Westward Ho!

Today we got up early and headed back through Búcaro and then west through the mountains and to the costal beaches of Santa Maria and Playa Cambutal.

Surfers have started coming to the coast here for the constant waves and beautiful beaches.

Our first stop was the lesser known beach of Santa Maria (now that may not be the actual name but thats what the road sign said at the turn LOL)

We drove through all the Fincas (ranches) with the beautiful cows in the fields, saw many rancheros hearing on horseback etc. Very beautiful location. A little more lush vegetation as we headed in the direction of (we hoped) the water. We started seeing surfboards with signs on them for accommodations etc. We must have been in the right area.

Suddenly there we were...

Some people were surfing but the beach was basically empty.

Surfers make for cool pics don't they?

There were some accommodations along the beach and a restaurant/bar that we could see. Over all a gorgeous long beach, beautiful surf and what would it be without another entry under "Circle of Life"

FISH!

OOPS .. a bit too big maybe?

Let me get a grip on this ...

RUN ... he was being chased by his buddies!

He was a non breeding adult Laughing Gull ... he was not laughing while he was running away trying to save his dinner.

This was a local fisherman, he was loading his fish onto a truck with big cooler boxes on it and we saw him stopping along the way at restaurants and houses selling the fish.

Lovely beach but we have places to go still. We will be back!

We drove back to the main road and again headed west through cattle country to Playa Cambutal which we had heard lots about. David our new friend in the village had told us about an Italian he knew there who had a little restaurant. They made their own pasta etc and he said it was amazing. We had eaten lightly this morning so that we could enjoy the meal.

I stopped to take pictures of the cattle Egrets and saw the calves had these sticks tied to the side of their necks. I realized it is to prevent them from getting through the fences! Clever!

Breeding Adult Cattle Egret - very common to see with the cattle in the fields.
You can tell it is a breeding one by the tan feathers on the head.

There were quite a few workmen on the roads today, fixing fences and doing electrical work, so we slowly made our way and eventually arrived at Cambutal. I knew only that the restaurant was between the two larger hotels on the beach and to look out for the sigh that said Italian!

Before long we passed the first hotel and then sure enough there was the sign. We parked and as we got out of the car I saw a van pull up. The driver was a young lady and she opened the back of the van and she had FRESH PRODUCE!! We bought two fragrant pineapples, a giant papaya, tomatoes and a head of lettuce (SALAD TONIGHT) for lest than $5. I wish you could smell this pineapple....

Did I mention LETTUCE??? A rare commodity here.

We tucked all that into the cooler and headed for lunch. We were not dissappointed! The owner Franchesco (?) was so friendly and told use they had just made fresh stuffed pasta. Two orders of that please! But first a cold beer!

Our view while we dined! Magical!

They have three little chalets on the beach that you can rent and I would not hesitate to recommend this place. There are two slightly bigger hotels and so lots of dining options available if you for some crazy reason did not want to eat here every single day! Links at the bottom of the post for anyone interested.

Fresh Homemade Ricotta and Spinach Ravioli ... So yummy.

We shared this piece of heaven ... seriously one of the best ever!!

As we sat waiting for our lunch the circle of life took place yet again ... is it just me that notices carnage everywhere?

This female Great Tailed Grackle caught a lizard as big as herself! RIP little guy.

Then it was time for a walk on the beach. I grabbed my big hat and was sure in the knowledge that I had slathered myself in #50 sunscreen earlier that a walk would be fine!

as far as the eye could see ... solitude!

... both directions.
I think this would be an AWESOME sandcastle building beach as the sand is dark and heavy.

The back drop. Thats where we had lunch.

These are the two small cabins on the beach that you can rent. They also have a bigger looking one set back a little bit.

We walked for a while and then I noticed lots of BIG holes in the sand...everywhere...

I was not sticking my hand in to see what lived in there!!

I'll let you know if we find the inhabitants when we go back...because we will for sure go back here a few times while we are here in Panama! It's so beautiful!! Come now before it gets spoiled! The surfers are coming!!

