
In May 2024 our longtime local friend Dave Mehlman emailed us a link to another Naturalist Journeys trip, this time to Panama in January 2025. He’s not easily excited, but he was waxing practically poetic about the 300 bird species he saw in ten days the last time he led this trip. He also emphasized that the group would stay in one location the entire first week, travelling by small boats to day trips from and back to the eco-lodge. Snorkeling and swimming in the Caribbean were optional afternoon activities. Monkeys and sloths surrounded the cabins, and the local food was renowned.
We explored the link; the trip was limited to ten participants and two people had already signed up. Panama mostly runs west to east, bordered on the west by Costa Rica and on the east by Colombia. The first week would be spent at the Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge in Bastimentos, Panama, an island 40 minutes (via small motorboats) from the mainland and abutting the Caribbean Sea. A trip extension to the Mount Totumas cloud forest on the northwestern side of Panama near the Pacific Ocean was also available.
Our Albuquerque friend Eileen and we signed up. Then Susan and Paul in Tallahassee agreed to sign up. I invited Sandy and Tim from Chicago (whom we’d met on the Iceland trip), and they signed up. One spot remained. Eventually Dave’s partner Kathleen took it. Thus began our eight-month prep of buying airline tickets, studying birds, making packing lists, arranging for a dogsitter, and more.
Panama City
Our group of five New Mexicans decided to go a few days early to acclimate and hang out together. We flew through Houston to Panama City on January 15, arriving at night. Luckily, our beloved and bilingual el jefe Dave

had pre-arranged a van for us and all of our baggage and equipment. We arrived at the Hotel Radisson-Panama Canal around 9pm, checked in, and met downstairs at TGI Friday’s, which was almost ready to close. Beers and tasty menu items soothed us weary travelers at our outdoor table along the Panama Canal, and multiple purring cats entwined our legs.
We awoke the next morning to birdsong and sunshine. Mark and Dave were already birding the grounds of the hotel, which is adjacent to the Panama Canal. Eileen and I watched birds and boats from the balcony and then ventured outdoors. It was beautiful with flowers and birds, including a squirrel cuckoo, parakeets, and tanagers in the giant banyan tree beside the pool. All 315 species of the birds that we saw in Panama are included in an eBird trip report. Click on “Species with Photos” to view their beautiful faces.
After breakfast at the hotel, the five of us walked along the Panama Canal to the BioMuseo, birding and chatting and admiring the many murals painted on buildings along the way.

One of my favorite photos of the trip was of two black vultures perched beside the canal. They had been nuzzling beaks right before I took this photo.
Mark walked back, but the rest of us toured the BioMuseo, which opened in 2014 and was designed by architect The exhibits and large screen movie about the natural wonders that make up Panama’s ecosystems fascinated me. Millions of years ago, North and South America were separated by water, but as the land rose, it created a land bridge for species like mammoths and saber-toothed tigers to navigate.
We met for dinner at the Canal House next door to the Radisson. We ate outdoors at picnic tables, ordering via a UPC code that showed the menu, which some of us figured out how to translate into English from Spanish. Fabulous seafood

(crispy tuna, fish in banana leaves, etc.) was enjoyed by all, plus a bucket of local beers.
The next morn we awoke at 5:30am to meet our local guide Octavio Rios, who was leading a half day birding tour to Parque Natural Metropolitano for Dave, Mark, Eileen and me. We found almost fifty species of birds in six hours, many of them lifers for us. We also saw monkeys, sloths and squirrels. It was super hot and humid in the jungle, and we got overheated. A cold shower, walk in the rain to Canal House, an icy passionfruit juice and crispy tuna snack made me feel much better.
Tim arrived from Chicago without Sandy, who hurt her back and couldn’t come. We promised to send her photos and texts so she could armchair travel with us. Susan and Paul arrived soon thereafter. The last couple, Ellyn and Jeff from New York, weren’t arriving until after dinner, so Sugar, the upbeat front desk clerk, drove the eight of us in the hotel van to Bucanero’s, a seafood restaurant beside the Gulf of Panama. Dinner was fun (but unmemorable food) as we all chatted and looked forward to tomorrow’s adventures.
Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge
We left the next day via Air Panama to Bocas del Toro, a small seaside airport. A playful, drug-sniffing shepherd “scanned” (via its powerful nose) all of the luggage on our flight before we could claim it. An orange duffel and little black bag were held back; we don’t know how that story ended. Then we took vans to two small motorboats, which transported us to Tranquilo Bay Eco-Adventure Lodge located on 200 acres tucked away in a cove of the Caribbean.
Jay, one of the owners, greeted us at the covered wooden dock adorned with life preservers, chairs and coolers. We walked across a boardwalk through tangled mangroves and up a bunch of wooden steps to the communal dining hall high in the trees. A wrap-around veranda, eye level with the jungle canopy, had multiple

feeders for birds, white capuchin monkeys, possums, raccoons, sloths, bats and more. Many Tennessee and prothonotary warblers, plus bananaquits, feasted on fruit.

Jay briefed us about the lodge, then we ate a late lunch of pizza with homemade crust and salad with tomatoes cut into the shapes of butterflies.
We settled into our luxurious cabins with private bathrooms, swung in the hammock on our front porch and toured the grounds.

Later that afternoon local guides Roger Morales and Patricia took us on a tour of the island,

where we saw white-lined bats, a caiman, birds, flowers, and one hot pink dragonfly.

