Back in the Panamanian Jungle

Before I had even arrived at the lodge, I had met up with a friend from the previous times in Panama. He had informed me of some sort of problems that Jungle Land was having with the Panama Canal Authority. He had read an article or two in the press and was under the impression that it was already shut down. Someone else also mentioned this when I told them why I was in Panama. Surely Carl, the owner, wouldn’t have me come back to Jungle Land, without the place even existing? With this minor concern, I felt it was only right to research the matter myself.

After reading a few newspaper articles on the matter, I found out that he had in fact been given an extension of time to serve out contracts to customers who had already booked but would have to cease to act as a business by May 2^nd. There have been numerous journalists, as well as inspectors, coming to the lodge within the time since my return. I would like to say that any press is good press, but unfortunately, tourism is much quieter throughout Panama this year so the numbers are drastically down from last year.

Having arrived back at the floating lodge, I had planned to stay there for the following six months and try to have as much fun as possible. None of the above stuff really affects me and the other staff. We just have to get on with what we do and it will last as long as it lasts. One of the volunteers from last year, Shane, was there again. He was doing a photographic role as well this time, trying to boost the social media of the business and also sell photos to willing clients. There were other volunteers but other than that, all the local staff had more or less remained the same.

To say the least, my first few tours were a little bit rusty. A lot of the information had slipped my mind and the names of certain things were only able to reach the tip of my tongue before they disappeared. I went on a few tours with an English biologist volunteer there to try and remind me of the information but this was like learning again. When she arrived, she had one day of training before she was left to learn the rest herself. This meant that all of her information was different from what I had previously learned, and forgot.

But with the more tours that I went on, and the more I saw, things slowly started coming back to me and I was starting to give people their value for money. It also wasn’t that busy at the beginning so I was getting the opportunity to explore and re-accustom myself with the jungle I would be calling home again. There was definitely a sense of happiness being back in this magical place even if it was now a different experience with different people. The jungle here just has a way of turning that frown upside down and putting a smile on your face, no matter what stress you have.

The time had flown by and we had already made it to Christmas. Carl had put up a tree (an artificial one this time) to match the Christmas lights that were adorning the dining room roof all year round. We were asked what we wanted for our meal so I said the traditional banquet, please. It kind of took all the fun out of Christmas day, but the cooks did all the prep and cooked it all on Christmas Eve for us to eat. So we tucked into our feast of turkey and ham and celebrated that night. There were no clients but there would be some arriving the morning of the 26^th, so it was best to wake up groggy on Crimbo Day instead.

I can’t speak for the others but I woke up as fresh as daisy on a spring morning and was raring to do something. Maybe it’s a tradition for the lodge, but as the same as last year, we went on a paddleboard adventure. We made an excessively long paddle up the river to a new waterfall that had opened up since the last season. On the way back from the waterfall, we came across some of that mud that people smother on themselves for younger, healthier skin. So why not? We smothered ourselves from head to toe, some of us better than the others, and started to make our way to another waterfall where we could wash ourselves off and reveal our beautiful, soft and significantly younger skin.

What actually happened was a completely different story. The day was hot and the paddle was without shade. The second waterfall was a fair old paddle from the one we had just left. On top of that, I think it was just plain old boring mud that we had smothered on ourselves. We spent the next hour and a half cooking our skin in a very dry, claylike oven, which ripped out hairs as it shrivelled and cracked in the heat. Once we arrived at the waterfall, the mud didn’t really come off that easy either. Some of us had some red rash like markings which could have been a reaction to the mud, or maybe from the heavy scrubbing to get it off. One thing was for certain, we didn’t look any younger after the experience.

Due to the length of the paddle board, it was definitely time for something to eat. With that said, we got out the pizza bases and loaded up our Christmas pizzas, using the leftovers from the previous day. Not a traditional dinner for Christmas, or for the jungle, but a kind of satisfying meal. The day itself was fairly chilled and relaxed with most people hitting the hay fairly early on. We needed to be up ready to leave by 9am the following morning with this upcoming week being the busiest time of the year. Every day we had between 60-100 guests with around 20 of them staying for the night each night.

