Guan & Chachalaca

Well, they are new for me and my first photos:

Crested Guan seen on Isla Barro Colorado

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Grey-headed Chachalaca found in Gamboa Resort

Where I'm staying through tomorrow morning

Yellow-headed Caracara

It is my first sighting and photo of this tropical bird, Yellow-headed Caracara

Today we visited the Gatun Locks and watched the huge ships go through, pretty much like what we saw yesterday at the Miraflores Locks. Most of the ships are piled high with the huge shipping containers. But what I liked best today was getting to the rainforest. We had lunch overlooking the Chagres River in the forest and then took the boat ride in Gatun Lake around Monkey Islands which I have done one time before during my Panama Canal Cruise in 2011. But I love it and we saw White-faced Capuchins very close plus some Howlers from a distance. Plus we saw two Keel-billed Toucans, several White-tailed Kites and well, several other birds. We also saw a sloth, agouti, crocodile, turtles and fish. Then we checked into the Gamboa Resort Hotel and I took a walk looking for birds. Saw a few but my big catch was this bird I have never seen or photographed before. My list is growing. He was on a back road picking insects for supper I guess. When I got closer he just hopped up in the tree and posed for me! Tomorrow I skip the boat ride through the canal and go for a tour of the Isla Barro Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute on the island in Gatun Lake. Having a good time!

Captured by Pirates in Old Town

It's all part of the tour of Panama Viejo!   :-)

Exploring on My Own Today

Spent the morning photographing in Casco Viejo, the Old Town, and this was my favorite photo. From now on it is just one photo per day, so I will have to choose! This Kuna (formerly San Blas Indians) woman was selling her molas in market near the French Plaza. I didn't buy anything today because we are scheduled to go to a special Kuna Market this next week. But I did buy a Panama Hat because the sun was so hot and I had left my cap in the room.

 Our group will go to the old town tomorrow but for a shorter time and there were a lot of buildings and views I did not want to miss. After some yummy French ice cream (mango-passion fruit) I took a cab to Punta Culebra, the local nature center. It was not worth two cab fares, but was my nature fix for the day. Got some butterflies, birds, iguanas and a sloth that was only a fuzzy ball high in a tree. The aquarium was okay for younger children who come here a lot on school field trips. Time for a meeting!

Arrived in Panama City, Panama

All day travel is taxing but it went well and the evening has been very nice with a delicious Latino dinner. No great photo today, so I will show 3 lesser ones that tell where I am:

Landing in Panama City under the wing . . .

Road construction & rush hour traffic, no different than Nashville!

Christmas Spirit in Metro Mall

next door to my first hotel

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Just okay - not a great movie. Like too many American movies they glorify and emphasize the violence over any meaningful dialogue or story line. They have left J. R. R. Tolkien behind with their adaptations. Plus it looks like they are trying to copy Harry Potter movies with the same actor as the wizard AND the spiders AND the ugly, snotty-nosed monsters AND the dragon, etc. The problem is that the Harry Potter movies did all of the above better or maybe it helps to be first! Though they left the story in mid-crisis for the 3rd episode, I'm still not anxiously anticipating it because it will obviously be more death and carnage. A double trilogy worked well with Star Wars but not as well with this. The story is just not there. A single Hobbit movie would have been better or better yet, made it a part of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Bilboa Baggins is not the focus of this movie.

And don't waste the extra money for 3-D or IMAX. There were very few scenes that artfully used the technology or the bigger screen. I actually enjoyed The Book Thief better for half the cost.

Write!

After starting three blogs and having goals of books with more words than photos, I decided I needed to get some help writing. I joined a senior adult writer's guild that meets monthly here at McKendree Village, but they don't even critique each others writings. The only help provided is the mutual motivation to write. So I studied the writing courses offered in "The Great Courses" online and CD/DVD. I chose to start with "Building Great Sentences" and the first two lectures have been good with the short writing assignment after each lecture already proving to be the most helpful part to me.

We live in a world of words! Though now maybe more digital than on paper, they are words, sentences, paragraphs and propositions to be expressed just the same. Thus I'm hoping to improve my writing. More later on this I'm sure!

And as a bonus motivation, in The Book Thief movie yesterday, the Jewish young man in hiding gives the little girl who loves to read a book of blank pages. On the first page he wrote one word: "Write"   And soon she started writing, becoming a famous writer by adulthood. I don't have such ambitions, but would like to express myself better and maybe this course will help!