Jardin is known as the most beautiful town in Colombia and the town lives up to its marketing.
The mountains were stunning, the people were nice and all the men wore hats which I loved seeing.
And then there were the doors. I could have taken 1,000 photos of doors. I tried to restrain myself since these were houses. I tried to only photograph businesses or at least homes with no open curtains or doors.
Anybody home? I’m not casing your house, just like your door.
Our Air BNB was beautiful but a bit loud. They seemed to be training horses to River Dance on our street.
Again but this time stompier.
This priest rang his bell a bunch.
Hey guys, in case you didn’t hear the church bells, it’s time to pray.
And of course the fruit vendor.
Wake up! It’s 6am time to buy bananas.
Jadin is close to the equator but at 5,000 feet much cooler than Panama City.
What’s wrong with the air? Oh right this is what under 89 degrees feels like.
Everything was so colorful from the doors to the buses to the chairs on the square.
After looking around the town we needed to see the town from above so took a funicular.
I’ll just do the hooky pokey before getting in. Sheryl: This is totally safe right? Jeff: Um, just sit very still.Translation: please don’t make abrupt movements or sway.
We made it to the top and the view was amazing. We walked around a bit, had some beer and rode back down.
Forget it. If I can’t sway in the cable car I’ll just walk down.
We spent our first night in a hotel and went out for a great dinner. I have no photos because I got over hungry and was hangry.
The view from our hotel the next morning was stunning. Our included breakfast included some Colombian specialties.
Hot chocolate for breakfast. Yum.Bunuelos are good but not quite a doughtnut. More like cornbread.
After breakfast we did a quick walk before packing up and leaving town.
We rushed to catch a bus to Jardin the small town we were spending mid week in since it gets crowded in the weekends.
Sheryl: I just love leaving my hair curly. So quick and easy. Jeff: We can take a later bus if you need time to work on your hair.
Our bus trip was three hours on a tourist bus. We were a bit frazzled from the traveling the day before. But no problem we’ve done bus rides before.
Sheryl: We are cool! Jeff: We are adventurous.
The bus ride was fine. But by hour three we were feeling our age.
Jeff: My back hurts. Sheryl: My self esteem hurts.
The stop for the bathroom was 3 1/2 hours into the ride probably the longest I’ve gone without peeing in a decade. It cost 500 pesos which is the equivalent of eleven US cents.
Best 500 pesos I’ve ever spent.
Jeff was delaying getting back on the bus.
There’s got to be an airport around here somewhere.
But then 4 1/2 hours later at arrived in Jardin and it was worth the trip.
Jeff and I are still hanging out in Panama. But now we are finally doing some exploring.
We rushed to get this book sent from the US. I still haven’t opened it, hopefully Jeff has.
First trip is to Colombia. We are taking a two week vacation to a country we’ve wanted to see for decades.
Sheryl: We are 22 yrs old and just started dating, but want to go to Colombia? Jeff: Sure but let’s wait 23 years until we are old and a bus ride will hurt our backs.
It’s been so long since I’ve packed for a vacation I forgot how.
Most important is Sven, my stuffed support sloth.
We flew on an airline called Wingo. The name sounds a bit too silly for an airline.
Jeff suggested I start blogging again.
Thirty photos later he wasn’t so psyched for me to blog
I hate the internet.
Our flight was great we got to Medellin and got an Uber. Well one of us got the Uber. The other one was busy “taking selfies for the blog.”
We still haven’t been able to get the vaccine yet, so for my birthday we decided to go away for the weekend to the town of Gamoa and Pipeline Road for some birdwatching.
We know nothing about birdwatching
The town of Gamboa is under an hour away and near Pipeline Rd, a world famous birdwatching area. We aren’t birdwatchers, but here’s what Frommer’s said:
“Even non-birders can’t help getting caught up in the action with so many colorful show birds fluttering about, such as motmots, trogons, toucans, antbirds, colorful tanagers, and flycatchers.”
Here’s what Lonley Planet says:
“Pipeline Rd is considered to be one of the world’s premier birdwatching. More than 400 different species of birds have been spotted on the trail, and it’s fairly likely you will spot everything from toucans to trogons.”
But first, birthday cake
My actual birthday was on a Thursday and was lovely. I woke up to a rainbow.
Our friends Rolf and Samuel brought me a birthday cake and lent us their binaculars.
Rolf and Samuel: we baked you this cake to share on your birdwatching Sheryl: I’m not sharing this cake. Jeff can have the grapes.
Jeff brought me flowers which were so pretty I spent an hour taking photos.
Jeff: We have dinner reservations at 8:00. Sheryl: I only need 400 more photos.
Gamboa is close to Panama City
In the 1930’s the US moved the canal’s dredging division to Gamboa and took it over and basically built an entire town that all had the same home model. It’s small, town with all the buildings looking the same, but painted different colors.
Our Air BnB had this really interesting door and cut out windows. When I realized a lot of houses had the same door and window I forgot all about birdwatching and went straight to door watching.
I could have taken so many more pictures of identical doors but Jeff thought someone might think I was casing the neighborhood.
The next morning, we woke up early to the sounds of the rainforest and me complaining.
