Click on Living in the Cloud Forest for more photos. (About half of these phtos were taken by Matthew B.) Double click to enlarge any photos.
It’s Monday morning, and this is the first time the group has come down from the mountain. Most of the students are still visiting a local organic farm. The majority of the basic produce in Panama is grown in this region. It has very excellent volcanic soil and very predictable rainfall.
We are staying a little higher up than the town and it is a true cloud forest It is more often misting or raining than not, but we are happy and comfortable. We are staying in 3 fanciful wood cabins set right in the cloud forest. They are about 10 to 15 minutes some distance apart from each other, and each has its unique charm. Last night at the cabin at which I’m staying, we had visit from a Kinkajou and Cacomistle to feed off of bananas that we had left on the porch. We also watched nectar-feeding bats finish off the contents the hummingbird feeders. A mother/daughter team in the most central cabin prepares our lunches and dinners, and the food has been excellent. The forest itself is fantastic–very green, the trees are covered in epiphytes and dripping with moss, and the many streams are rushing with high water. While the weather overall in Panama has been unseasonably wet, nobody is complaining about ending our stay in Panama in the cloud forest. Each cabin has, hot water, a wood stove, and it is dry and very cozy at night. At night we read or talk by gaslight lamps. The setting lends itself well to reflection, and it is good place for us to try to consolidate our thoughts and experiences. Later today we will start to wrap up the course with group discussions and processing of our experience.
Last November there were some major floods in this section of Panama, and as a result the long trail along the flanks of Volcán Barú that we had planned to take had been closed indefinitely. It was reopened this past week—much sooner than we had been told to expect. Most of us will take this walk. It is a long trail that will take us most of the way to Boquete, our final destination in Panama. While the trail is long (it will probably take us about 4 -41/2 hours) it is mostly downhill, and will take us through some spectacular sections of primary forest. A bus will pick us up at the other end and take us the final 20 minutes or so to Boquete.
In Boquete there will be time to do some last minute shopping, and Internet will be readily available. We will have our farewell dinner that night. The next morning will be a long one. We will take a bus to David (pronounced David), take an Air Panama flight to San José, where will have a little bit of a layover. Then we will take American Airlines to Miami, where we have tight window to go through customs. From there we will fly directly to Boston. (See the flight itinerary section under “Course info” for our detailed itinerary).