Jaguar!

Jaguars are pretty uncommon these days in Panama.  Most have been hunted, and the remaining ones keep to remote areas, far from humans.  This past month, though, a jaguar was shot only 100 yards from a primary school in the nearby district of Los Pozos.  Jaguars are a protected species, so shooting one can bring a jail sentence, unless, of course, you shoot it in self-defense.  The person who shot the jaguar claimed that it killed two dogs and was attacking his nephew when he shot it.  The nephew says that he saw the jaguar kill the two dogs and tried to defend himself with a machete. He was losing the battle and shouted for his uncle, who happened to be nearby with a rifle.

The authorities are investigating the incident, and have suggested an alternate explanation.  They are suspicious because the nephew didn't even have a scratch on him.  They also wonder how the uncle just happened to be there with his rifle at the right time.  It is possible that the two were out hunting a jaguar, using dogs as bait.  This sounds barbaric to us, but dogs here in Panama don't have the same status that they do in the US, especially in rural areas.  Often there is not enough food for the family, and the dogs have to fend for themselves.  The most that a dog would get would be leftover table scraps.  

This picture shows the uncle with his trophy.  

They also uploaded a video of themselves clowning around with their guns and the body of the jaguar.  After viewing the video, it seems pretty apparent that they were hunters, not peasants surprised by the jaguar.

This news was alarming enough, but this past week things happened much closer to home.  On the dirt path leading past the swimming hole where we often walk, a student said that he saw a jaguar.  There was no other evidence, and no one believed him.  This came so quickly after the news of the other jaguar that it was dismissed as power of suggestion. 

Three days later, however, a woman was riding her horse on the same path on her way home to a nearby village and also happened upon a jaguar.  Her horse reared up, turned around and ran back to town.  She was lucky to stay in the saddle.  The authorities investigated and found a footprint of a jaguar which measured 5 inches from front to back.  This corresponds to approximately a 75 pound cat, which is big enough to do serious damage to horse or rider.

Fortunately incidents between humans and jaguars are extremely rare.  They prefer to keep far away from humans, and generally only attack small animals.  They also move around in a very large area.  It is estimated that this jaguar is now quite far away, so there is no need to worry about our safety :)   

Heather recently made a presentation for the National TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) Congress at the Universidad Latina in Panama City.  Her topic was "Teaching Phonics with Dr. Seuss."  The audience consisted of Panamanian teachers of English in public and private schools and universities. She had a lot of fun preparing the presentation and the books brought back great memories.

Heather with a conference attendee.

That's it for now!

Steve and Heather

Bocas Del Toro

After hosting the large group of Peace Corps volunteers, we needed some time off to regroup and relax.  Bocas del Toro, on the Caribbean coast near Costa Rica, happens to have its dry season at the same time as Chepo is drowning in rain.  We spent six days on Isla Colon, where the town of Bocas is located.  There are lots of other islands in the area, and every day involved a trip over the water or to a beach.

We arrived by plane from Panama City on Sunday, and immediately rented bicycles and headed for Bluff Beach, about an hour away.  All the rental bikes are one-speed cruisers with coaster brakes.  Since the island is pretty flat, they were fine for the day.  We loved the orange sand of this deserted beach.  

Heather relaxes in the sun

The next day our friend Graycie, who is a Peace Corps volunteer on the nearby island of Bastimentos, joined us for a trip to Zapatilla Island, where we found a lovely white beach.  It was Graycie's birthday.

On Tuesday morning, we had a beautiful view from our hotel.

 Graycie's host father Rutilio gave her a trip to Bird Island as a birthday present.  We went along for the ride. 

Rutilio drives the boat

Graycie enjoys the ride

It was sunny as we approached the island. 

The island featured two natural bridges with a sheltered cove where we snorkeled. 

Steve gets some snorkeling time

Graycie took this shot with her underwater camera

Heather and Graycie do some snorkeling

Of course there were birds on Bird Island.  We're told that these are brown boobys.

This one is a white kite

Graycie took this photo

After an hour or so on the island, we headed away.

