setting and ending with a stroll along the beach on Isla Linton. A glass of wine or rum and coke was always in our hands. Isla Linton is the home of some spider monkeys of which amazingly walk on two legs like humans do. We had fun watching 3 of them, although you don’t want to get too close to them, several tourists have been bitten.

It was a fun visit, we really had a wonderful time and Pete and Lori hinted they will be back in January, yeah.

Now here comes the “Does anybody know how to stop time??” question,” Oh and still live.”  We are having way toooooooo much fun.

Summer was here and rainy season had already prematurely started. Mildew patrol is in full swing and boat work is controlled by the many rain showers and thunderstorms.

We are often asked what we use for weather, so here are few kewl Internet sites:

Panama Canal: http://www.pancanal.com/eng/eie/radar/radar.html

24 hr NOAA fax: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PWEE89.gif

48 hr NOAA fax: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PWEI88.gif

72 hr NOAA fax: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PJEK88.gif

Accu Weather Satellite, this one is really good to watch how the weather moves:

http://m.accuweather.com/en/pa/national/satellite?play=1

also

http://www.accuweather.com/en/pa/national/satellite

This one is great to follow hurricane, also if you scroll down there is a good weather map for the whole Atlantic including the coast of Africa where the hurricanes come from:

http://www.wunderground.com/tropical/

Caribbean Satellite:

http://www.weather.com/maps/geography/oceans/caribbeansatellite_large_animated.html

World Radar:

http://weather.org/radar.htm#Africa

Buoy Weather:

http://www.buoyweather.com/index.jsp

Wind Finder: http://www.windfinder.com/

Wave Finder: http://magicseaweed.com/

And last the worlds earthquake monitor http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

The most valuable weather forecast we get is from Chris Parker. We can get his daily weather either via Single Side Band Radio or online http://mwxc.com/chris_parker.php

With the rain comes long power outages; ranging from just a few minutes to almost a whole day. At times we have them on a daily basis then nothing for a while. Just good we have a generator so nothing gets lost in the fridge or freezer and the fan can keep us cool. The interesting thing about these power outages is that each is cause by either a car crashing into a power pole or a tree hitting the lines due to thunderstorms and heavy rain. Well, that’s what we are told each time.

Thunderstorms here are fierce and unnerving. When they come through it’s one bolt after another. One day driving back from Colon, Binnie and I watched a transformer mounted on top of a power pole which was the 3rd pole away from us getting hit. Wow, what a spectacle, I have never seen anything like it, it looked like a shot of firework that kept going and going, sparks flew out from all directions, the bold kept flickering on and off for several seconds then smoke rose from the sparks and thickened and the bolt was gone while during the whole ordeal our car was shook by the enormous roaring thunder. I had goose bumps for a while. A few days after that a heavy thunder cloud rolled over Puerto Lindo, Sid was sitting at the computer when a bolt hit the telephone line at the main house knocking line 1 out and sending sparks out of the wifi computer socket on our computer. Luckily it did not harm to the computer.

On another drive back, Heather was driving there was so much rain that there were waterfall where they should not be and a thunderbolt with a diameter of a giant Sequoia or Redwood trunk.  The Caribbean part of Panama has also the claim of fame of boats getting hit by lightning strikes the most.

When I go on my shopping trips Debbie on Runner usually keeps me company and we always have a fun time. One run into Panama City we had so much to do for one day, we decided to spend the night in town. Yeah, a fun girls out! We took a room at the Mar Paraiso Hotel on Via España with somewhat a view of the harbor. A small room but with the strongest shower, we both agreed that this is the best shower we’ve ever had in any hotel. Casca Viejo, the new old town of Panama,  is fairly close from here and so I took Debbie to my favorite Restaurant Casa Blanca.

We enjoyed it so much that a couple of weeks later when her sister in law Glori visited we took her there. This time we decided to stay in the Casco Viejo area and found a room in the oldest hotel continuously running in Panama “Hotel Casco Antigua”. It was built in 1915 and still shows its historical charm with a Moorish tiled lobby and tall ceilings. A beautiful fountain was built into the wall and the ceilings in that area was all 3 stories tall, the ceilings all are high as it is. The fountain can be viewed from all the floors.

