Panama Travel Journal II - Day 3

After fixing our flat tire, we made the 1.5 hour drive to Chagres National Park. It was somewhat dryer this time, so we drove to the trail head. We got stuck twice and had to be pulled out by Edgardo. His SUV is much better suited to this terrain than the small STRI trucks with highway tires. The horses were at the trail head waiting for us by our 11:30 a.m. arrival. It takes a long time to load the gear of six people on horse back. We let part of the group start off sooner and Edgardo, Adrian and I stayed back. Soon after, I left, then Adrian, then Edgardo. Somehow he always gets (has to) leave last. I made the trip in about four hours this time with the last person making it in about six hours. It was still an epic journey of hill after hill after hill; but the drier conditions and shorter walk allowed most members to cut between two and four hours off the trip.

I asked Della, once on the walk, what she was thinking about, and the answer was typical Della. Frogs. Packing frogs, protocol for washing frogs, treatments for frogs, etc. For me, it was typical Bob. I thought about life; two things in particular. As much as the last trip was a pain, it was a bigger blessing and not because of the work, because of the unknown. With the language barrier and other communication issues we knew very little about the trip, the walk, the conditions, etc. Think about that for a second. In this day and age, in America, how many times does it happen that we don’t walk to the corner store without checking the weather on our Blackberry? In fact, we don’t walk to the corner store at all, we drive in a nicely maintained car. To have an unknown adventure is a true gift.

The second thing I thought about was time and the passing of time. I thought how different this trip was. How already, things are becoming familiar. Less fresh, more scripted. Sure, we still have the Panamanian time delay for everything. Sure, we get up at 4:30 a.m. only to have a flat tire, but much of the adventure is gone. I thought about how hard it is to keep life fresh; and more importantly, how little we try. If we were truthful, we like routine. Starbucks coffee in the morning with this but not too much of that, or iced tea with ½ water since I like my tea weak. The list goes on and on. I think about my kids and how we think when they are raised our job is done. The trouble with this thinking is when there is an end you tend to focus on it and miss the creamy, sweet inner bits. As I am encouraging myself now, I will encourage you. Slow down, look around, enjoy the bits in between the end points in life. The drive to work, the kids’ basketball game, the meeting at work, the bad lunch. You never know what you might find.

“The average man looks at extraordinary things and says ‘wow.’ The wise man looks as the ordinary things and is inspired.”

We finished the night with a two-hour collection trip. Della, Jeff and I found a frog early on. Della ended up finding about three more throughout the night with one Colymba in the group. As a target species, it was a good find. We did find a very sick Rana. It barely jumped at all. Last time they were crazy in the bag. This time, nothing. It was a long day but good as we went to bed around 11 p.m.