Part 2
Colombia and Panama
January
16 was a day at sea as we headed for Cartagena, Colombia. Much of the
day was spent in deck chairs reading, eating or scanning the waters for
pelagics. Unfortunately there were no obvious birds. Finally a pair of Pomarine
Jaegers flew by close enough to identify and later a smallish bird skimmed
the waves but was too far out to ID. Probably a petrel, but we'll never
know.
On the morning of the seventeenth we arrived at the busy port of Cartagena. The setting and skyline of this bustling city was quite impressive. On the ship we had been told not to venture off on our own here as it was not considered safe to do so. There was also a State Department travel warning out on Colombia at the time so we opted to take the City Tour. Our Colombian tour guide, Josue was like a walking encyclopedia regarding the local history. It was a pleasure to be on his bus. Our first stop was at the San Felipe de Barajas Fortress which was built by the Spaniards between 1639 and 1657. Hiking up the steep ramp to the entry we were harassed by the souvenir peddlers who were very insistent. Once inside this was not a problem. We enjoyed views of the city and naturally I found a few interesting birds to check out. Tropical Kingbirds and Great-tailed Grackles were abundant.
Next stop La Popa, an old convent, was on the outskirts of the city. It was quite high on a hilltop and from it we could see our ship as well as another panoramic view of the city of Cartegena. In one direction paved roads and skyscrapers, in another, dirt streets and shanties. The interior of the building contained a beautiful courtyard but it was so crammed with tourists that it could not really be enjoyed. We noticed Purple Martins flying all around the building.
On
to Old Town, most picturesque with buildings of Spanish influence--wooden
balconies and painted with bright but not gaudy colors. Our stop here was to
the Iglesia de San Pedro Claver. A Spanish-born monk who dedicated his life to
slaves, he became their patron Saint. Inside the cathedral, under the altar,
encased in glass his remains are in full view. Next the mandatory shopping
stop which was not all that bad as the shops were in the very colorful Old
Town. We looked for some Colombian birds stamps and found a few. I insisted
that Doug needed a Panama hat and never heard the end of it for the rest of
the trip as it kept blowing off of his head. Well, what's a trip without a few
(useless) souvenirs?
When we got to the Hilton Hotel where everyone got off the bus for a free drink and rest stop, Doug and I decided that we would skip the last stop to the emerald shop and explore around the area on our own. It didn't look all that dangerous! We walked out to the beach and saw a small swallow flying over the water and then landing on a rock. We didn't have a book with us so I wrote down a description of what we saw and later identified it as a White-winged Swallow. There were many Great-tailed Grackles (a highly vocal bird) and Great Kiskadees in the gardens of the Hilton. Other than that the area was not too interesting so we decided to head back to the ship via cab.
Near the dock we discovered a small park that was bordered by a beach so decided to sit there and see if we could find any birds. This small plot turned out to be a gold mine. First we noticed a small blackish and yellow bird in the bushes with the habit of wagging its tail from side to side while hopping sideways and were able to ID it as a CommonTody-Flycatcher. We also saw a Yellow Warbler in the same bushes. Then we noticed that Neotropical Cormorants were sitting on the pilings out on the water with the Brown Pelicans and Laughing Gulls. A hawk flew in and landed on a pole just opposite from where we were sitting and by careful study was determined it to be a Yellow-headed Caracara. Noisily, a pair of Ringed Kingfishers dove for fish and chased each other around the trees where we were sitting. At times either they or the caracara were in trees right above our heads! Towards dusk noisy flocks of parakeets flew overhead and even landed in the treetops above us but they all looked black from below and were impossible to ID. As we walked back to the ship we found some dead trees at the end of the park and found two species of woodpeckers: The beautiful Spot-breasted Woodpecker which was actually peeking out of its hole and a Red-crowned Woodpecker which quite resembles our Red-bellied Woodpecker. All these birds in this teeny little park. We made plans to visit the botanical garden the next day, regardless of the warning.
