I would love to say that going up Cerro Pirre in Darien National Park was more grueling than the last 4 months of work, but that would be a lie. To be honest, there is no sweeter high than feeling the embrace of a sweat-soaked t-shirt and clinging to an exposed tree root for dear life as you simultaneously wield a 300mm lens, bins and done a heavy backpack of camping supplies while spotting canopy birds and minding the ground for possible bushmasters.
Everything went smoothly, logistically, with the rental car and a nice calm road all the way to Yaviza where I met local guide Isaac Pizarro. He'd been messaging me on Whatsapp for weeks, trying to convince me to come to the Darien over Christmas break. Well, he succeeded! He was especially trying to sell me on the Dusky-backed Jacamar which incurred a substantial extra fee and in the end I settled on bringing him some Vasque hiking boots in exchange for a shot at the Jacamar. Our first day was mainly spent checking in at the border patrol station with the necessary permits Isaac had organized in advance, and getting supplies. We spent less than 40 bucks for 5 days of food for 3 hard working men, pretty good I thought.
We took a boat down the Tuira River to Vista Alegre, a pretty remote town set in the lowland rainforest. As you may know, there is no road to connect Panama with South America: they are separated by a vast wilderness known as the Darien gap. Given the geography they’ve had problems with narcotraficos, kidnappings, etc. so the border patrol keeps a close eye on things, hence the permits. In fact, we needed to stop and present our papers at several checkpoints along the river so they could check that they were expecting us.
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| Headed down the river Tuira in search of the Dusky-backed Jacamar |
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| If you're gonna climb to Cerro Pirre, hire Allepio to cook your meals and carry the food |
After working very long (and stressful) work weeks for 4 months straight followed by a night in an airport and an overnight flight (probably slept 5 hours in 2 nights) I was a 9/10 on the tiredness scale (not quite hallucinating yet). Expecting this third night to be finally a chance to sleep peacefully in my tent serenaded by grasshoppers and treefrogs, I was to have one of the most disturbed sleeps of my life. All around me were horny roosters and those dumb tropical beige dogs which kept barking at the slightest disturbance, all night long. Just as the rooster calls faded in the distance and you thought relief was on the way and it wasn’t so bad…a rooster would scream from 10m away and jolt you awake again. It was like some sleep torture method. Honestly I don’t know how these people tolerate such noise levels. I was asking Isaac about it and he just laughed.
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| Patacones - you get sick of them after so many days! |
One thing I was keen to hear was a tropical screech owl right next to my tent. It took maximum willpower to resurrect my broken body from the tent and put on one shoe, then the other one…
I thought I’d seen a flash of movement so I started scanning with my flashlight. My PrincetonTec headlamp, I’d learned upon arrival to this remote town, was broken (it wouldn’t turn on) which was basically a disaster because that would rule out owling for the next 7 nights of camping in epic habitat. Fortunately, there was a tiny tienda selling bits and bobs including a $4 flashlight that might be barely bright enough. I bought two just to be safe!! I figured we could combine the beams (I don’t know if physics works that way but worth a shot!).
The performance test of my new flashlight on the Tropical Screech was cut short by neighborhood dogs barking bloody murder for a solid 2 hours non-stop. I saw the silhouette of the spooked owl flee into the dense forest. I retreated back into my tent and bore the ever-increasing cock screams as the dawn approached for our Jacamar quest and I dragged my miserable carcass out of my tent.
When a man’s life force is all but depleted from sheer physical exhaustion, there are few forces of nature that can activate his emergency reserve that he never knew he had. Some of these forces are: imminent life-threatening danger, the prospect of imminent sexual reproduction, and a quest for a rare bird.
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| Hiking and birding requires extra help - good thing we hired Allepio |
Fortunately, once we got away from the villages, and strength gradually returned to my body with each peaceful night in the Darien, and each day of vigorous hiking and hard-core birding! Isaac has taken countless birders on the one trail up to Cerro Pirre, which is one of the only safe spots to visit in the Darien. Rancho Frio, Rancho Plastico and Cerro Pirre are the three main birding areas we visited.
The scenic beauty of the Darien is shocking - few rainforests on earth are as unspoiled and wild as this. There were ancient trees that must have been growing since the times of the conquistadores. This jungle would be impenetrable were it not for Isaac and his trusty machete, as well as the one maintained trail.
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| I recognized a few names in the guest book |
There were so many highlights I had to make a list!!! So here they are in ascending order:
12. Getting stung in the arse by a velvet ant! One of the most acute pains I've ever experienced.
11. Central American Pygmy Owl
10. Choco Tapaculos 4 feet from our faces
9. Beautiful Red-and-green Macaws, Great Green Macaws
8. Black-tipped Cotinga (although very far away)
7. Spotting a Vermiculated Screech Owl at night (soon to be changed to 'Choco Screech Owl')
6. Ocellated Antbird and Wing-banded Antbird
6. Finding the night-roost of Tawny-faced Woodquail AND Marbled Wood-quail!
5. Sapayoa
4. Dusky-backed Jacamar (after a proper search!)
3. Harpy Eagle sitting on the nest (we missed the male deliver a monkey while being distracted by a Black-crowned Antpitta!
2. Scintillating views of Streamcreeper, after our 4th attempt!
1. The bushmaster one foot off the trail (found by Isaac's son)
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| Bushmaster - one bite from this snake and it would be game over |
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| Look at how close the bushmaster is to the trail! |
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| Organizing a trip into the Darien is a logistical feat - you definitely couldn't do it without Isaac making the arrangements
The Darien Gap was a breathtaking 8 days of hardcore birding in one of the world's most wild and unspoiled tracts of rainforest. The bird and wildlife sightings were enough to fill a memory card and provide many sweet memories. It was two months later in Victoria that I would find out that these memories came at a cost - when I received a disturbing diagnosis by an infectious disease specialist...I had leishmaniasis which would require 6 days of IV treatment in the hospital and several weeks of chronic fatigue and a plethora of other symptoms. As I am updating this post, I am gradually feeling better and starting to train again - Kilimanjaro is in 2 months.
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