Pelicans

Sunday morning, after breakfast and another beach session, we took a boat trip around the island. We had been told most of Taboga is a wildlife refuge, and that there was a huge colony of nesting pelicans, cormorants, and egrets on the far side.

We did see a bunch of pelicans, cormorants, and egrets, but nowhere near their usual numbers. And very few nesting. Frederico, our boat driver/guide, said that the problem is the bait fish. The water is unseasonably warm right now due to El Niño, and so there are very few small fish present, and as a result hardly any nesting birds.

The large fish are absent too. The locals still try to dive and spear fish, but they are not doing nearly as well as usual. This shot captures some of the clash of worlds - tankers in the background, tiny cayuco in the foreground.

Gwendolyn, who had refused to nap due to her extreme excitement about swimming/wading in the "Ocean!", promptly fell asleep on our boat trip. Here she is, groggy, waking up at the very end.

Taboga

For David's birthday we took a weekend trip to the nearby island of Taboga. This involved a ferry ride from Panama City. We passed dozens of tankers waiting for their turn to enter the Canal.

This was a bit different than we were hoping for - less beatific nature, more industrial staging ground. This boat summed up the contrast nicely, "Great Panama" indeed!

But the island got a little more picturesque the closer we got. It had a pretty white church that claimed to be the second oldest in the New World (we were a little skeptical about this).

Perhaps the best feature of the island was the extremely calm water, perfect for toddler wading. Inspired by German customs, we let her swim and wade and run around naked. We were not sure the Panamanians were quite as comfortable with this as the Germans would be.

The Wren loved it, and kept wanting to go back for more and more. She would run into the water, run back onto the beach and cry "Ocean!" then return to the water. Eventually, as it was growing dark, we had to leave. Wren was less than willing, screaming "Ocean!" with something between wistfulness and despair as we carried her away.

Needless to say, she slept well.
The next morning, she woke up and said, "Ocean!"

Happy Thank You

David's birthday was this week! Gwendolyn was really excited to discover his birthday morning donuts.

Less excited to relinquish them for his birthday wish.

David - thoroughly enjoying his favorite present, a tempurpedic pillow from my mom. A perfect gift, right in line with one of his all time favorite pastimes, sleep.

Gwendolyn - happy that candles and cake reappeared in another form in the evening. I really worked on teaching her to sing "Happy Birthday Dad." She got pretty into it, but it came off sounding more like "Happy Thank You." Harder yet was trying to capture this on video - here's a try: