Mysticete
Well-known member
A couple of years ago, as the big 40 loomed, I decided to pull the trigger and go on my first trip to the Neotropics. This was a biogeographic region I never ventured into before, so was full with entirely new families of bird and mammal to see. For the past decade, a place I was particularly interested in was Panama Canopy Tower. Panama has a lot of advantages for a first visit to the Neotropics. For one, while it has all of the classic groups and experiences, they are not quite at the levels of diversity as you can get in some places of South America. So there wasn’t much of a danger of getting completely overwhelmed with a mixed feeding flock, and I could have the time to really concentrate and experience the birds without feeling rushed. Panama also has a nice diversity of mammals, something lacking in a lot of neotropical birding hotspots like Trinidad or Andean Ecuador. It’s also relatively easy to visit and not very expensive. I went with a package deal with the Canopy Family of Lodges.
Created by Raul Arias de Para in the mid-90’s, the Canopy family is now a set of 3 lodges located in Panama. The “flagship” lodge is the Canopy Tower, a refurbished US radio tower converted into an ecolodge. Younger lodges include the Canopy Lodge, located in the foothills of El Valle, and most recently Canopy Camp, a more rustic set of lodgings in the Darien of Panama. Each of these lodges has access to a somewhat different set of birds, making them all worth a visit. Also worth pointing out that he company is beginning to experiment with the idea of hosting tours in other parts of the country, including the highlands of western Panama. As a professor at a teaching-focused university, I was constrained time wise to traveling in the summer, the “green” (AKA rainy) season, which does have the benefits of being a lot cheaper. The Canopy Family has several set packages which are convenient in that not only do they include lodging and food, but also airport transfers and guides. I went with the 7-day Tower birding package, adding on another 3 days at the Canopy Lodge. Note that I went with the birding package, however they do have various other packages, including a mammal-centric one (more later).
Of course, my plans were derailed by you know what: I had completely booked and paid for my trip only for COVID-19 to show up and shut-down travel. I was able to hold my reservation in reserve, and being fully vaccinated by the end of March, opted to take it a year later, at the end of May and early June 2021.
I was of course apprehensive in the months leading up, worried I made a mistake in going so soon, or if fate would find some other way to intervene. However, I am glad I went, and had a blast! Before I get into the trip, here are some general specific details that travelers may find useful, especially those traveling in a COVID-19 world
Panama Basics:
As mentioned, I chose the rainy season. The canopy family lodge website insists that the rain isn’t too bad, and they are MOSTLY right. However, the rain did delay or shorten several excursions. Beyond the rain, the biggest difference is the humidity. It’s generally a lot dryer in winter, although the temps are the same. So basically, with the exception of El Valle which is at higher elevation and somewhat cooler, I was perpetually damp with sweat most every day. Plan accordingly, because you really won’t want to re-wear any clothing. Thankfully there is laundry at the tower, although it does cost 7 bucks, but well worth it. It should also be noted that the Tower is not air conditioned. It is generally comfortable as it is located on a hill and gets a bit of a breeze, plus there are fans.
Panama readily takes US currency, so no currency exchange is necessary. Previous reports indicated a preference for cash over card, but this wasn’t as huge a deal as I expected. You will want to make sure however you have cash on hand for tips and any souvenirs. The suggested tip for general staff is about $6 a day. For transfers, I gave the driver a $5 tip per transfer, while the expect tip for a bird guide is about $10 a day. Don’t be cheap, especially now, as the decrease in travel also means a decrease in tip revenue all of these folks would normally be taking in. The guides spoke good English but most of the lodge staff didn’t, although there really wasn’t any communication issues. I didn’t really run around the city or anything by myself, nor did I try to drive anywhere. So I can’t speak to advice on dealing with traffic or urban safety concerns. I can say I never felt uncomfortable, and people were generally sparse in most of the places I birded.
As far as bug life and other environmental hazards, mosquitos were bad near the Chagres River and along Pipeline, although not as bad as Wisconsin in summer. I was an idiot and forgot about the no aerosol rules, so I ended up bringing neither sunscreen nor bug spray. The sunscreen wasn’t an issue, as honestly it was almost always overcast, so I only got a light tan and never burned. Worse than the mosquitos however were the chiggers, which I encountered multiple times in grassy areas, especially near Summit Ponds, the trails at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and Metropolitan Park. I got nailed pretty badly, so make sure you read up on precautions. Stinging insects were also a problem. While trying to brush off an ant that a guide identified as a “Bully Ant”, I got stung on the palm. It basically felt like someone stabbed me in the palm with a knife and kept twisting the tip back and forth. It hurt for a whole two days. Leafcutter and Army ants are common. If you actually watch where you are going and don’t just stand in the middle of a swarm, they are not a problem. Of course, I saw people who did not take those measures and hilarity ensued. I am not a squeamish sort, so all the other bugs were not really a problem. Certainly, someone who hates insects might hate staying at the Tower, but honestly if that is the case why are you even in the Tropics?
Travel in the Age of Covid-19
Even if you are not going to Panama in the next year, odds are most of the general comments here will apply to other destinations.
First off, make sure you thoroughly read up on what is needed to travel. Panama had several restrictions in place, that at least at the time I was there, pretty much would make it impossible for anyone from Brazil or the UK to bird. Those restrictions didn’t apply to US citizens thankfully.
Everyone, no matter their point of origin or vaccination status, needs a negative covid-19 test (antigen or PCR), taken no sooner than 48 hours before you arrive in Panama. As my flight was on a Sunday (most canopy packages will start on a Sunday FYI), this produced some logistical headaches, as locally no one was really testing on the weekend, and antigen tests were not available. Thankfully, I was able to schedule an antigen test at Chicago O’hare airport for the evening before. As I had a 5:00 am flight from Chicago (I couldn’t really find any reasonable flights out of Wisconsin), it wasn’t too much of a hassle, and I was emailed the results in about 20 minutes. I would imagine that many large international airports probably also have testing. To LEAVE Panama for the US, even if you are a citizen, you need a negative test as well, taken within 72 hours. The Tower was able to arrange this test while I was there, and a person came out and took a sample, giving me the test results back with plenty of time. This service is only possible at the Tower, and so I had to revamp my schedule to go to the Lodge first then the Tower; it was originally the other way around. This cost me some extra time at the Lodge and probably a few lifers. The airport antigen test at Chicago cost me $120 dollars, and I think it was a similar fee for the test in Panama. Note you can get a test at the Panama airport, and there are some logistically more complicated ways such as driving into the city and getting it done by the lab, but as someone who speaks little Spanish, I wasn’t comfortable with doing this, plus it would be a distraction timewise from birding. However, this does mean I paid a little more; The tests at the Tocumen airport run from $50 to $80 bucks (different sites list different prices). By the way, print these out if at all possible: They will be checking these papers and it saves time to just show them a piece of paper versus fiddling with a phone. Non-US Citizens also have a little extra paperwork to fill out to get back into the states, although I don’t know the details as I didn’t need to worry about it.
Besides the negative COVID-19 test, travelers also have to fill out an affidavit with contact information and basically stating that you don’t have the virus. THIS was a nightmare to deal with. American Airlines will not check you in unless you have your negative test and this affidavit. However, in their computer system, its listed as a declaration. It took over a half an hour of dealing with American Airlines, with me becoming increasingly frustrated, as they kept insisting that my documents were not valid even though I filled out the form that was linked from the ticket I purchased through them. Eventually, I had to literally fill out the whole thing again from scratch, on my phone (filling out paperwork on a phone sucks) in front of them, then show them the exact same thing they refused to accept before. At any rate, they eventually gave me my damn tickets, even though I never really got any sort of statement from them that I was right and they were wrong. By the way, if you are wondering if the Panamanian authorities wanted to see this form…no…no they never asked. Airplane travel was otherwise much like normal, other than the wearing of masks. None of my flights were completely booked, however the airport and flights certainly weren’t short on people. Air travel is definitely going back to normal in the USA.
As for a Panama itself, they have begun vaccination, but they are still behind the USA, and I don’t believe the general public has full access yet, just older citizens. A mask mandate is in effect and there was pretty good compliance, although lower in the vicinity of the Canal itself. The staff at the lodges pretty much always wore masks. As a visitor, I generally only needed to wear a mask when I was around strangers or heavy people traffic areas. Visitors should plan on carrying a mask with them. It’s not a big deal really and most of the time, especially on the trails, I could be maskless.