This meant that it was all hands to the pump with nobody having a day off during this time. Even Carl chipped in and helped out as it was really busy. The more active of the volunteers were working days starting at 6am and ending at 9pm for the whole of the week. But come New Year’s Eve, we all left the boat to head to the city. Then plan for the night was simple, have a few drinks and then head to the Cinta Costera – a road along the coast of the city – to watch the fireworks display over the old town.

We formed a group of about 15 strong random people all keen to go and watch the fireworks. As with always in big groups, you are always delayed by someone. Having left the hostel a little late, the pace of the walk was relatively fast for a group of slightly inebriated people. By the time we got to the Cinta Costera, we were a long way from where we needed to be and we had lost 8 or 9 people. We made it a little bit closer but eventually stopped along the sea wall and took a seat. The fireworks went nuts for about 15 minutes and illuminated Casco Viejo – the old city – in the distance. Personal fireworks continued for the next few hours with a little less awe, but they were still good fun to watch.

Some of the group wanted to go back to the hostel, some of them wanted to party in Casco and some wanted to chill in the grass and not walk anywhere. With that said, we all sort of split up to make our nights end the way we wanted. I think my night ended at around 6-7am but with no guest arriving on the 1^st, we had a day off so we could relax a bit. Fortunately, the hostel had a pool so the 1^st January was spent mostly getting in and out of the pool and then watching rubbish movies in the hostel lounge.

As January rolled on, the customer numbers began to drop. But quantity is not always better than quality. What I mean when I say this, is that the people who were coming were amazing, nice, fun to be around people who make my time more enjoyable there. We have had groups of friends wanting to party as well as families with really cool kinds keen to learn and play. When the guests are quality like this, you spend more time with them enjoying yourself and naturally providing them with a better service. In this situation, sometimes the tips we receive can be very nice and generous from the guests.

One of the good tips we received was partly because of a night safari that I was guiding. The night safari consists of going out in a boat, at night of course, and looking for animals, birds or anything that is active at night. We use a large L.E.D light to help us see things in the dark and also help the captains navigate. Animals with night vision generally have a quality to their eyes called tapetum lucidum. This is a layer of tissue on their eye that reflects the light back out along the same path making the image brighter and easier to see at night. Cats have this quality, amongst other animals, hence why we have invented the “cats-eye” to help us see road lanes.

So as the night safari started, we left the lodge and head towards the normal route. Before we had left sight of the lodge, I spotted the distinctive orange, flickering purple reflection of a caiman’s eye. Now with my experience, I could tell that this caiman was a tad on the large side. When we approached it, my presumption was confirmed, he was a big boy at approximately 1.5 metres. But nevertheless, I grabbed it around the back of the neck and lifted him up and out of the water. This is when you should grab their tail with the other hand to prevent them from using the powerful tail to get free. But I had the torch in my left hand and didn’t want to put it down and lose sight of the beast I had with just one hand around its neck.

This moment’s hesitation was the catalyst to almost giving me a heart attack. I had not bought it into the boat yet but with one quick swipe of the tail, its’ wet neck slipped out of my hand. As it fell out of my grasp, it hit the edge of the boat and rather than bouncing off into the water, it obviously bounced into the boat. Now we had a metre and a half caiman loose in a boat with 6 adults and 3 children, one of which was asleep. I quickly, and apparently calmly, told everyone to get up onto their seats and get as high as possible.

The caiman wasn’t trying to attack anyone, it just wanted to get out of the boat. With this said, it made its way from the front of the boat and all the way to the back of the boat into the captains’ compartment. Doing so, it passed under all of the guests giving them a real close up view of the Spectacled Caiman I had ‘captured’. I followed it the whole way, trying to grab it but there was no opportunity without risking it taking off my hand, or arm, with one quick bite. The captain, Isidro, was wetting himself with laughter, even as it entered his compartment.

