Middle-aged flash packers

Managed to sleep until 6.30am – jet lag is done.

Today was the day of the pipeline walk and possibly visiting the canal, depending on time.

The pipeline trail is a 17 kilometres jungle pathway. During WWII, a petroleum pipeline and its service road were built across the isthmus of Panama. The pipeline was never used, but the single-lane, gravel-and-dirt road is open for people to pootle along on and look for wildlife. The bird life is supposed to be particularly interesting so it was a must do for S.

The bus card was mothballed for this outing. I must confess to being a bit nervous about driving through Panama City after our Uber experiences and the aggressive driving, but all was fine other than a few massive pot holes along the way.

We arrived at the pipeline trail start at around 10am. Serious birders would laugh in your face for even contemplating such a late start, they claim all the birds will be gone by that time, but I’m afraid I’m not getting up at silly o’clock just to see some birds and there’s no way S is going to be missing breakfast. As it was, we heard plenty – the birds were certainly very active – but the jungle was so dense, we couldn’t see many of them.

However, we did see Panamanian Guinea pigs, capuchin monkeys and a black headed spider monkey. The black headed monkey was on his/her own and seemed as interested in us as we were in him. He lay on a branch just looking at us for ages. S googled him when we we got back and apparently they are “critically endangered “.

The noise of the jungle is incredible. I love it. Branches cracking, birds making the most strange noises and then you’ve got the howler monkeys. We could hear them much of the time. They make the most haunting and intimidating noise.

We walked about 5km but decided we’d gone far enough by that time and turned back. The heat and humidity is very energy sapping, plus we were stopping constantly, looking for birds and animals and time was ticking on. We had some snacks but we were both starting to get hungry.

We stopped in Gamboa for a very late lunch. If brunch is a late breakfast, is a late lunch dinch? Or lunner? Whatever, it was 3pm by the time we ate and what a feast! The restaurant was simple and the food was great. I had a pork chop and Steve had a deep fried whole fish, both served with chips, fried rice and pickled cucumber. Yumza. Our bill including 2 cokes came to £11. Quite the contrast to yesterday. What a funny old world we live in.

At this point, some of you are going to think we have taken leave of our senses as we decided not to go and see ships go through the locks at Miraflores. We had plenty of time so I can’t even make that excuse and I know some people think the only reason to go to Panama is to watch this. Being the heathens we are, neither of us could be bothered to queue for tickets, sit through a film about the canal, jostle for position to get a good view (I inevitably have some enormous person in front of me meaning most of the time I’m just staring at someone’s back) then stand in the same position for an hour while the ship makes its way through the locks. Maybe we’ll make it another day, but generally I’d much rather be in a jungle looking at monkeys.