A long stairway up to the first floor opened up into a big room with tables. Breakfast is served here. What caught our eye was this weird looking 3 sided wood wall that seemed to be out of place. We thought it was a room for private parties but could not find a door to enter. Weird?!

But the following morning for breakfast our nosy question was answered.

This hotel was built by the Spaniards for entertainment and this room was the restaurant. When festive Balls were held uninvited guests could enjoy dinner at the restaurant while watching the lavish Ball. The weird wood wall is just that with windows that were opened for the festivities and has a spectacular view of  the Ball room where the Spanish tiled ballroom floor was right under the windows. Seeing this Glori, Debbie and I could just imagine the lavish ball.

From this floor we walked to yet another stairway and this one lead us to all the other floors to the guest rooms. When you come to this point you go wow what kind of dump is this. Then when she opened our room we all went "wow". Our room was probably 35 feet long 15 wide with modern Japanese style decor. Two queen size beds and a reading bed, Japanese divider, several dressers and a big mirrored closet. No windows except next to the door to the inside of the hallway, can't open the windows though, but AC was pretty darn fast.

On the top floor we found a big terrace, with a 320 few overlooking the sky scrapers of Panama City, the bay and islands, the entrance of the Panama Canal including the Bridge of the Americas and the roof tops of charming Casco Viejo.

A fun afternoon stroll revealed beautiful Casco Viejo to us. It definitely reminds us of beautiful, except that it has more buildings in shambles then not, but they are slowly bringing them back to what it once was. There are construction sites everywhere. A few fun tourist stores can be explored and the many wonderful restaurants could give you a hard time to decide where to eat. We didn’t have that problem as our mouth was watering already for more steamed clams and Salmon/Tuna Tartar at Casa Blanca. The service, food and décor are first class the only complaint we have is for such a fine place they should not use paper napkins LOL.  We had a wonderful time and enjoyed being spoiled. Amazingly the bill does not match the excellent service and food; we are hooked on this restaurant.

Back at Summer Place, Binnie’s maids Teresa and Maribel saw something crawl on the ground then saw it crawl into a tree. It was an injured Night Monkey. What a cute little critter.

The night monkey also known as owl monkey or douroucoulis are in the primitive monkey family, Aotidae). They are widely distributed in the forests of Central and South America, from Panama south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. “Douroucoulis” means “earless”; they have ears but the external ears are tiny and hard to see. Night monkeys have huge brown eyes and for increased ability to be active at night. They are called night monkey because they are the only nocturnal monkeys. Both male and female weigh almost the same about 2.75 lbs.

They make a variety of vocal sounds, with up to eight categories of distinct calls: gruff grunts, resonant grunts, screams, low trills, moans, gulps, sneeze grunts and hoots. A frequency range of 190-1,959 Hz.  They  have no color vision, presumably because it is not of an advantage being nocturnal. They live in family groups of the mated pair with their immature offspring. Families defend their territory by vocal calls and scent marking. Only one infant is born each year. Their biggest enemy is the human using them for experimental malaria research.

This little feller was badly injured. His bones on one leg were exposed. Both hind legs were severely injured and it now sat in the crevasse of a tree. I laid a banana close to him but of course he was not interested in it. It was in a lot of pain that was for sure as it kept licking the wounds. It let me hold its tail as I gently talked to it. Binnie called her neighbor Jaco who owns a huge property in Puerto Lindo, a  home of many exotic animals. He has veterinarians on staff and two of his boys came and rescued the cute little monkey. Unfortunately his injury was too severe and it died a couple of days later.

A couple of week later Jaco invited us to visit his animals. OMG was that enormous and incredible. The entrance leads you straight to his orchid farm the size of a tennis court. An open football field size field separates the orchid house into 3 bird aviaries also each the size of a tennis court. Between the aviary, and along the property wall were lots of little guinea pigs mingled with turtles. But what caught our eye were two kangaroos male, one an albino wow. They were pretty shy and sprung away from us. I tell you though when you see them jump away I had to laugh, they are all “free-balling” but look for yourself.