Beyond tests and masks, a traveling naturalist will notice other differences they should keep in mind, some in their favor, and some not. First, traffic is greatly diminished at these lodges. I was told normally during the green season, their slow months, there were about 5 guests in the lodge at all times. I overlapped with 2 other guests for my 3 nights at the Canopy Lodge, however most of my time at the Tower I was by myself. There was a private group on a custom tour with Tropical Birding that stayed 4 nights during my visit, however they were hardcore birders that often came back after I went to bed and were out before 5 each day. After I left, I was told there would not be another set of folks visiting for a full week. Because of this, the lodges are running with a skeleton staff, and the guides themselves are having to do a lot of things like trail maintenance that I assume they would not normally do. They are at least using the time with few guests for infrastructure improvement, which did sometimes make it noisy mid-day. For instance they have converted all single rooms into rooms with there own private bathrooms, and were in the process of repainting the tower while I was visiting.
On the plus side, this means that for all but 1.5 days at the lodge, I basically had my own private guide. This was great, as we could go at the pace I wished and spend time looking for skulky things like antthrushes and leaftossers that more casual birders or nonbirders might get bored with. The guides also seemed to really want to go out of there way to help me. I was also upgraded to their fanciest room for no cost, which again, probably wouldn’t have happened in a normal year.
On the downside however, this means that there are fewer active guides in the field and less guided visits overall. For this reason, the guides just don’t have all the info they might otherwise, especially on things like owl roosts or stake-out dens. They also don’t have the most recent sighting info for an area. No one had reported Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo for months at the Tower, but as one guide said, a lot of that time no one as trying to check. This means that tougher species will probably be even tougher for the next year. As an example, the guides did not know any hollow trees to check for Rufous Tree Rats, a regularly seen species that I missed entirely. Access might also be reduced at some places. Barro Colorado Island was, IIRC, completely closed to visitors, and the Canopy Family was dissuading people from taking the mammal-focused tour for that and related reasons. Summit Gardens had just opened up, but was on reduced hours. This almost cost me Pacific Tent-making Bat.
So just to sum-up, if you are visiting an exotic location for wildlife observation for the next year, you might benefit from quieter trails and guides who can offer a more personalized experience, but you may also just plain miss more due to lack of good coverage of areas.
Hopefully this information is useful for those doing any foreign birding over the remainder of 2021. I will get into the specifics of my trip in additional posts.
Created by Raul Arias de Para in the mid-90’s, the Canopy family is now a set of 3 lodges located in Panama. The “flagship” lodge is the Canopy Tower, a refurbished US radio tower converted into an ecolodge. Younger lodges include the Canopy Lodge, located in the foothills of El Valle, and most recently Canopy Camp, a more rustic set of lodgings in the Darien of Panama. Each of these lodges has access to a somewhat different set of birds, making them all worth a visit. Also worth pointing out that he company is beginning to experiment with the idea of hosting tours in other parts of the country, including the highlands of western Panama. As a professor at a teaching-focused university, I was constrained time wise to traveling in the summer, the “green” (AKA rainy) season, which does have the benefits of being a lot cheaper. The Canopy Family has several set packages which are convenient in that not only do they include lodging and food, but also airport transfers and guides. I went with the 7-day Tower birding package, adding on another 3 days at the Canopy Lodge. Note that I went with the birding package, however they do have various other packages, including a mammal-centric one (more later).
Of course, my plans were derailed by you know what: I had completely booked and paid for my trip only for COVID-19 to show up and shut-down travel. I was able to hold my reservation in reserve, and being fully vaccinated by the end of March, opted to take it a year later, at the end of May and early June 2021.
