Panama Travel Journal - Day 2 Continued

Now that we have reconnected our communication links with our Panama team, we will be giving you journal entries on a day-by-day basis from Bob Chastain, CMZoo’s President/CEO and the leader of our Panama group. We have already published Day One of the expedition, so we will begin now with an updated entry for Day Two, November 14, 2009. Keep with us as we go through the trip, one day at a time.

Market
As you will see from our photos, we spent the morning in a market in Panama City just killing time while Roberto Ibanez made final trip preparations. We bought a machete for the trip but mostly just observed life in Panama. Roberto is a very soft spoken man who is what we would all call an EXPERT. He literally wrote the book on frogs in Panama. In his 50s, he has spent 30 years studying frogs in Panama. He is the direct opposite of a “Jeff Corwin” type. So quiet and reserved in his knowledge you would think he may have some secret frog DNA that keeps him quietly observing the world of frogs that we all pass by every day. He wears glasses and must move them down on his nose and hold the frog very close to his face to see them well enough, while he studies tiny frog parts to make a correct identification.

Near dark today, we drove to the next hotel. Definitely not your normal, serene out country hotel. Visualize people hanging around partying and playing music so loud you can hear it in the whole complex and you may get the picture. It is a complex with one overhead picnic-type shelter where you get food and the rest is a strip-type collection of rooms, all on the same level. It is the sort of place Americans can never relax because every cell in their body is saying “Be on alert!” Because of a mix up in communication, Kevin, Jamie and I were to stay at another hotel.

We dropped the rest of the group here and we went on to Casa de Campo, a wonderful hostel/bed and breakfast nestled in the natural areas that surround us. I immediately began to feel bad that Mark and Della were having to stay in the other hotel and made a plan to move all of my staff to my room. As soon as we arrived back at the first hotel, Della came up to me and I could tell from the look on her face something was very wrong. When I asked her and Mark to stay with me you could see the look of relief on her face. Remember, this is a group of people who tomorrow night would stay in a jungle shack with six species of venomous snakes, spiders the size of your fist, and insects large and mysteriously gruesome and wonderful. But this was not the same. We are trained our whole lives to be aware of the human threats and this was one of those times.

Hotel Cook
The restaurant had the look of one of those places where you were just sure you would “pay for it in the morning” and that was a very serious thought when this morning you start a long hike and five days in the jungle. There were big considerations on what would be safe to eat. In the end, I ordered what I thought would be a frozen hamburger, Della got fried plantain chips and Mark threw caution to the wind and ordered some sea food concoction. To be completely honest, the food was OK, in fact, Matt’s chicken and rice looked wonderful and thankfully no one got sick.
-By Bob Chastain