The first aviary had all the little exotic birds of all colors. I have never seen so many birds at once. Every tree had a different colored bird. The second aviary a female quetzal sat just 3 feet away from me, studying me, not moving. I stood there for minutes. Some red cock-of-the-rock (national bird of Peru), flew around my ears. This aviary had the bigger birds so I was really curious what the third aviary had. Binnie and entourage was still in the first aviary while I venture into the thirds one.  The birds in here were definitely of the bigger kind and lots and lots of male and female cock-of-the rocks. The females seemed very interested in me and 4 of them circled me constantly by jumping from tree limb to the next. All of a sudden something landed on top of my head, it startled me and I let out a short scream. I guess these birds liked it and another one landed on my head just sitting there and sliding back and forth in the slippery hair and moving my bangs up and down, not to mention my sunglasses. It was funny, not even my hand reaching for my sunglasses spooked the birds off my head. Since nobody was around, I was alone with these funny birds I had to take my own pictures. The 4 females took turns on my head. Everybody else finally caught up with me. The birds seemed not interested in anybody else but one landed on my head again while I followed the others. It did not mind being walked around.

After the Aviaries, Jaco escorted us to the monkey cage with several species, from there up a short hill alongside a fenced we saw several deer, giant turtles I think you only see in the Galapagos, a tapir, emus and a whole bunch of others not native to here animals. Up on the hill two cages with two big eagles, another one with a tame royal vulture we could pet and a big cage next to it two big jaguars. We did not get to see his camel; that was enjoying a stroll down by the beach area. It was amazing and I hope I will be able to visit again.

I have to add that most of the animals are rescue animals and if possible they will be released into the wild again.

Happy 4^th of July

Sorry we’re a bit late for that so Happy belated. We had a blast. I organized a pig roast and all 40 guests showed up. Sid did an awesome job in marinating the 60 lbs pig and cooking it in a Chinese BBQ box or also called a Cajun Microwave. It was cooked to perfection and we had an incredible feast with all the wonderful foods everybody brought. It was a day with good food, fun games and very happy people. We all can’t wait do use the BBQ for Turkey Day!!!

I think photos will tell a better story than I will!

The left over pork was cooked up by Chef Sidley as Eastern North Carolina Pig Pickin’ style with corn bread and whatever everybody else brought for out Sunday Ping-Pong. It was yummy!

Time just flies by doesn’t it. Sorry folks for letting you wait another month for our usually more often updates. Sorry! I tell you house life is just too darn busy LOL.

Sid just loves his new hobby of crab hunting. His last time in the corner of his eye he saw something move just about one foot away from his feet which scared the living you know what out of him. He saw a bundle of fur crawling away from him towards a tree. It was a two toed sloth that was probably just as startled as it tried to poop. Years back one of Binnie’s rescue sloth “Molasses” was introduced back into the wild and she seems to still live in Binnie’s garden. Sloth blend in so well in the trees they are hard to spot.

Thunderstorms are getting more intense as hurricane season goes forward. The first few tropical storms have started and the tropical waves bring us heavy rain and fierce thunderstorms. The last tropical wave brought us some nasty squalls with high winds ripping our sunshade cover on the boat and also moved our stern mooring at least 30 feet. The rain was so heavy our little pond in the back of the house turned into a whirlpool with eddies and it was almost a foot above normal level. The sound of the rain on the tree canopy and roof of our house is amazingly noisy but a pleasant sound. Two days after this tropical wave I was in Panama City with Debi when another nasty squall hit Panama City. There was so much wind the rain came in sidewise and the skyscraper only a few hundred feet away from us completely disappeared, all we saw was a wall of rain. Luckily we just arrived at the entrance of the garage of a store.

It amazes me what strength Mother Nature has. Cruisers in the San Blas report that this year is a bit more active with these type storms.