Monday, March 24, 2008

3/21 Pipeline Road

It's amazing how much easier it has been to get up early on this trip. First of all, it's warm, so you don't have to worry about cold feet. Second, something exciting is going to happen as soon as you get up, which is very motivating. Third, the howler monkeys are screaming their heads off.

So I didn't have any trouble catching the 6:30 ferry this morning. We were a few minutes late just because we were waiting for the kitchen to finish our lunches. We each got two bags of food, and I started eating breakfast on the ferry. That's when we discovered the sandwiches. Four for each of us, For the vegetarians, peanut butter and jelly and cheese; for the meat eater, peanut butter and jelly and cheese and ham. All on one sandwich. Why is this? There are a few theories. It could be that the cooks were tired, and got confused halfway through. It could be that they hate us. Or maybe they just think gringos like peanut butter on everything, not impossible. Anyway, it wasn't too bad without the ham.

Hiking Pipeline was the perfect way to spend my last day in the rainforest. We saw ~60 species of birds, 16 new to me. There were also some new plants, including the fattest, hairiest spiral ginger I've ever seen. A tamandua (little anteater) was chomping away a few feet off the road. Possibly the biggest treat was seeing a tarantula hawk (an enormous wasp, at least 3" long) dragging its still-twitching prey (an orange-kneed tarantula, perhaps?) across the road. We were tired and happy when we made it back to the ferry at 5 pm.

Dinner and packing was followed by a last night of hanging out as a group. Jess left last night and Sara left this morning, so we're diminished, but we still count 16. Tomorrow morning we'll all pile on the 6:30 ferry with all of our luggage, head into Panama City, and disperse.

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