Bye Bye Bird Island

Our next stop was starfish beach, where we saw lots of these:

On Wednesday, Graycie had a Peace Corps meeting, but we headed out with Rutilio to the indigenous community where they lived.  We saw the school with Graycie's house behind it.

Rutilio and Heather in front of Graycie's house

This is the view from her house of the school with the mangrove islands in front.  There are no roads.  The students who don't live near the school have to come in by canoe.  Some of these primary school kids (grades K-6) have to paddle up to an hour to get to school.  If the weather is stormy, they can't make it.

Graycie sees the sunset here every night

The kids play baseball, which is insanely popular here.  Mariano Rivera, the recently retired reliever for the Yankees, is a national hero.  Note the adult in shorts and a tank top.  He teaches pre-school here as part of the Give and Surf program.  He lives in Bocas Town (where we stayed), where there are lots of hotels, restaurants and beaches to surf.  He comes over in the morning to teach, and then has the afternoon free to surf.

After looking around the community, it was time to head for the bat cave.  Rutilio is a guide and takes people to this secluded cave several times a week. He was the first one to explore the cave.  Most of the people there were afraid to enter the cave.  They were afraid of evil spirits.

We started off in his canoe, which was made of one huge hollowed-out log.  He had just finished repainting it.

We had to go up a small stream to get to the cave.  Rutilio turned off the engine and paddled the last half so as not to disturb any wildlife.  There were mangroves on both sides, with their tangle of roots.  They grow well on the edge of the ocean because they can stand the salt water better than other trees.  

mangrove roots

We walked the last fifteen minutes to get to the cave.  There were lots of tiny red frogs to be seen.

Once in the cave, there were hundreds of bats hanging from the ceiling.  The smell was pretty bad, but it got better as we went further into the cave.  We followed a stream up into the cave, passing through several pools of water, some of which were quite deep.  

On the way out, we stopped for this picture of a clump of bamboo.

Heather looks tiny next to all this bamboo!

On Thursday, it was time for a ride in a 40 ft catamaran.  Our skipper Marcel has owned the boat for 22 years and has crossed the Atlantic four times in it.  We felt we were in good hands.  Also on the boat were Mike, age 29, and his mother Carolyn.

Marcel poses as Mike looks on

Heather and Carolyn enjoy the ride.

It was a wonderfully sunny day when we set out.  We visited a nearby bay and did some snorkeling, which was impressive.  As we headed back, we saw a storm approaching in the distance.  The wind picked up to 25-30 mph, and the boat started to really pick up speed.  The dark sky in the distance, though, looked pretty ominous.

Batten down the hatches!

Marcel got a phone call from his friend in town who said that the storm was really blowing hard and was coming straight for us.  Marcel took the sails down and turned around so that we were going with the wind as a precaution.  It didn't take long for the full force of the storm to hit us.  Marcel estimated that the winds were 45-50 mph, which is deemed gale force.  After a few minutes of this, Marcel decided that there was no reason to just sit there.  We could sail into this wind.  He put up a tiny storm jib on the bow, and put the mainsail up to about 3/4 of its full size.  We headed right up into the wind, spilling most of the force out of the sails.  Mike and Steve had a fun time trying to see who could stand up on the deck the longest without holding on to anything.  They quit after a short time because it was not difficult to do - the 40 ft catamaran was very stable and hardly pitched or rolled at all with the waves.  We had complete confidence in Marcel, and he brought us safely home.  

On our final day in Bocas we went back to Starfish Beach, this time by bus.  It was another beautiful day.

This dugout canoe is made of one huge tree.  It has seen better days.

Rested and relaxed, we headed back to Chepo to continue our work.  Our bus stopped along the way and Heather was happy to get this huge bag of veggies for only $5.

It's the rainy season in Chepo now, and it has been pouring every afternoon, sometimes for hours at a time.  This morning, however, it is sunny and clear.  This is the view from the hill behind our house.  The mountains in the distance are on the continental divide, 65 miles away.

That's it for now!

Steve and Heather