As Daniel had said yesterday we were picked up in the morning. Unfortunately my alarm went off but he was very kind and waited. I did not know what to expect but I had the feeling it would be wonderful, maybe like my so far favorite island Nananu in Fiji. From the mainland it took about 30-40min by boat to reach Isla Parida. The weather was great and the sun shining. The water glinted. I was so exited! And then there was the private island. Beautiful! Marvelous. Like a jewel in the ocean. From the side we arrived at to the other side Daniel used a golf cart as transportation vehicle. That was so fun! Especially cruising along the over 1km beach…

After inspecting the wonderful property I got to see the first time in my life pygmy marmoset. These are probably the tiniest monkeys of the world around the same seize of a tarsier maybe. They had three – two males and one female. And they had even a story: They all including another male belonged to a private zoo in Panama what needed to close. So the owner was looking for a place for the four. Finally they found one and all four pygmy marmoset were divided in two each between two new owners. Isla Parida got two males. And the female with another male came to somebody else… But the female behaved strange. People said every morning she was looking out for someone or something calling… Nobody understood what was going on. After six months her companion the other male died of a scorpion sting and the new owner suggest to reunited the remaining female with the two other males of Isla Parida who she already knew from times back in the zoo. And can you imagine what happened? As soon as the female met the two others she got exited and so happy. And it became obvious why she was looking for someone everyday – she had missed her choses partner! He was one of the two males of Isla Parida. When the four had been divided people did that just randomly without thinking that even a tiny monkey could have chosen a partner for life! So a big happy end for the pygmy marmoset couple!

Then I saw the macaws. The owner of the private island own over 20 macaws and lots of other parrots. They breed them and goal is to release the to Panama native macaws on the island. At the moment of my visit there were already a few couples flying around wild. Michelle a lady from the states takes care of them and brought her own parrots as well. It was an amazing experience to see these magnificent and intelligent birds that close. So wonderful. And each of them has their own personalities, habits, likes and dislikes.

Furthermore the owner had Panama deer, two females and one male. There were so tame that I could go close and pet them. I felt like in paradise sine I love animals so much. Close to the deer was the monkey tree! On that tree live five female spider monkeys. As soon as I entered the place one of them got very excited. Her name was Bella. She loved the attention and the cuddles. She was one very communicative monkey and all time she did a sound what was similar to the twitter of a bird. Another monkey was Lucy. She was curious and shy at the same time. Even while looking at her photos you realize the two different personalities of the monkeys. The other monkeys stayed on the tree. Outside the monkey tree was a kind of angry whitefaced capuchin. He was supposed to be caught and brought of the island because he was alone and aggressive. Supposedly he had killed a few tamarind monkeys. But he is just a very smart monkey and since he was escaped a trap he is now difficult to catch.

And if you think that is enough of overstimulation for one day – you are wrong!
With Daniel and his family I visited later the other side of the island or maybe just another island? I am not sure. Anyway at that place his mum and dad lived. It was beautiful! The mum had few wild caymans as pets who she fed everyday. Wow! What an experience! I had never seen that before but it was real! The place was wonderful as well and I really don’t know what was the best on that day. I have seen so many miracles… If there is a paradise it will look like Parida!

I am very thankful that I had met Daniel and for his great invitation to Parida. It was really one of the best things I ever have experienced traveling. For everything I had witnessed today one day was not enough….

Isla Parida

Pygmy marmoset

Panama deer albuterol inhaler

Spider monkeys

Whitefaced capuchin

The other side and feeding the caymans

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Did you ever visited a coffee farm? Or do you know where the best coffee comes from right now? I gave it a try and visited the organic coffee farm of Don Cune and learned about the process of growing coffee over harvesting it up to the final roasted product.  Don Cune is one of the growing numbers of organic farmers in Panama. He grows mainly coffee but sells as well fruit liquors. He knows lots about plants and even healing plants. The most expensive coffee right now is Geisha coffee from around Boquette in Panama. Also Don Cune is growing Geisha. He showed the way of sugar cane juice making as well as various ways of dealing with the coffee cherries / beans. Unfortunately his farm got lots of sand flies who bite me again even though I had used high deed repellent. I should just have know at that point that the best way to prevent their bites is actually coconut oil because they are so tiny that they will drawn in it while trying to bite.
At the guesthouse they showed me a very rare salamander what is barely known to science and i took the second photo in history of it…

Don Cune’s coffee farm

Olingo

 

 

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At Boca Brava I met new friends Mark and Casey who told me about another monkey shelter. This time a howler monkey orphanage. So a foreigner family own a guest lodge and take care of howler orphans. Many monkeys still are sold as pets and for getting a baby mostly the mothers are killed. The average monkey baby cost only US$20! Therefore the monkey mum dies. Since I love monkeys so much I really got excited if that place is as nice as the one in Puyo. The bus dropped us off and the owner Steve picked us up with his car. The lodge is beautiful and big. Everywhere one is surrounded by lush and wild jungle. From the lodge what is a bit higher up than sea level on a good day you can see the ocean! The family introduced themselves and after a few minutes from everywhere the monkeys appeared… There is nothing sweeter than all these babies with their big dark eyes. I was happy. I enjoyed so much watching them playing, eating, having their milk. The more I hang out with these creatures the more I want to protect them from all harm… Monkeys are so human… unbelievable how they act in certain situations…

Howler monkeys

Tamarind monkeys at the marina near Boca Brava

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I did not feel good today so my plan to explore the area in and around Santa Catalina failed. Still I got some pretty amazing shots from a golden sunset at the beach of Santa Catalina. Enjoy!