He told me to wait, and back off, as he slowly watched the caiman settle down. Then he rapidly grabbed it with 2 hands and lifted it for all to see again, this time under control, I held the tail for him so people could take a photo before we sent it back to the water where it slowly and calmly retreated to the floating vegetation. With all the commotion over, I had the opportunity to notice my heart. It was beating at a million miles an hour and trying to punch its way through my chest. I was expecting to see some angry and annoyed faces but everyone was excited and grateful to have witnessed such a close-up encounter.

So we continued with the safari, as per normal. We saw a tarantula, capybaras, sloths, little blue herons (with their juveniles) and amongst many other things, a smaller, more manageable crocodile I caught to demonstrate the differences with the caiman. Upon returning to the lodge, my heart was still going full throttle, but the guests couldn’t stop telling how great the experience was. This was the when I found out that the 9 year old girl was asleep at the time and that the mum had to pick her up to get her legs off the floor. Needless to say, the next time I saw something this size, I chose to point it out and not try and bring it into the boat.

I had been having dreams about crocs and caimans and had this feeling of something going wrong for a long time. With these dreams reoccurring, I was performing night safaris with a little more caution. On top of that, all of the other volunteers were getting themselves bitten by baby caimans. Although they were bitten, the teeth are sharp and would not even leave a scar once it had healed. If I wasn’t even going to get a scar then there was no point being bitten so I proceeded more carefully and tried to keep all my fingers.

As per usual, volunteers were coming and going, and this included Shane who left in January sometime. With him leaving, Carl asked me to manage the place and train the new volunteers seeing as I had the most experience and knew what was going on. He also paid me for this role much better than before. What it meant was that I had to be available from 6am to 9pm and I also had to put up with all of Carl’s unwarranted anger and annoyingness. Fortunately, it meant that he would only come to the lodge when it was my days off as he didn’t need to be there when I was. One of the hardest parts of the work is watching Carl be rude to people (customers and crew) and having to be diplomatic and apologise on his behalf. Luckily I only had the abuse through the phone so I could easily ignore it.

With less customers coming, we had less volunteers so it seemed just as busy. By the end of the week, I was ready for my days off so I could relax and recover. There was a new hostel that opened up in Panama City but it wasn’t centrally located like the others. It was located on a nature reserve but also within a 30 minute walk of places of interest or places to party. Being in a nature reserve, it was possible to spot agouti, iguanas, tamarin monkeys, toucans, woodpeckers, deer and various other bits of wildlife. The garden was also surrounded by trees so it felt like you weren’t in the city at all.

I knew the girl who was the manager there as I had met her in another hostel in El Valle last year sometime when Mum and Dad were out here. Because the hostel was fairly new, they were missing some chairs and tables but they did have many pallets lying around. I offered her my carpentry services in exchange for bed and breakfast and she agreed. So now on my days off, I go to Panama City to work again. It’s not too bad though, seeing as I only have to do 3 hours a day to cover my costs and I also find building things with wood fun and relatively relaxing. So with this now happening, I am finding it very hard to spend money here.

At Jungle Land, everything is included so I don’t spend a penny. On my days off, I only need to buy lunch and dinner and the rest is covered. So if I have the time before my days off, I go fishing in the lake and try to catch myself some food. I season the fish at the lodge and then I only have to buy rice and veg to accompany it. If I wish to drink or have some fun then I obviously have some expenditure but otherwise, I am living a free life here at the moment. This has enabled me to save up a fair wedge of cash to help me with my travels for the future. I gave the majority of it to a German volunteer who was leaving so he could transfer it into my bank once he got home. He could have just kept it but fortunately, he was a nice kid so he put it into my bank for me. This will save me from having to travel with all my money in my bag in cash form. Not the safest of ideas.