I was of course apprehensive in the months leading up, worried I made a mistake in going so soon, or if fate would find some other way to intervene. However, I am glad I went, and had a blast! Before I get into the trip, here are some general specific details that travelers may find useful, especially those traveling in a COVID-19 world
Panama Basics:
As mentioned, I chose the rainy season. The canopy family lodge website insists that the rain isn’t too bad, and they are MOSTLY right. However, the rain did delay or shorten several excursions. Beyond the rain, the biggest difference is the humidity. It’s generally a lot dryer in winter, although the temps are the same. So basically, with the exception of El Valle which is at higher elevation and somewhat cooler, I was perpetually damp with sweat most every day. Plan accordingly, because you really won’t want to re-wear any clothing. Thankfully there is laundry at the tower, although it does cost 7 bucks, but well worth it. It should also be noted that the Tower is not air conditioned. It is generally comfortable as it is located on a hill and gets a bit of a breeze, plus there are fans.
Panama readily takes US currency, so no currency exchange is necessary. Previous reports indicated a preference for cash over card, but this wasn’t as huge a deal as I expected. You will want to make sure however you have cash on hand for tips and any souvenirs. The suggested tip for general staff is about $6 a day. For transfers, I gave the driver a $5 tip per transfer, while the expect tip for a bird guide is about $10 a day. Don’t be cheap, especially now, as the decrease in travel also means a decrease in tip revenue all of these folks would normally be taking in. The guides spoke good English but most of the lodge staff didn’t, although there really wasn’t any communication issues. I didn’t really run around the city or anything by myself, nor did I try to drive anywhere. So I can’t speak to advice on dealing with traffic or urban safety concerns. I can say I never felt uncomfortable, and people were generally sparse in most of the places I birded.
As far as bug life and other environmental hazards, mosquitos were bad near the Chagres River and along Pipeline, although not as bad as Wisconsin in summer. I was an idiot and forgot about the no aerosol rules, so I ended up bringing neither sunscreen nor bug spray. The sunscreen wasn’t an issue, as honestly it was almost always overcast, so I only got a light tan and never burned. Worse than the mosquitos however were the chiggers, which I encountered multiple times in grassy areas, especially near Summit Ponds, the trails at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and Metropolitan Park. I got nailed pretty badly, so make sure you read up on precautions. Stinging insects were also a problem. While trying to brush off an ant that a guide identified as a “Bully Ant”, I got stung on the palm. It basically felt like someone stabbed me in the palm with a knife and kept twisting the tip back and forth. It hurt for a whole two days. Leafcutter and Army ants are common. If you actually watch where you are going and don’t just stand in the middle of a swarm, they are not a problem. Of course, I saw people who did not take those measures and hilarity ensued. I am not a squeamish sort, so all the other bugs were not really a problem. Certainly, someone who hates insects might hate staying at the Tower, but honestly if that is the case why are you even in the Tropics?
Travel in the Age of Covid-19
Even if you are not going to Panama in the next year, odds are most of the general comments here will apply to other destinations.
First off, make sure you thoroughly read up on what is needed to travel. Panama had several restrictions in place, that at least at the time I was there, pretty much would make it impossible for anyone from Brazil or the UK to bird. Those restrictions didn’t apply to US citizens thankfully.
Everyone, no matter their point of origin or vaccination status, needs a negative covid-19 test (antigen or PCR), taken no sooner than 48 hours before you arrive in Panama. As my flight was on a Sunday (most canopy packages will start on a Sunday FYI), this produced some logistical headaches, as locally no one was really testing on the weekend, and antigen tests were not available. Thankfully, I was able to schedule an antigen test at Chicago O’hare airport for the evening before. As I had a 5:00 am flight from Chicago (I couldn’t really find any reasonable flights out of Wisconsin), it wasn’t too much of a hassle, and I was emailed the results in about 20 minutes. I would imagine that many large international airports probably also have testing. To LEAVE Panama for the US, even if you are a citizen, you need a negative test as well, taken within 72 hours. The Tower was able to arrange this test while I was there, and a person came out and took a sample, giving me the test results back with plenty of time. This service is only possible at the Tower, and so I had to revamp my schedule to go to the Lodge first then the Tower; it was originally the other way around. This cost me some extra time at the Lodge and probably a few lifers. The airport antigen test at Chicago cost me $120 dollars, and I think it was a similar fee for the test in Panama. Note you can get a test at the Panama airport, and there are some logistically more complicated ways such as driving into the city and getting it done by the lab, but as someone who speaks little Spanish, I wasn’t comfortable with doing this, plus it would be a distraction timewise from birding. However, this does mean I paid a little more; The tests at the Tocumen airport run from $50 to $80 bucks (different sites list different prices). By the way, print these out if at all possible: They will be checking these papers and it saves time to just show them a piece of paper versus fiddling with a phone. Non-US Citizens also have a little extra paperwork to fill out to get back into the states, although I don’t know the details as I didn’t need to worry about it.
