Birds and Bao in Gamboa
Panama Travelog #6
Gamboa, Panama - Mon, 23 Dec 2024. 12pm.
Today we checked out from the Gamboa Resort after breakfast. We wound up not doing anything resort-y during our time there, except that Hawk relaxed in the hammock on our balcony. I fret that we squandered the opportunity there. Shouldn't we have taken more advantage of the activities offered? Of course, those activities all come with extra charges, and they're mostly done with small groups of whoever signs up. We know from experience that we generally hate group tours. We're self-directed type visitors. We'd go places and do things on our own.
The first place we went on our own was a spot called the Pipeline Road. It's a road through the jungle, with trees and ferns growing thick on both sides, almost covering over the road like a tunnel in places. The selling point of the pipeline road was the abundant wildlife, especially birds. Alas, it's good we paid nothing for this visit or a tour guide as we saw basically nothing, just one butterfly. Granted, it was the hugest butterfly I've ever seen, but that was it.
After the hiking bust we drove back through town, stopping at Gamboa's convenience store and restaurant for a light lunch. We'd visited here last night to buy drinks and snacks- way cheaper than what the hotel offers, of course, and with much greater variety.
One thing I'd taken note of from last night is that the store has a little warming oven next to the cash register with Chinese food in it. Yes, we're here in the hinterlands of Panama, and there's fresh Chinese food in the convenience store.
I didn't quite believe it when I first saw it. And I didn't know how to translate "steamed pork buns" or "shrimp dumplings" into Spanish, so I used their Chinese names. "Is that bao?" I asked, in Spanish. "And the other, below it, is shiu mai?" They were. And they call them by their Chinese names.
I bought two bao, first one and then a second because I was hungry and they were good. They were $1 apiece. Hawk bought a plate of fried plantains from the attached restaurant for $0.40. We ate outside at wooden tables on a large covered patio. That seems to be the style for a lot of eateries in Panama.
It's almost never too cool to sit outside, I figure. Here we are in late December and the daytime temperature hovers in the low 80s (about 28° C). Down in the city and some other parts of the country it's much warmer.
Ah, but birds. I promised birds with the bao.
We did finally see one unusual (to us) bird, just after lunch. It wasn't on the pipeline road, though. It was just on the road, in town.
"That looks like a hawk!" I announced as I slowed down to take pictures and let the bird move to safety. "Maybe it's a Caracara?" Whatever it was, it really was just standing in the middle of the road. (In the photo above the concrete macadam that looks like a sidewalk is what the road in part of town is made of.)
Hawk pulled out her bird identification guide- we'd bought one earlier hoping to spot birds in the jungle but alas, didn't- and confirmed it's indeed a Caracara. But it's not the kind we've seen in parts of the US, like in Texas. Up there, the Crested Caracara is native. Down here there's a different species from the same family. This bird is a Yellow-Headed Caracara, and it's common from Nicaragua down through South America.
Gamboa, Panama - Mon, 23 Dec 2024. 12pm.
Today we checked out from the Gamboa Resort after breakfast. We wound up not doing anything resort-y during our time there, except that Hawk relaxed in the hammock on our balcony. I fret that we squandered the opportunity there. Shouldn't we have taken more advantage of the activities offered? Of course, those activities all come with extra charges, and they're mostly done with small groups of whoever signs up. We know from experience that we generally hate group tours. We're self-directed type visitors. We'd go places and do things on our own.
The first place we went on our own was a spot called the Pipeline Road. It's a road through the jungle, with trees and ferns growing thick on both sides, almost covering over the road like a tunnel in places. The selling point of the pipeline road was the abundant wildlife, especially birds. Alas, it's good we paid nothing for this visit or a tour guide as we saw basically nothing, just one butterfly. Granted, it was the hugest butterfly I've ever seen, but that was it.
After the hiking bust we drove back through town, stopping at Gamboa's convenience store and restaurant for a light lunch. We'd visited here last night to buy drinks and snacks- way cheaper than what the hotel offers, of course, and with much greater variety.
One thing I'd taken note of from last night is that the store has a little warming oven next to the cash register with Chinese food in it. Yes, we're here in the hinterlands of Panama, and there's fresh Chinese food in the convenience store.
I didn't quite believe it when I first saw it. And I didn't know how to translate "steamed pork buns" or "shrimp dumplings" into Spanish, so I used their Chinese names. "Is that bao?" I asked, in Spanish. "And the other, below it, is shiu mai?" They were. And they call them by their Chinese names.
I bought two bao, first one and then a second because I was hungry and they were good. They were $1 apiece. Hawk bought a plate of fried plantains from the attached restaurant for $0.40. We ate outside at wooden tables on a large covered patio. That seems to be the style for a lot of eateries in Panama.
It's almost never too cool to sit outside, I figure. Here we are in late December and the daytime temperature hovers in the low 80s (about 28° C). Down in the city and some other parts of the country it's much warmer.
Ah, but birds. I promised birds with the bao.
We did finally see one unusual (to us) bird, just after lunch. It wasn't on the pipeline road, though. It was just on the road, in town.
"That looks like a hawk!" I announced as I slowed down to take pictures and let the bird move to safety. "Maybe it's a Caracara?" Whatever it was, it really was just standing in the middle of the road. (In the photo above the concrete macadam that looks like a sidewalk is what the road in part of town is made of.)
Hawk pulled out her bird identification guide- we'd bought one earlier hoping to spot birds in the jungle but alas, didn't- and confirmed it's indeed a Caracara. But it's not the kind we've seen in parts of the US, like in Texas. Up there, the Crested Caracara is native. Down here there's a different species from the same family. This bird is a Yellow-Headed Caracara, and it's common from Nicaragua down through South America.