We just had the most amazing week chilling out in the Chagres river. I wasn't expecting much from our brief stopover there - it's just a river in the middle of the jungle. But it was stunningly beautiful and we were all alone, totally cut off from the world. No Internet, no cell reception, and no other boats or people. Plus we woke up to a different version of this every morning:
We also woke up to the sound of countless jungle animals just going about their lives. There were howler monkeys, whose cries echoed through the trees like something out of a horror movie. There were fish splashing around in the water, brightly coloured birds greeting the new day, and tiny little sparrows lined up along our lifelines. My morning alarm was always these little guys chirping right above my head. There were also iguanas and crocodiles, but they both passed us by silently and without a fuss.
After stopping at the entrance to see San Lorenzo, we went all the way to the end of the river and anchored near the dam that services the canal by blocking off the river. We went ashore to go exploring, in the hopes that we'd be able to walk all the way over to the dam. Unfortunately we couldn't figure it out and our trek came to an end when we reached a cliff overlooking the end of the lake and the dam wall.
The walk wasn't that eventful, and hiking through the jungle left our clothes completely drenched in sweat, our legs completely covered in mud and most of our bodies spotted with bug bites. But we did manage to find some howler monkeys, which made it all worthwhile. We strayed from the tiny track to follow their cries, and found ourselves looking up at a group of them playing in the trees above us. Some were sleeping in an attempt to escape from the heat, but most were jumping around and playing. They were stuffing themselves with leaves from the huge tree in front of us, which had obviously been chosen as a playground because it was tastier than the others.
There were babies in amongst the troop, who jumped and climbed much more energetically than the older ones. They looked down at us curiously, but didn't seem to mind the intrusion. We sat there for close to an hour, just enjoying nature and our new friends.
After we moved on I focused most of my attention on trying to find sloths and toucans. No dice. We did find lots more ants though, and more ant tracks where the constant army of ants had worn tracks through the grass.
Rows of ants carried pieces of these leaves back to their nest. The trails of bobbing green dots stretched out in every direction
We spent a few days after that just relaxing on the river, enjoying the solitude. We eventually needed some excitement though, and we took the dinghy on an adventure down some of the little side rivers. They were mostly narrow and cute, without much wildlife to play with. We went underneath a tree with an iguana on it and found some pretty birds, but that was it. All the interesting animals were hiding further in the jungle.
We had so much fun though, ducking under branches, narrowly avoiding spiderweb and getting stuck in amongst mangroves. Half the time it felt like we were just walking through the jungle with the amount of stray branches and leaves we had to avoid. One particularly large tree had fallen straight across the river - Garth left the engine going full ball and we both had to throw ourselves onto the floor of the dinghy in order for us to slip through the gap between it and the water. Both us and the dinghy got quite beaten up from our river adventures! When we got back to the boat, there was a huge mess to clean up from the dinghy. The whole floor was covered in leaves and dirt and while I was getting it all out I found ants, many spiders and one sneaky crab who was as big as my hand. It was one hell of a cleanup!
On our last day there we were trying to decide what to do. There are actual paths we could follow that lead into the jungle, and in our cruising guide there's a picture of people playing in front of a waterfall. Unfortunately the book didn't say where it was. I was keen to go adventuring, but as we were discussing our plans for the day we noticed that the cries from the howler monkeys had gotten a lot closer. Garth whipped out the binoculars and sure enough, they were hanging off the trees on the waters edge. The dinghy was still down, so we rowed over to say hi.
Zen monkey is super zen
We ended up staying for an hour or two as the monkeys played above our heads. We both just lay down in the dinghy and watched them in the trees, jumping around and playing together. The were very curious about us. A few of them took to hiding in amongst the leaves, peering down at through the gaps. Then they would scamper back up the tree. It felt like we were unwittingly caught up in a bizarre game of hide and seek.
So that was the Rio Chagres. There wasn't anything touristy or interesting to see, but it’s a really special place and I'm so glad we went. There's nothing quite like waking up in the middle of a jungle.
Xxx Monique
Click here for LOTS more pictures!
We also woke up to the sound of countless jungle animals just going about their lives. There were howler monkeys, whose cries echoed through the trees like something out of a horror movie. There were fish splashing around in the water, brightly coloured birds greeting the new day, and tiny little sparrows lined up along our lifelines. My morning alarm was always these little guys chirping right above my head. There were also iguanas and crocodiles, but they both passed us by silently and without a fuss.
After stopping at the entrance to see San Lorenzo, we went all the way to the end of the river and anchored near the dam that services the canal by blocking off the river. We went ashore to go exploring, in the hopes that we'd be able to walk all the way over to the dam. Unfortunately we couldn't figure it out and our trek came to an end when we reached a cliff overlooking the end of the lake and the dam wall.
The walk wasn't that eventful, and hiking through the jungle left our clothes completely drenched in sweat, our legs completely covered in mud and most of our bodies spotted with bug bites. But we did manage to find some howler monkeys, which made it all worthwhile. We strayed from the tiny track to follow their cries, and found ourselves looking up at a group of them playing in the trees above us. Some were sleeping in an attempt to escape from the heat, but most were jumping around and playing. They were stuffing themselves with leaves from the huge tree in front of us, which had obviously been chosen as a playground because it was tastier than the others.
There were babies in amongst the troop, who jumped and climbed much more energetically than the older ones. They looked down at us curiously, but didn't seem to mind the intrusion. We sat there for close to an hour, just enjoying nature and our new friends.
After we moved on I focused most of my attention on trying to find sloths and toucans. No dice. We did find lots more ants though, and more ant tracks where the constant army of ants had worn tracks through the grass.
We spent a few days after that just relaxing on the river, enjoying the solitude. We eventually needed some excitement though, and we took the dinghy on an adventure down some of the little side rivers. They were mostly narrow and cute, without much wildlife to play with. We went underneath a tree with an iguana on it and found some pretty birds, but that was it. All the interesting animals were hiding further in the jungle.
We had so much fun though, ducking under branches, narrowly avoiding spiderweb and getting stuck in amongst mangroves. Half the time it felt like we were just walking through the jungle with the amount of stray branches and leaves we had to avoid. One particularly large tree had fallen straight across the river - Garth left the engine going full ball and we both had to throw ourselves onto the floor of the dinghy in order for us to slip through the gap between it and the water. Both us and the dinghy got quite beaten up from our river adventures! When we got back to the boat, there was a huge mess to clean up from the dinghy. The whole floor was covered in leaves and dirt and while I was getting it all out I found ants, many spiders and one sneaky crab who was as big as my hand. It was one hell of a cleanup!
On our last day there we were trying to decide what to do. There are actual paths we could follow that lead into the jungle, and in our cruising guide there's a picture of people playing in front of a waterfall. Unfortunately the book didn't say where it was. I was keen to go adventuring, but as we were discussing our plans for the day we noticed that the cries from the howler monkeys had gotten a lot closer. Garth whipped out the binoculars and sure enough, they were hanging off the trees on the waters edge. The dinghy was still down, so we rowed over to say hi.
We ended up staying for an hour or two as the monkeys played above our heads. We both just lay down in the dinghy and watched them in the trees, jumping around and playing together. The were very curious about us. A few of them took to hiding in amongst the leaves, peering down at through the gaps. Then they would scamper back up the tree. It felt like we were unwittingly caught up in a bizarre game of hide and seek.
So that was the Rio Chagres. There wasn't anything touristy or interesting to see, but it’s a really special place and I'm so glad we went. There's nothing quite like waking up in the middle of a jungle.
Xxx Monique
Click here for LOTS more pictures!
Amazing
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