With my time coming to a close at this beautiful place, I was enjoying doing more activities. Even after being here for almost a year, I was still witnessing new species and things that I had never seen before. Last year, I don’t remember seeing a snake once at Jungleland land. This year, there have been many. The majority have been a snake the locals call a Cazadora, which translates as a Hunter. These are known in English as a Mussurana, a snake that is as quick as lightning and known to be very aggressive and bitey. One time, walking guests back from the waterfall, due to its camouflage in the mud and leaves, I almost trod on one. Before I knew my foot was about to stand on it, it disappeared across the dry river bed and into the scrubs.

Although I was fortunate it chose to flee and not to bite, the venom from this snake is not dangerous to humans. Yes it would hurt, and yes it would be annoying to have to deal with, but it would not be life-threatening. The problem with the Cazadora is its prey. They like to eat another type of snake called the Fer-de-lance, which is heavily feared by locals and normally killed on sight. I have seen this all the way from Mexico to Panama with everyone having a story of a friend or family member who has fallen victim to the Fer-de-lance. The point I am getting to is that if I am seeing lots of Cazadoras, it is because there is lots of prey for them to eat, meaning lots of Fer-de-lance. Saying that, I never laid eyes on one, possibly because they have incredible camouflage and are really hard to spot.

I also saw a couple of new bird species that I had never seen before, some of which are very rare to see and incredibly beautiful. I didn’t have my camera with and when I returned to find them again, they were obviously not about. The Agami Heron is one of these birds and the photos on google do not give credit to seeing it in real life. The same goes for a Sunbittern which has magnificent colours and patterns on it wings and seeing it in flight with the sun on its wings was amazing to see. The reason I saw a Sunbittern was due to a freak occurrence in nature that nobody has been able to explain with one hundred percent conviction. This occurrence also gave me the opportunity to see the Cocoi Heron up close without it flying away before my camera can catch it.

It was 6:30am and we were setting out on a birdwatching tour up the river. Because of the time of the morning, you would generally see a few different species of birds and a few regulars who inhabited the banks and trees along the river. The tour started as normal with us seeing a few resident birds before even losing sight of the lodge. As we went up the river we spotted a 1.5m plus Caiman just chilling in the water, not really bothered by our presence. This was not a rare sight but it also was not a common thing to see. As we moved a little bit further up the river, the captain started to spot fish floating on the surface. One, two, three of them in quick succession, all of them dead. Some of the fish had been almost ripped in half, they had been obviously bitten, whilst others look complete and untouched.

The further we moved up the river, the more dead fish we saw, some of which were on the river banks, possibly dragged there by predators. But we were also seeing the live fish in the water. They were coming to the surface of the water and there were hundreds of them. All species of fish were doing this, even the ones that normally dwell in the muds of the river beds. I could see every species of fish that I knew from these waters plus many more I had never seen before. All of them together were floating motionless at a 45 degree angle with their mouths at the surface of the water. They were so slow in their movements that we could have caught them by hand. You were seeing parents with their school of infants, you were seeing predatory fish alongside their prey, you were seeing something strange that even the locals had never seen.

As to what was causing it was creating a debate between people who were unsure as to what they were seeing. The most likely reason, in my eyes, was that they were coming up for air. These were fish from all depths of the river, all of whom normally breathed through their gills and not through their mouth at the surface. Maybe the water was lacking in oxygen because there had been minimal rain, or fresh oxidised water entering the river in the last 4 months. Adding this to the abundance of fish that were about, this could be why they needed to search oxygen at the water’s surface. But even Carl was confused by this, never seeing it before, yet seeing the water levels much lower than this. Some people said something about the water being polluted but it was only happening in a certain area, an area where we knew the water to be shallower.

