Panama - Pelican Party Poopers

Luiz, our driver, knows a good spot to view the Puente de las Americas bridge. We arrive beside the water where fishermen are rowing to and fro in dinghies. After taking some photos, we walk to the promontory passing along under some high bushes. Luiz grabs me and motions above my head to a large pelican with its backside ideally placed to deposit its dinner on an innocent passerby. I tell Luiz he has just saved me from a fate worse than death. He replies that pelicans eat a lot of fish and know what to do.

Later, we saw more pelicans gliding and fishing down by the Amador Causeway, built using spoil from the Panama Canal.

Further inland, we have an interesting stay in a converted ex-US radar station in the middle of rainforest. The bedroom is in the lower part of the dome. You can climb to the top of the dome and walk outside and see the ships passing along the Panama Canal. At the same time you are eyeball to eyeball with the black vultures soaring past.

For the end of the trip we have been staying in Bocas del Toro, or rather one of the outlying islands, in a beachfront house on stilts.

Nice and diverting for the first few days whilst we look at crabs, birds, cocktails and a very laid back lifestyle - ordering breakfast is a logistics manoeuvre that takes an hour or so and at least three cups of local Panamanian coffee - nutty in flavour like the place.

Brrrr, what a shock to be back to deep snow in England!