Wednesday, June 09 1999

Good morning cyber-explorers,

Firstly, the SCIENCE PAGE has now been updated with an article on the Kuna Indians.

We have now left Balboa with all systems on line. We are at present travelling down the coast of the Darien Province. No coconut palms and sandy beaches here, just virgin forest rolling down from cloud-shrouded mountains straight into the sea.

Lunchtime: we have now arrived at Bahia Pina, which is a small bay on the coast, deep in the heart of the Darien Province of Panama. We have anchored in the bay and a shore-party has gone on land to investigate the surroundings, and check out the possibility of making a trip up into the jungle. In the meantime the rest of us are washing down the boat. It is not a pretty site, we were inundated with bugs during our few days in Balboa and they have now all dried nicely and welded themselves to the deck!

Afternoon: The shore-party is back and have explored the bay. Bahia Pina is home to the Tropic Star Lodge (http://www.tropicstar.com). This lodge has a somewhat legendary status, not only in Panama, but also worldwide. It is a Sport fishing lodge, and more International Game Fish Association world records have been broken here than anywhere else in the world. Without wishing to become involved at this stage, in any major environmental issue, I am happy to report that unlike lodges in some other places, the Tropic Star Lodge adopt a strict policy of ‘catch-and-release’, that means that the caught fish is measured and then let go. Small fish, such as Yellowfin Tuna are sometimes kept and served as sashimi in the evenings.
The Tropic Star Lodge shares Bahia Pina with a small fishing village. Behind the village is virgin forest. Al trail is cut through the forest, and in the afternoon we went out to explore. The forest was damp, with dripping leaves and a strong smell of wet earth and vegetation. The path was bright red, slippery clay, which made uphill-going very hard work, in the heat and humidity. Columns of ants crossed the path at regular intervals. They came trickling down the tree trunks and were quite easy to spot, since almost every ant was carrying a small piece of carefully cutout leaf. With their overlarge burdens they looked rather like miniature, animated cartoon characters trekking through the undergrowth.

We laboured on up the hill, sliding two steps down, for every step up.

Contrary to popular belief, the tropical jungle is not teeming with dangerous animals, jaguars do not lie in wait in every bush, and monkeys do not swing from bough to bough. During the day the forest is very quiet in terms of larger animals and birds, the overwhelming sounds are those of insects, cicadas zithing on every tree, grasshoppers, beetles and spiders - as you walk between trees you become tangled up in cobwebs.

After about one hours laborious and sweaty walking we eventually came out onto a deserted sandy beach. Fresh water streams ran down into the bay and everyone thankfully doused themselves with cool fresh water.

Again not masses of wildlife but one large tree on the edge of the beach was tastefully decorated, rather festively, with Weaverbird nests - hanging down like overlarge Christmas tree decorations. The birds flying in and out of the nests were an iridescent dark-blue black with bright yellow tails. Yellow-bellied Great Kiskadees were also very much in evidence, calling loudly from tree to tree, and occasionally a small Red-cheeked Woodpecker worked diligently on a dead branch.


Local boy on the beach, Bahia Pina

We had not been on the beach long, before we received a visit from some of the local population. Two small boys came paddling across the bay. They came in dugouts so small that from a distance it looked as if they were floating across the water. There was only an occasional glimpse of an elongate, triangular paddle to indicate that they were actually in a vessel of some kind.

Unfortunately we had no common language with which to communicate - however, with the usual repertoire of smiles, grins and arm-waving, we managed to make ourselves understood. After a short time the boys disappeared into the forest on the edge of the beach. We watched in amazement as they ran barefoot over ground that we had had trouble negotiating in our hiking boots. They shinned up a tree and brought down long green pods, which they broke open. They showed us how to eat the sweet the fruit inside. It consisted of a fibrous, white outer flesh and a long slim dark brown seed (‘WaWa’, in the local language). The fleshy part had a bland, but sugar-sweet taste, and we had great fun shooting the slippery seeds through our fingers.


Tasting 'WaWa' down on the beach

We had a long and arduous treck back, and finally arrived at the lodge in the evening. We had a quick dash over to STARSHIP to wash off the mud and then returned to lodge for pleasant dinner in civilized surroundings

Late evening now, and bats are flitting around the boat. More on the local flora and fauna tomorrow.

If you would like more information about the Tropic Star Lodge you can check out their website: http://www.tropicstar.com

Janet