Since the next day was only a half day before the ship was to leave we left early in hopes of making it to the botanical garden which was about 30 miles out of town. The cab driver that we had made arrangements with the day before was there as planned at 8 AM. His English was perfect and we felt comfortable with him. But he didn't seem to have a cab. He began whistling and motioning for someone and in a few minutes a rickety old cab drove up and he told us that his "cousin" would be taking us and it would be fine even if he didn't speak a word of English. We hesitated but still decided to go. A few blocks down the road the cousin stopped the cab and motioned to a man to get in the cab with us. He was drinking something out of what looked like a little pill cup. Doug said to me that we ought to get out this instant and we did. We didn't know what was going on, didn't have our passports with us if something happened and were worried that we could not communicate to this man that we had to be back to the ship at a definite time. Too bad because I'm sure that the gardens would have yielded some very good birds.
So it was back to our little park by the dock. However today all of the birders on the ship (about six) were there since we had spread the word around the day before. Even the guest lecturer biologist from our ship came over to look for the woodpeckers that we had seen and to verify the caracara which when we first told him about it, didn't think that's what we could have seen. We began seeing all sorts of new birds! An osprey hunted out over the water, the caracara was back for all to see as well as the CommonTody-Flycatcher and Yellow Warbler. A beautiful Bananaquit flew into the a giant Ficus tree and in this tree we also saw the gray phase of the Bicolored Wren (such a huge bird that I thought it was some kind of cuckoo!), a Grayish Saltator and a most beautiful Yellow-backed Tanager which I first mistook for a new warbler. With a whopping 1725 species of birds found in Colombia, we had barely scratched the surface.
At noon the ship sailed out of the bay past small, densely vegetated islands, fishing villages and at the end, an old fort. Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans accompanied the ship as it sailed out into the azure waters of the Caribbean. We were on our way to Panama.
Sunday, January 19 -- Panama
On
Sunday morning we sailed in to the port of Colon, Panama. This was to be a
relatively short stop and the tour that we had originally signed up for had
been canceled (an all day trip into the canal), so we opted for a
cross-country bus tour to the capital, Panama
City and a stop at the Miraflores locks. We began our cross-country
journey on a bus with a guide who spoke marginal English. Nevertheless it was
enjoyable sitting on the bus just looking at the changes in the countryside as
one traversed from the poorer Atlantic coast to the more affluent Pacific
side. Panama City was quite
lovely. Our first stop after we arrived was to the ruins
of Old Panama founded in 1519 by Pedro Arias Cavila and sacked by the
buccaneer Henry Morgan in 1671. There were a lot of birds around these ruins
and I was thrilled to see a Fork-tailed Flycatcher fly into one of
them. An interesting song drew me to another tree in the park and in it sat a
beautiful bluish bird which turned out to be a Blue-gray Tanager. The
ruins were not far from the beach and we were amazed to see thousands of
waders and peeps along it. The tide was far out and the birds were mostly too
far away to ID but we could see Great, Reddish and Snowy Egrets,
Neotropical Cormorants, Brown Pelicans and many peeps for which we needed
a spotting scope. Turkey Vultures, which had been plentiful in both
Jamaica and Colombia were largely replaced by Black Vultures in Panama.
Naturally we had to leave this area much too soon to please us but that's how
it is when you take these tours.
After a few more
stops in Panama City, we drove
out to the Miraflores locks and
watched several freighters being maneuvered into the lock by the
"mules" which guide them along. This is a very nice facility for
watching the ships pass plus there is a movie that you can see that describes
the history of the making of the canal. After this we drove through the rain
forest preserve (a beautiful park where Doug and I would have loved to spend
hours) at about 65mph so that we could see almost nothing. Our guide offered
the tidbit that there were many animals living in the preserve but due to
traffic noise you could not see them by daylight. However if you got there
early in the morning you could tell they were really there by checking out all
of the road-kills in the street! Whattaguy!
We definitely left Panama with that "unfinished" feeling and hope to return there on a real birding trip some day.
Last stop.....Costa Rica