Besides the negative COVID-19 test, travelers also have to fill out an affidavit with contact information and basically stating that you don’t have the virus. THIS was a nightmare to deal with. American Airlines will not check you in unless you have your negative test and this affidavit. However, in their computer system, its listed as a declaration. It took over a half an hour of dealing with American Airlines, with me becoming increasingly frustrated, as they kept insisting that my documents were not valid even though I filled out the form that was linked from the ticket I purchased through them. Eventually, I had to literally fill out the whole thing again from scratch, on my phone (filling out paperwork on a phone sucks) in front of them, then show them the exact same thing they refused to accept before. At any rate, they eventually gave me my damn tickets, even though I never really got any sort of statement from them that I was right and they were wrong. By the way, if you are wondering if the Panamanian authorities wanted to see this form…no…no they never asked. Airplane travel was otherwise much like normal, other than the wearing of masks. None of my flights were completely booked, however the airport and flights certainly weren’t short on people. Air travel is definitely going back to normal in the USA.
As for a Panama itself, they have begun vaccination, but they are still behind the USA, and I don’t believe the general public has full access yet, just older citizens. A mask mandate is in effect and there was pretty good compliance, although lower in the vicinity of the Canal itself. The staff at the lodges pretty much always wore masks. As a visitor, I generally only needed to wear a mask when I was around strangers or heavy people traffic areas. Visitors should plan on carrying a mask with them. It’s not a big deal really and most of the time, especially on the trails, I could be maskless.
Beyond tests and masks, a traveling naturalist will notice other differences they should keep in mind, some in their favor, and some not. First, traffic is greatly diminished at these lodges. I was told normally during the green season, their slow months, there were about 5 guests in the lodge at all times. I overlapped with 2 other guests for my 3 nights at the Canopy Lodge, however most of my time at the Tower I was by myself. There was a private group on a custom tour with Tropical Birding that stayed 4 nights during my visit, however they were hardcore birders that often came back after I went to bed and were out before 5 each day. After I left, I was told there would not be another set of folks visiting for a full week. Because of this, the lodges are running with a skeleton staff, and the guides themselves are having to do a lot of things like trail maintenance that I assume they would not normally do. They are at least using the time with few guests for infrastructure improvement, which did sometimes make it noisy mid-day. For instance they have converted all single rooms into rooms with there own private bathrooms, and were in the process of repainting the tower while I was visiting.
On the plus side, this means that for all but 1.5 days at the lodge, I basically had my own private guide. This was great, as we could go at the pace I wished and spend time looking for skulky things like antthrushes and leaftossers that more casual birders or nonbirders might get bored with. The guides also seemed to really want to go out of there way to help me. I was also upgraded to their fanciest room for no cost, which again, probably wouldn’t have happened in a normal year.
On the downside however, this means that there are fewer active guides in the field and less guided visits overall. For this reason, the guides just don’t have all the info they might otherwise, especially on things like owl roosts or stake-out dens. They also don’t have the most recent sighting info for an area. No one had reported Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo for months at the Tower, but as one guide said, a lot of that time no one as trying to check. This means that tougher species will probably be even tougher for the next year. As an example, the guides did not know any hollow trees to check for Rufous Tree Rats, a regularly seen species that I missed entirely. Access might also be reduced at some places. Barro Colorado Island was, IIRC, completely closed to visitors, and the Canopy Family was dissuading people from taking the mammal-focused tour for that and related reasons. Summit Gardens had just opened up, but was on reduced hours. This almost cost me Pacific Tent-making Bat.
So just to sum-up, if you are visiting an exotic location for wildlife observation for the next year, you might benefit from quieter trails and guides who can offer a more personalized experience, but you may also just plain miss more due to lack of good coverage of areas.
Hopefully this information is useful for those doing any foreign birding over the remainder of 2021. I will get into the specifics of my trip in additional posts.
