A Weekend in Gamboa

This blog was written by our guest writer: Wanny Groenendijk

Gamboa is located at the Panama Canal, close to Gatun Lake, between the northern and southern locks of the Panama Canal. In the old days, Gamboa was inhabited by Americans who worked at the canal or at one of the research institutes. On 31 December 1999 the canal was handed over to the government of Panama. Many Americans have left, but Gamboa still looks American with large wooden houses. Currently there are around 500 people living in Gamboa.

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Before we reach Gamboa, we do a walk near the entrance of the Soberania National park, our first encounter with a tropical forest. Many high trees, most of which are recognized by Kees and Loes, lots of frogs, birds and ants. Whole armies of leafcutter ants walk in organized lines along a clearly defined path. They carry bits of leaves to their nests, where they chew the leaves. A fungus is then sown on the resulting leaf pulp. The ants eat the fungus that grows on the leaf pulp!

We then continue to Gamboa to visit Gwen. Gwen is a friend of Kees and Loes who works as a guide with the Smithsonian and as a volunteer at the Summit Gardens. Kees and Loes stay with her and we (Wanny and Dick) stay at Ivan’s Bed & Breakfast. Ivan has a beautiful garden that attracts many birds as well as agouti’s. Agoutis are related to guinea pigs and look a bit like guinea pigs on stilts. One of the agouti’s in Ivan’s garden has two pups and we had a great time watching them play.

Gwen has also, somewhat reluctantly, become the local caretaker of animals in distress. When people heard that she was caring for three Tropical Screech Owls, they started bringing her wounded animals. She is currently caring for the three owls, one baby squirrel and one parrot. The latter was brought on the morning we arrived and had a concussion with a fever. It was being treated with antibiotics and fed with mashed fruit through a syringe.

The next day we went by boat to Barro Colorado (literally ‘coloured earth’ but usually meaning ‘red earth’). This island in the Gatun lake, about 45 minutes by boat from Gamboa, is a Natural Monument an is used by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for long term research on the ecosystem of a tropical forest. The Smithsonian allows only a limited number of visitors on the island because they claim that allowing more visitors would disturb their experiments. The visit consists of a guided walk –with Gwen- through the forest for about 4 hours and a lunch in the canteen of the research institute.

During the boat trip to the island we see one of the huge vessels ‘boating’ to the Gatun locks on the Caribbean side. The weather is good and it is cool underneath the huge trees. Most trees are 30 metres high or more and some are centuries old. We see a poison dart frog, all sorts of insects, mushrooms birds and howler monkeys. We see the group of howler monkeys in the trees above us while we take a brief rest. They have at least one young still riding the back of its mother. It is hard to say who is observing who, the howlers seem to take a look at those distant relatives that took the strange decision to descend from the trees and invent the wheel, money, careers and stress when they could have led a carefree existence in the treetops.

Thanks to the eagle eyes of Gwen and Loes, we see a twig snake and hummingbird on her nest; just try to imagine how tiny that is! The walk’s turn around point is at ‘the big tree’. And this tree, a ‘Ceiba’ is indeed huge (see photos!). To estimate its girth and height is almost impossible. Just the buttresses are about four metres high and extend five metres from the ‘true’ trunk. Most people guess that this tree is between 500 and a 1000 years old, but no-one knows for sure. It was almost certainly there when Columbus finally reached the Americas.

As we took our time getting there, we hurry back via a shortcut to get something to eat. After a good lunch (don’t you worry, the Smithsonian Institute takes good care of staff living on the island) we go back to Gamboa with the boat through the canal again.

The next day when we leave, Kees and Loes tell us that the parrot has recovered and will probably be released that day.