Whatever was causing the fish to do this, it didn’t matter to the natural world. The rest of the Jungle were fully aware of this and were taking advantage. That first Caiman we saw wasn’t the last, bigger ones followed, lurking in the water´s edges and eating on the river banks. Caimans are normally nocturnal hunters but they were taking full advantage of this breakfast buffet laid on for them. It was not only them, with the full cast of birds coming out at once and taking part in this feeding frenzy. The river banks were littered with fish-eating birds that you wouldn’t see too often, but today they were all there sharing in this bonanza. Maybe it happens every year on the same day or maybe it will never happen again. Either way, I thank the jungle for this leaving present in my last week before I leave.

The next week I left Jungleland with the intention of relaxing for a week, sorting out all my stuff and flying out the following weekend to Colombia. I was staying at Bodhi’s hostel so I could build some more stuff and then save a bit more cash. But the day I arrived at Bodhi’s, was the day I left Bodhi’s. I had friends in Costa Rica who were staying on the beach and wanted me to come and say hello. So I got a bus that night at 23:55 and started my journey to Playa Grande. I arrived the following day in Tamarindo at 9pm and was unable to make the last part of the journey as the boat that crossed the river, stopped for the night. The following morning I walked to Playa Grande and spent the next few days with my friends.

The idea was to spend a couple of days surfing in Playa Grande, relaxing and enjoying the amazing sunsets that Costa Rica regularly supplies. The truth was that at this time of the year, the surf can be a little bit unpredictable due to strong winds. It made it almost impossible to spot a decent wave and even harder to be in the right position to catch it. And with it entering the rainy season, there were lots of thunderstorms and they conveniently seemed to arrive at the right time to block out the potential of a spectacular sunset. But it was still nice to catch up with the ex-Jungleland crew for a couple of days before we headed of in opposite directions.

This little trip also brought me into the situation where I would be seeing 3 different countries in 3 days. I started Thursday in Costa Rica, taking the 3:30am bus from Tamarindo. I then travelled all day and night and arrived in Panama City at around the same time the next morning. I spent Friday in Panama before waking up earlyish on Saturday to take a flight to Barranquilla, Colombia. I had booked my flight a few weeks back because it was one of the cheapest but by chance, it happened to arrive on a good day. I spoke to a friend to let him know I would be back in the Caribbean Coast of Colombia on the 25^th of May. He instantly replied and told me to get my butt to El Rio Hostel right away because they were having a huge party that night. This was the place where I had stayed for a few months before so a lot of my friends should still be there.

There is always a risk of having a tight travel schedule in Latin America due to everything being late or on a more relaxed schedule let’s say. But everything went smoothly with the bus exchanges and the border crossings and I was in the airport ready to catch my flight. As it turned out, the flight was actually delayed by a few hours which might have scuppered my ideas of getting to Buritaca and the party that night. What actually happened was that I arrived in Barranquilla, got a moto-taxi to the bus station and there was a bus leaving immediately and going in the right direction. I arrived much later than expected but in plenty of time to relax and prepare for the party. The numbers are debatable but roughly around 400 turned up to El Rio for the party which continued well into the next day.

Wanting to leave El Rio before I got trapped there again, I made a hasty exit the next day. Before leaving, I was unable to find my shoes that I had arrived with nut it wasn’t a problem. The shoes cost 3000 pesos ($1) and I had my real shoes packed in my big backpack. I got a lift from a friend to Santa Marta and he dropped me off outside a shopping park. I searched for my shoes in my bag and that was when I realised that I had forgotten to put them in my bag in Panama. I had lost 2 pairs of shoes in 2 days and was now in a pickle. No one would let me into the shops without a pair of shoes on my feet but I couldn’t enter the shops to buy some shoes. So I took a taxi to the hostel where I could hopefully find someone to lend me some sort of footwear so I could enter the shops to buy some footwear.

And that is where I am now. In a hostel sorting out my plans and doing a bit of life administration. I plan to head to a beach around this area and learn how to scuba dive before venturing further afield toward pastures new. I also want to plan a bit better so that my money will last a little bit longer and I can make it further south in South America than Colombia. I suppose only time will tell.