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Yesterday I left Panama City in direction of Santa Catalina a little dreamy surfer beach town. It is so tiny that it has no ATM machines and you have to bring enough cash. Famous became Santa Catalina for hosting once the Surf World Championship. Every person in that little town had thought that this will bring lots of business and so they had invested in building more accommodation or buying more food to serve the expected thousands and thousands of guests. But the weather at the championship became bad and rainy and so very few visitors arrived to watch their surf stars. That brought many of the villagers financial problems since they had invested. Meanwhile the place recovers and starts to come back slowly. I stayed at Rollo’s Guesthouse in a two bedroom what I shared with a girl from Serbia which did not talk to me the first days… So today I went diving because the dive shops over here brag that they see the whale shark everyday. Funny when I went I didn’t see it… Also the owner of the dive shop was very grumpy and unfriendly and I ask myself how he ever could make business… He had a creditcard reader and when he had cash you could get it and he would book it plus 10% interest from your credit card. And since there is no ATM it was the only way to get cash over there… Still very unfriendly. The dives itself where not that amazing – I saw few sharks and a big school of rays. Lunch break was at Isla Coiba which is a national park.

Isla Coiba

Santa Catalina

 

Ohhhh, how fast this year 2010 went by… It just had started. And now it is already over. Sometimes I really have the feeling that it all passes by faster with age… I had a great year with very happy and very sad moments. I hope the best for the upcoming year 2011 for all my friends and I! What I did today? I went for a walk with Todd at Casco Viejo and later for a photo excursion in the Panama Zoo to take pictures of the harpy eagle which is the biggest eagle in the world. When we saw the eagle it was far away and secretly I wished somebody to come out and feed it so it would come closer… And guess what? Somebody did! So I was able to do the following photos. In addition I’ve seen the jaguar and the tapir. Animals I wanted to spot in the wild in the amazon but were not able too… In the evening I went with friends I had met in the hostel to dinner at the Casablanca restaurant as a warm up for the long new years night.

Casco Viejo

amitriptylin on line Panama Zoo

Harpy Eagle

Jaguar

Dinner at Casablanca

 

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Walking in Casco Viejo on the last days of the old year… Everywhere vendors selling lucky charms and incense. It smells after frankincense in the busy streets and people try to get everything they need for the last new years eve.

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My first day in Panama. I remembered a cartoon of my childhood with a little bear and a little tiger. They always used to say: “Oh how beautiful is Panama!” They were right – Panama is a wonderful place. The weather is perfectly warm. For me a perfect condition. I stayed in the old quarter, so called Casco Viejo methocarbamol farmacia del nino . It is a photographers paradise since there all over hidden corner and beautiful restored colonial houses are close neighbors to old morbid ruins. The quarters special atmosphere makes the mixture of both. Panama City was founded on the 15th of August 1519 as a important connection for colonial Spain while conquering the Inca kingdom and transporting gold from the new world. The old quarter owns as well a few beautiful old churches. One of them is accommodates the famous golden altar. In 1671 famous pirate Henry Morgan, a welsh man, was in the process of robbing Panama City. He was looking for the golden altar and it is said that his raid on Panama was one of the last military campaigns in the wars of the reformation. However the monks had time enough to paint the altar black to hide it from the pirates and that is why we can still admire it today.
Other than that I tried to get my broken external hard disc fixed and I tried to buy a new hard disc. But both didn’t work out, unfortunately.

Casco Viejo

Iglesia de San Jose

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Again my favorite place is the ‘Reserva de mono’ in Puyo! Since I am back in Baños I needed to go back. I had told that couple I had Mariana and her husband about it and they were happy to join me. I just feel so happy in between all these monkey and I love to play with them or just simply to watch them. There are literally so cheeky when they chasing the Coatis or kissing the dogs… Therefore the third load of monkey photos – enjoy!

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After four days in the primary amazon today it was time to say good-bye. We left the camp on the beach in the morning and went in direction of a different community. At the arrival I was surprised about what I saw – a village what felt like a ghost town since there were almost no people on the streets. And very untypical buildings. Not really that what you would expect to see in the amazon. There was a big landing strip for small planes. Because of the Christmas holidays most of the indigenous had left to Puyo as well. I try to went to the toilets but was so disgusted since there all were filled up with feces. My legs were itching of too many bug bites… and I felt slightly pain in my kidneys. I was ready for a hot shower and clean clothes and a bed. I was waiting for the plane what was supposed to bring us back into civilisation. While waiting a few left villagers came up to me and tried to sell their handicrafts. And a woman which told me she was responsible for healing over there. That sounded great I was thinking since my kidney hurt and I love to try the jungle medicine. At the point where I wanted to see what she got one of the guides came back and was furious and forbid me to go with her… I had not know that if you book a jungle tour you are not your own master anymore?! That was so off-putting! I would have needed that medicine. But he did not understand and it didn’t help to discuss it…They even said that these tribes people could be so dangerous and could kill you out of a sudden. I am still not sure about that. But I had no choice.

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