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After a light lunch we drove back to Panama
City. It was a bit like going 'home' returning to the
Estancia b&b where
we had stayed for a night on our journey north to Mexico in November. We
dined again at Manolo Caracol in the Casco Viejo district - the best
restaurant we've been to in the whole of Latin America so far.
27 December - Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Barro
Colorado Island, Lake Gatún (Panama Canal)
The STRI is a world-renowned tropical research station and allows a
limited number of visitors. We had to book our visit from Geneva and,
even several months before, 26 December was not available, so we'd had
to rearrange our hotel bookings to fit in with their schedule. We had to
make an early start as the boat left Gamboa docks at 7.15 a.m. sharp and
it was over an hour's drive from Panama City. We were taken on a guided
tour of the jungle surrounding the research station, heard howler
monkeys and saw agoutis and spider monkeys. But we'd seen all these
creatures before in greater quantities elsewhere and weren't wildly
impressed. Flemming enjoyed talking to one of the young researchers who
was working on a tracking project involving electronic equipment. The
animals were tagged and could be monitored thanks to strategically
placed antennae that picked up signals from the tagging system. From the
signals they could determine where each animal tended to spend its time,
and whether it was sleeping or active.
The next morning at breakfast we met a young Canadian woman travelling
on her own. We all wanted to visit the Miraflores Locks to watch the
ships passing through so we drove her there with us. While we watched,
we listened to an interesting commentary about the canal and the locks
broadcast via loudspeaker. That evening we dined with our Canadian
friend at the Restaurante Las Bóvedas set in the vaults of a
300-year-old fort where we ate a sumptuous, but light, array of entradas
accompanied by an exceptionally good Chilean wine. |
The food in 'Manolo Caracol' was both tasty and well presented
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