Why do birds get up so early?
No Birds, but we did see a rodent
On our walk out of town we saw an agouti. (It’s that weird rodent on the right hand side of the photo below. Some people (me) think they are cute. Some people (Jeff) think they look like giant rats.
We’ve seen agoutis before. But, what really was a rare sight was the post office. This is the first one we’ve seen in Panama. It may not even actually still be open.
We didn’t see any birds but soon we were on the famous Pipeline road.
Now we will see birds.
The road was paved with gravel and the rainforest was truly beautiful.
Can’t imagine why I’m not seeing any birds with my head down.
No birds, but some cyclists and runners
Hey cycling dude, see any birds?
Still no birds, but we saw butterflies
I soon became frustrated at the lack of birds. But Jeff kept his spirits up.
Sheryl: I don’t like bird watching. Jeff: come on, its fun.
While we didn’t see birds on Pipeline Rd, there were some amazing butterflies. Jeff took this photo which he very nicely allowed me to use on the blog.
Photo by Jeff. Permission to use it by Jeff .
The excitement from the butterflies was short lived.
Sheryl: Where are the birds? Jeff: Why no birds?
Perhaps all the birds were waiting to be discovered in the Rainforest Discovery Center. https://pipelineroad.org/en/
The rainforest discovery center has trails and a viewing platform, and a list of all the birds one might see.
Excited to see at least a fraction of these birds, we climbed the stairs. From the top you could see the forest canapy, but still no birds.
Jeff: Still not seeing birds. Sheryl: Force a smile for the blog. Pretend like you are seeing birds.
No birds, but we saw monkeys
With the help of binoculars and a really nice couple named Pascual and Juana, who were experienced birdwatchers, we saw howler monkeys.
I hope those are monkeys they sound like demons.
I took a ton of photos. Turns out monkey’s hide really well.
Seriously, there are at least 13 monkeys in these trees.
Here’ s a picture from Wikipedia of a Howler Monkey.
Photo from Wikipedia. They looked exactly like this.
Pascual and Juana also pointed out a toucan that we saw through the binoculars so if you only see one bird from the forest canopy, a toucan is a good one to see.
They also explained a lot of birdwatching is luck and patience. They had been here many times and seen birds on other occasions, just not many that day.
More monkeys
On the way back down we saw another tree full of capuchin monkeys. Again, unless they are moving they hide really well. This picture is also from Wikipedia. We could have skipped bird watching altogether and just looked at photos on Wiki.
After seeing only one bird but a lot of monkeys, we headed to another part of the Rainforest Discovery Center where you could see a lot of humming birds, have a professional guide answer questions, and sit down if bird watching makes you tired.
Carlos was super nice and really wanted to get us excited about the humming birds. Sheryl: pretend like you’re listening. Jeff: I’m too tired to even pretend.
As we sat and compteplated how maybe we weren’t birdwatchers, Carlos whispered. “Guys!, Guys!”
The urgency in his voice had me thinking he must have spotted a panther or poisonous snake. As I looked for means of escape, I saw Carlos setting up what looked to be a camera, but turned out to be a bird watching scope
Carlos called us over. “It’s a mot mot.” We took turns looking through the scope, and sure enough there was a bird. It was pretty, but we both realized at this moment, maybe we weren’t cut out for bird watching.
When it started to pour we thought maybe we were done birdwatching for the day. When Pascual and Juana offered us a ride back to our Air BnB , we knew for certain that were done birdwatching.
Not many birds, but we did have cocktails
That afternoon back at our Air BnB I did more bird watching, Zeunert Style from the patio.
No birds but this gin and tonic is refreshing.No birds but this lounge chair is comfortable. My butterfly shot didn’t come out as well since I didn’t get off the lounge chair.
The next morning Jeff had to give me a pep talk to get me in the birdwatching mood.
Jeff: Those mot mots aren’t going to watch themselves.
We headed out and saw parrots and another toucan right in town.
We walked over to the Rainforest Lodge which is a beautiful hotel we went to pre-pandemic with my parents. https://gamboareserve.com/
The hotel is closed due to covid. The only visitor is a agouti in the lobby
It was so deserted Jeff said it looked like the Shining in the tropics. Once it’s open again we are going back.
I see a bird oh never mind that’s a branch.
And then we rewarded ourselves with breakfast.
Maybe if I hold this a bird will come to me
So we didn’t see many birds, but if we had come for monkey, butterfly, door and post office watching we saw a ton.
Even though we didn’t see many birds, the rainforest is beautiful, the town of Gamboa is a great get away from the big city and we made some new friends. (Pascual and Juana.)
We will absolutely go back again, especially if we have to mail a letter.
It’s weird that we have spent most of our time in Panama in a pandemic. But, we’ve been extremely lucky to be safe, healthy and employed.
The vaccine is slower to roll out here than in the U.S. but while we wait (me more impatiently then Jeff) I’m reflecting at how much different things are now vs. a year ago.
Panama had one of the strictest quarantines in the world. The below chart (taken from a site called Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/) shows the level of restrictions compared to the US.
For a week there in November we were living life free and easy compared to the US.
