Trip to Cerra Punta

Not much news lately except that I did get the truck yesterday. It seems much bigger than the car, although I am sure it is probably not more than 4" wider. It will take some getting used to but it will be nice to have some power at my disposal for passing, which can be a challenge on some of the mountain roads.

I am going to post some pictures of our trip to Volcan and Cerra Punta with my sister Gail and her husband Jim. Volcan is about 30 KM from where we are building and Cerra Punta is about 15 km past - both up the mountain. It gets cooler the higher you go until sometimes in Cerra Punta you might want a light jacket. We stopped at Las Quetzales Hotel and inquired about bird watching. We were told that you need to take a jeep up to Las Quetzales Park and then a guide will take you birdwatching. After lunch we piled into the jeep for the 15 minute ride up the mountain. He stopped at the bottom and put it into 4 wheel drive. The picture with the buildings is where we left the street. The road got progressively worse as we went along. it was almost impossible to take pictures as I was being tossed about so much that one time (as I was attempting to take a picture) I was thrown into Jim and my glasses were knocked askew. I managed a couple as we slowed to cross a couple of streams and that is what I am posting. The pictures do not do the road justice but believe me it was just a boulder field. This area is the 'breadbasket of Panama' and you can see the vegetables growing like a patch work quilt in the rich volcanic soil on the slopes of the mountain.

When we arrived at the National Park, there were several cabins there. One of the cabins had hummingbird feeders and the hummingbirds were as thick as flies. There would often be 2 or 3 at one feeder. They swooped around like bats and were not afraid of us at all. One of the other cabins had a large deck, and after convincing the guide that we were there to birdwatch not hike he took us to the deck. Within about 10 minutes of arriving at cabin 2 the guide spotted a resplendent quetzal. The quetzal is considered by some to be the most beautiful bird in the world and rare to see. I had no sooner landed a visual bead on him when he flew across the length of the deck and landed in a tree on the other side. The flight was awesome as typically the bird has a very long tail 15-30 inches that trails out behind him. He sat obligingly in the next tree for at least 10 minutes while we examined him through binoculars and tried to get a picture. It was difficult because of the zoom and the shade of the leaves but I am posting the picture that I did manage to get and you can see by his colors where the sun hits him that he was very beautiful. One of his tail feathers wings off to the left, they were blowing in the breeze. His chest is green and his belly red. When I got home I told Gail that I could die happy now, it was such a great day.