We slowly packed up and headed home. Stopped to take a few picks along the way of the living fences to show you all the different stages of how they are grown. But I will save that for a seperate post another day when there is no excitement to share.

Did I mention this mornings circle of life moment? This is what I saw first thing this morning..,
Mamacita (aka Ginger) noshing down on a lizard. For sure I would not want to be a lizard in Panama. She kindly left me the head to dispose of! Lucky I love her just a little bit! :-) She has stolen a little bit of my heart for sure.

Oh yeah, breakfast!

One the way home Richard saw these little doves on the fence so I managed to capture a couple of pics to add to my growing collection.

I think it is a male Ruddy Ground Dove but I might eb wrong. I'll check with Marcy.

Beautiful scenery everywhere.

Here is the place we stopped for lunch. No affiliation what so ever just loved it.

HOTEL BOOM SHIVA Ask for Daniele (guy)

You can phone them on WhatsApp at +507-622-008-65
Everyone uses WhatsApp here by the way. Make sure to add the +
boomshivacambutal@gmail.com

Thanks for dropping by. Let me know if you go!!

Sue and her sidekick

Just a quick post before bed

Yesterday we took the truck and headed into Tonosí for some groceries and to see what veggies and fruit we might find. It's very limited there.

On the way we passed the living fences I had mentioned previously. This is what they look like with their new growth. Isn't this clever?

Living Fences

There are not very many restaurants here (basically none) that offer anything other than the local rice and chicken, rice and fish and rice and beans. I just thought for fun I'd check which one Trip Advisor would recommend..and lo and behold there was a little "health" restaurant listed. So for breakfast we headed there to try it out. What a little gem! The owners are a young couple, he is from Berlin and she is a local girl. They have two little babies and they started the restaurant about 6 months ago. It was SO good.

We went in and order the Passionfruit juice, lattes and the breakfast eggs. (I am going to have to find the name of the dish when I go back, I forgot to take a note of it)
 Here is what we dined on.. for $13.80US

Latte with Sugar Cane reduction syrup ... amazing!!!

 The eggs are on a base of tomato and peppers and onions and some spices. Potatoes on the side.

Our lovely breakfast

As we left we noticed some left over festival floats in the field opposite. I so wish we had been there for this! I think it was Shrove Tuesday?

Isn't it magnificent!

We quickly did a bit of groceries, not a great selection but picked up a cabbage for some slaw and some tomatoes and bananas. We will survive! :-) Unfortunately we are out of regular milk so Rich has to switch to the shelf life milk until our next trip to Chitré! I am happy with my soy milk!

Today was much less eventful than yesterday with regard to critters. No life and death games in the morning at all!

This morning the ever present wind had died down quite a bit and so we had lots of hummingbirds in the garden. I managed to capture one of the female Garden Emerald at a flower and it was not too bad.

Garden Emerald - Female

I also managed to catch a shot of this Sapphire Throated Hummingbird too. I hope to get a better image soon. isn't he beautiful though?

Male Sapphire Throated Hummingbird

This afternoon we went to the village to visit one of Marcy and Ray's friends. What a character! An expat British guy who has led an amazingly interesting life that included royalty and heads of states...even Kadaffi! I love meeting people who have lived life like that! Always fun to hear their stories. Now he lives in the village and raises iguanas and does some fishing. You just have to say YES to life and you never know where you could end up!  I am sure we will hear more of his stories over the next little while.

(As I am writing this I am hearing weird sounds outside..... Richard is asleep ... argh!)

Time to go to bed. Tomorrow we are heading west along the coast to what is supposed to be an amazing beach and coastline. I'll bring my bags for beach garbage pick up! Doing my little bit for the oceans!

Thanks for dropping in! If you have any questions about anything ask in the comments and I'll find an answer! (I love comments..just sayin')😀
Sue and her sidekick

Average temps today 34℃/23℃ ☀ 91℉/74℉

Whose Idea was this?

So lets give a little back story first. When we arrived and met all the kitties we knew pretty clearly that Porsche holds a special place in Marcy's heart, she loves them all but this sweet Princess had a special part of her heart. The hardest question I always ask is, do you want to know if anything happens to the pets while you are away? She said yes she wanted to know.