At first it seemed like no big deal
It started out the same here as everywhere. We thought it would be over in two weeks.
Here we are learning the pool was closed (or auditioning for most overly dramatic expats ever). Imagine our faces if we had known it would be a bit longer than two weeks.
Alas, the pool has closed. We are tortured.Not sure why I cared about the gym closing since I never used it.
When they started boarding up the stores we got a little nervous. Would there be looting? Riots? Toilet paper shortage?
There weren’t any riots, looting, or even toilet paper shortages.
And then came Women and Men days
When they divided the week up into women and men days we became concerned. When we found out you could only go out for two assigned hours on your day we freaked out.
Wait what?
Based on the last digit of my passport and being female, I had 8:30-10:30 M,W,F. Jeff had 7:30-9:30 Tue and Thur only. For once, being a woman came with some advantages. Men having less hours than women is probably whey they expected rioting.
What happened if you were transgender or non binary? Sadly, you might be harassed or arrested.
What happened if you were out at the wrong time or day? You could be fined or even arrested.
How did they know if you were out at the wrong time? There were police checking your documents to make sure it was the correct time. If you went to a grocery store at the wrong time they would not let you inside.
But if living in another country teaches you anything, it’s to be adaptable. We started having our food delivered online.
Remember when we washed all our food before it entered the house? Still never quite figured out how to wash a pineapple.
Since we were only allowed to go grocery shopping during our two hours on our day/times out I walked to the grocery store, the far away grocery store.
Remember when we thought this was a good idea? Maybe I can just wash this elevator while I’m in it since I’m already wearing rubber gloves.
Hello ladies mind if I get in line with you?
Going into a store required a mask, temp check and a foot bath. Note these are not my feet or legs but I do wish I owned these leggings.
We thought we’d get fit during the pandemic
In our spare time, which was all the hours, we climbed up and down the fire escape.
Then an email went out to the entire building saying no one was allowed out on the fire escape unless it was a declared emergency.
No problem, we had long hallways. a parking garage and balcony .
Who wouldn’t want to workout in a parking garage in 90 degree heat? And it was only 38 times back and forth on the balcony to equal a mile.
I even bought a Door Gym.
This worked great we used it every day and got super fit. hahahaha. Not. I tried it once, was afraid I’d break the door and poke an eye out.
We only went a little nutty
Soon we found that exercise was overrated. There is some research that shows that exercise helps to alliviate stress, but we seemed to be just fine.
What do you mean I shouldn’t turn my video on during a work zoom call?. I did not throw this monitor at this tree, only because I didn’t have a computer monitor. Do you think that bird on the balcony will be my friend?This bug will be my new pet. I shall name him Clyde and cherish him forever.
Buying these highlighters were probaby the highlight of the pandemic for me (excuse the pun). I spent an entire day doing a photo shoot with them.
They’re so pretty.
Alcohol was completely banned
Worst than not beling allowed out of our apartment building? Alcohol sales were banned throughout the country. Yes, banned! Why? We think they wanted people to spend money on food not booze, and it would help keep people from getting drunk and breaking the quarantine laws.
Shoplifting never seemed so appealing.
After our wine and gin was depleted we had to go into stealth mode. The local mini mart still had a healthy stock of liquor. Sure they had signs saying they couldn’t sell it. But Jeff is nice and good at Spanish. He talked them into selling us a secret bottle or two.
In theory you were not even allowed to drink alcohol in your own home.
That was one law we had to break.
We had friends to break the alcohol law with
Lucky for us, the only friends we have in the entire country, happen to live in our building. We could hang out with them without breaking quarantine.
Rolf and Samuel were friends before the pandemic, but in the last year they have become like family. We have spend countless evenings, holidays, and many bottles of illegally purchased alcohol together.
Can you see all my teeth or should I smile more?Their balcony is way windier than ours.
Not only are they great people they are fantastic cooks and hosts.
Dinner at their apartment includes champagne, beautiful table settings and professionally plated food.
Dinner at our apartment is a more informal affair.
Oh wait you need a fork? Yeah we don’t have any clean ones.
As things got better, parks opened up. I was able to walk out here on women’s day. I was also lucky that my assigned time was early in the morning before work started and before it got too hot outside.
Finally, after months of only being outside seperately, they lifted men and women days and we could venture out together.
Sheryl: Why are you standing so close to me? Jeff: Really? Another selfie?
So yes, we came to Panama and then were in lockdown for a year. But, we’ve stayed healthy and employed, been able to Zoom with our family and friends, and have friends here.
You would think I wouldn’t complain now that the pool is open again and I can just sit here while I wait for the vaccine. But I do complain…a lot.
Restrictions have lifted but the vaccine is slow to rollout . Currently to be eligible you have to be sixty and above.
What’s next
We are venturing out slowly and safely. And to answer the question of what’s next? We really don’t know. Our #1 priority is to get vaccinated and see our families. After that we hope to return to Panama and do the trip we planned pre-pandemic. So we’ll see. In the meantime we continue to wait for the vaccine here in Panama City
.
Jeff: Look at this view. Enjoy it and be patient.
Sheryl: Hurry up with the damn vaccine already!!!!!!!