The eco-lodge collects its own rainwater, filters it and distributes it to cabins, kitchens and elsewhere for drinking, cooking and washing. A generator and solar panels provide power. Most food is grown locally and delivered to the island. The cooks are locals, who study the internet for recipe ideas and presentation. They do a fantastic job! Every meal was delicious and presented artistically and lovingly. We had to go to bed early because breakfast was to be at 5:30am the next morn.
After a bounteous breakfast buffet, we headed to the dock for a boat ride to Punta Róbalo. The sun rose as we zoomed to shore, bucking along with the waves.

We birded the road for an hour (55 species) while we waited for our bus, then boarded the bus for the Talamanca Mountains and Continental Divide. A bat falcon, keel-billed toucan,

ornate hawk eagle and many other natural wonders enthralled us, although it was still hot and humid despite being at higher elevations (welcome to the tropics!). We devoured a tasty picnic lunch, then drove back down the mountain, passing a guy on horseback on the edge of the road. He was engrossed in his cell phone as the horse plodded along. We had a choppy ride back since a storm was moving in, but we made it back to the lodge safely. The coolest non-bird sighting that day was a transparent glass-winged butterfly

plus a fabulous orange orchid (Epidendrum fulgens (Orchidiaceae))

along the road.
The next day we took a boat ride to nearby Isla Popa

where we saw mangrove cuckoos, kingfishers, tiny colorful poisonous frogs, and flowers. Then we had free time in the afternoon. Several of us swam and snorkled while oropendolas flew over us, chortling.
Here are a few of my favorite sightings:




The following day–more of the same: boats, birds, swimming, eating. A swell life! This day we had two kinds of toucans, monkeys, sloths and a bat falcon:


Then came a long day of grand adventure. After breakfast at 5:30am, we boated to the mainland and met the double decker pontoon boat.

We puttered to the old Snyder Canal (Soropta Canal) near the San San Pond Sak Wetlands, which is part of the La Amistad UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. This narrow, lovely green canal is lined with tall trees.

Local residents, their wooden boats and banana trees, flowers, monkeys, sloths, lizards, insects, snakes, and birds inhabit the dense shores. We were thrilled to hear and see a three-wattled bellbird along the canal.

Eventually the canal opened out to the Changuinola River where we had lunch beside a herd of grazing goats. Then we walked briefly on the sandy shore of the Caribbean and admired a collared

plover before retracing our voyage back down the canal. The tide was going out so the pontoon boat got stuck on a sandbar near the mainland. After we switched to the small motorboats, a bunch of guys hopped into the water and freed the pontoon boat. Then we had a short ride to Swan Caye (Bird Island),


where boobies and Panama’s only breeding colony of red-billed tropicbirds nest.
When we arrived back at Tranquilo, I was so tired, I almost keeled over on the dock and the shower felt like it was swaying. But the trip was well worth it! Rain started during dinner and continued the next day. Only seven of us went to the mainland and back to Fortuna Reservoir and the Palo Seco Protection Forest. Seeing a white hawk and a jabiru along the road were two highlights.


Our last day at Tranquilo was a day with no boat rides. We wandered the trails, swam, laughed, ate and relaxed. Mark and I had a great moment with a sloth at the canopy tower, and I made a sloth video that I absolutely adore. The video was not made in slow motion; that’s just how slowly a sloth moves! I also had a special moment alone with a blue-headed parrot

that I saw from the canopy tower earlier that morning.
We had a tasty farewell dinner, last checklist meeting, and hung out on the veranda

before heading to our cabins. I particularly like this dragonfly, although I don’t know its species.

Mt. Totumas Bellbird Lodge
Susan, Paul, and Tim left for Panama City, but the remaining seven of us had one last ride in the small motorboats to Bocas del Toro, where a plush, vibrantly colored, velour-upholstered van awaited us. From there we drove four hours across the northern part of Panama to David, then to Volcán where we loaded two four-wheel drive vehicles with us and our luggage for a 40-minute drive up a windy, gravel, jouncy, rutted four-wheel drive road. We arrived in a light rain mist to the Mt. Totumas Bellbird Lodge, a fantastic 400-acre space adjacent to Parque Internacional La Amistad, a GIANT natural wonder spanning Costa Rican and Panamanian mountains.
The area in the Talamanca Mountains is about 6,000′ up in the cloud forest and full of birds,

monkeys, sloths, jaguars, pumas, ocelots and many other species. Hummingbirds swarmed the spacious deck overlooking the cloud forest.

The hillside roared with howler monkeys. A light rain mist (bajareque) fell, creating vibrant double rainbows on several days. Truly heaven on earth.
We stayed in lovely, comfortable rooms inside the lodge, adjacent to the dining hall and kitchen. Fresh ‘grown on site’ coffee greeted us each morning. We hiked the jungle trails and saw many species of birds, monkeys, and flowers. We were all thrilled to observe FIVE resplendent quetzals, which Susan and I first saw in Costa Rica.

Reinaldo Rodriguez was our local guide at Totumas, but El Jefe Dave was always there.

The last day we got to see a spider monkey family, two adults and two babies calmly surveying us. We spent 15 minutes quietly observing and admiring them high in the trees. A wonder jar moment…


We wore shorts when we weren’t in the jungle, which made our friends back home jealous. The food and coffee at the lodge were outstanding. Their coffee won a “best of” Panama award recently, so their hand-crafted beans are gaining international recognition.
Reluctantly, we departed the lodge in the wee morning hours, flew from David to Panama City, then to Denver, then home. Panama is a beautiful country full of welcoming people, fabulous wildlife, and spectacular landscapes. We are so grateful that El Jefe encouraged us to have another adventure with him!