One of the rules is, the gates are closed when the two house cats are out and about. The two house cats should be in at nightfall. Got it.

Yesterday Porsche, who normally only goes out for about 10 minutes before wanting in again, but always seems to want to go out around 6-6:30pm which is a no go time, was not out very much at all during the day. Around 5pm I took her outside to have a sniff around and some fresh air before it was time to come in. Well, sun sets and no Porsche. We finished our dinner and Richard calls her, I call her, we ask the other cats where she is, no help there. I opened the front door to call her and then Colby ran out...but I am a ninja and grabbed him before he got too far. After that I took a flashlight and walked around the house and the property (in the pitch dark in a jungle setting..I'm a badass like that) calling her. After going through that stress she finally sauntered up and looked at me like ... WHAT? Panic avoided and I was able to stop thinking about how to break the news to Marcy. The rest of the evening was calm.

Its been nice and cool at night so we have just had the windows open and the breeze flowing through the house instead of the air conditioning in the bedrooms. Therefore the cats can roam in and out of the bedrooms too. 6am this morning I had a cat walking AROSS my head .. and woke up to this... LOL You are welcome kitty.

Ah, time to feed the cats and have a relaxing iced coffee on the patio, because mornings are calm like that...right? The cats then went to their usual spot by the shrubs where the humming birds flitter in the mornings.

Post breakfast lounging

I took my guide book and latte and sat at the table

I love this spot

So as I am relaxing and planning a future trip to a little town called Ocú where apparently one of the best Panama Hat makers lives I realize that Lonely Planet does not even have our little village in it! Yes we are too remote for Lonely Planet! Gotta love that! Then I tried to check the driving on my iPhone maps and it does not know where Ocú is ... this could be an interesting assignment to find Lydia's replacement Panama hat. I hope this will repay her for giving her the mange! :-) (Inside joke)

Where in the world are we?

 Suddenly, Colby makes a move and I hear a flutter and he has something under his paw, meanwhile Ginger is also there. So I'm thinking he has caught a big bug that Ginger chased his way. Then I realize...he has a tiny humming bird! Ninja moves again as I grab him, get the bird and fight off mad kitties. The little bird was so tiny. She is a Garden Emerald. I could see she was in shock and so I just held her while she recovered but it gave me time to take a couple of pictures. She happily flew off to be safe for another day.

The colours were so amazing!

 Well thats certainly got the blood flowing to start my day. What more could happen before we left for grocery shopping and a visit to the neighbour.

Suddenly Richard shouts ... OH NO .. now she has a snake! And here comes Ginger with a two foot long Vine snake (I didn't know what kind of snake it was right at that moment but I was texting with Marcy at the time and quickly found out). I ran and grabbed Ginger and the little snake was trying hard to save itself and had its mouth WIDE open ready to bite. Soon as I took the cat, who was royally pissed off now, the snake headed to the shrubs where the humming birds hang out and climbed into one. I put Ginger down (AKA wriggling grumpy cat) and she immediately ran to find it. Meanwhile I asked Marcy what it was and knew then that it was not poisonous ... if I had given her the right description that is...
The snake is now up in the shrub and really no way to get away from the cat who is now trying to see how to climb into the shrub. I tried shooing her away but she was having nothing of it. I brought more food out and all the other cats were happy ... but not Miss Ginger ... she was focused. There was nothing for it..I had to take a picture and then rescue the snake...

Brown Vine Snake

Then I did something I never thought I would EVER do .. I picked up a live wriggling snake and carried it about 40 feet to the front yard and put it in a vine. During this time it had its mouth wide open ready to bite me and made a couple of attempts to do that too. But I held on gently and it went on to live a hopefully long life in the jungle.

Now my heart is racing at a fierce rate and I need to take a shower. Grocery shopping should be a calming event right?

Ninja and her Sidekick

Early Bird Catches the ... Bird

So since it gets so hot here during the day it gets very quiet in the jungle later on. So for seeing wildlife you need to get up earlier when it is nice and cool. The bird songs are beautiful, bugs chirping and monkeys howling.

This morning I was able to add three more birds to my every growing list.

House Wren

Male AntStriker (The mate of the brown one I posted a couple of days ago)

Female Painted Bunting which is apparently hard to spot here.

Time to check on the watering system in the garden to make sure it is all getting watered over night. There is a very high content of calcium in the water here and so the soaker heads sometimes will get clogged up. A simple nail poked in it will clear the line or if it is really bad you just remove it and rinse it out. #JungleLife We are really enjoying ourselves here. Mornings and evenings are the busiest times as it is much cooler. The sun will burn my pale Irish skin in a heartbeat here so I have to make sure to lather on the sunblock every morning first thing, wear a big wide brimmed hat and jump from shadow to shadow 😁

Thanks for dropping by again,
Sue and her sidekick
Average temps today H33℃/L23℃☀ H91℉/L73℉

Easter Sunday and some fun new birds to add to my list

I'm learning that birds are not the easiest thing to photograph, they don't sit still while you fiddle with the controls of your camera ... cheeky things.
One of our "chores" here is to water a Mango tree and to water the plants around a tree that Marcy and Ray have planted for the future of their development here. A beautiful spot to sit and look at the view. I love their gentle plans for this space they have.
So today was tree watering day. We loaded up four containers of water, three water cans and head out...I also packed my camera since Marcy mentioned that she has seen the white faced monkeys right by the tree planting area. It's also a great time of day to see birds head to their roosting spots for the night.

We stopped to look down toward Bucaró

The road to the trees.

We went down to the Mango tree first since it is the furthers away and just as we arrived I hear parrots calling. Not the small parrots that I have seen at the house. Loud squeaky ones, different couples calling across the valley to each other as the sun set. Suddenly one pair came into view...stunning vibrant green colours flashed in the sunlight and they alighted on the tree just in front of where we were, about 30 yards away. I grabbed my camera, pointed and and prayed...
(I know Marcy..I should have pointed it and thought about what I was trying to achieve but I was so darn excited lol)

Dang! Hidden by branches...the bane of my life here with the birds LOL

But then the one parrot moved up the branch a little bit...

..and I was pretty happy with this one since it all happened so fast!

Then out of nowhere I saw a big bird flying by and just clicked and focused as best I could...and when I got home I realized I had captured a few pictures of an Osprey with dinner in it's talons..

At first I though he had a bird...

but I think it was a fish since they are ocean fishers

I have to start a list of all the birds we see... I might be a birder!

Back to the parrots sitting in the tree...

Got the look...and...

..off they flew.

I watched them fly away squeaking like banshees...and then I saw them land n another tree up the road. I was not too optimistic...but I asked Richard to water the Mango tree while I walked back up the hill we had driven down. As I approached I could hear but not see them...and the light was making everything a silhouette ...not good. But as I reached the tree they were still there and as I passed it I looked backwards and there sitting on a bare branch was one of the pair!
Just as I raised my camera he started to lift his wings and I thought...gonna miss this one...but no! Instead he started to put his wings up and screech at the top of his very tiny lungs and I caught this sequence! (Parrots would be great opera singers...just saying!)

see the wings start to lift...

Almost ready...

..and SCREECH...

Love the flash of red

all done..

Impressed with himself! :-) and they flew off!

Such an honour to see such beauties in the wild! I cannot wait to add to my list of birds spotted! I wish Marcy had been here...it was quite the scene and with her lens she would have caught amazing shots! I've started my Birthday wish list...just sayin'

Rich drove up and picked me up after all that excitement...I had such a big grin on my face! He is a patient man!

Oh Driver....!!

Thanks for stopping by, I promise we will head out on adventures soon...we are just loving the peace and calm here after so much travelling recently. We need to go do a shop for sure on Tuesday! Sorry for all the bird shots...we will do more touristy things very soon!

Sue and her Sidekick.
Average Temps today .. 33°C☀ 91°F