Dear Raul, Dear Lorena,

 As we promised you, followings are our travel report for our first Panama trip mainly about your lodges.

 Totally, this trip was very comfortable and safe as I have never experienced.

Entering and Leaving Panama :

Till now, we, as Tahey and Madoka, had 35 trips to foreign countries, almost for staying in the nature.

For these trips, when we entered and left the countires at first, we surely had experienced some kinds of unpleasant expriences.

For example, all European and American peoples were not checked but we only were checked severely as Asian peoples, our baggages only checked severely and etc..

In Panama, as this is the first trip for us, all persons in the airport were very helpful and kind with smiles. This is very important for the tourists who travel to a country at first, because they have anxieties for entering the countries. We had good impression for Panama. (Generally, the persons working in the airport are unpleasant and overbearing, Japan too).

Transportation :

All services for picking us up were very smooth. The drivers came to the points 15 minutes before than the schedule, which made us feel easy.

At the last transportation from Canopy Tower to the airport, we had a trouble caused by us. We left the small camera in the lodge. We found this mistake at the point of Summit Garden and the driver, Jurio, soon returned to the lodge. The camera was left on the bench in the garden and the American tourists found it and took it over to us.

This accident did not influence to our flight schedule, because Jurio came to the lodge before the schedule and we kept enough time though we returned once.

Canopy Lodge :

Canopy Lodge is the best lodge we have ever stayed. All services were excellent and the staff were kind, friedly and reliable.

The room is the most wonderful, too enough space with convenient equipment, very clean and comfrotable.

The high roof and low setting beds makes us good impression and peace of mind. Veranda is good for rest and birding. 

We stayed in room number Cinco. One good and bad point is that this room is close to the river. That is good for hearing the sound of river flow but the sound sometimes loud (we could not hear the birds singing for the sound of river flow). 

One request is to set shampoo in the bathroom, same as Canopy Tower.

We were surprised that we had not have mosquito atack in the lodge, though there is a pond and much rains. When we stayed in the veranda, many small flies were flying and we were not atacked by mosquitoes. Also we have not found the insects in the room. This was same in open restaurant. This experience made us happy and we have never done such a comfortable experience in other lodges.

The foods were excellent and good taste. We always said "Muy rico!"

The foods in Panama and Costa Rica are familar to Japanese, as based on rice and not too sweet and not too hot. We can enjoy all meals. Especially the foods in the Lodge were enjoyable, also of course the dessert were our favourite with suitable taste (not too sweet) for us (American dessert are all too sweet and too big).

While we stayed, as it was our surprise, the guests were only two of us! We surely understand this was very rare case for such a famous and wonderful lodge. We think we were very lucky for staying this lodge, because we could feel the Lodge is like our gorgeous second house.

Till now we have experienced to stay some lodges with the very few guests or only two of us. In such times, some bad conditions were appeared, for example, foods were limited and same in every meals, staff were limited and etc.. We sometimes could not satisfy with the service. But in the Canopy Lodge, such an anxiety could not be needed. All services were perfect and the foods were not cut corners. The staff in the Lodge gave us the wonderful, friendly and kind services with smiles.

We were impressed such services by the wonderful staff, and surely appreciate all of your toughtfulness for us.

We would like to tell again, Canopy Lodge is the best lodge for enjoying nature in the world.

Birding in Canopy Lodge :

First of all, Tino is the best birding guide we have ever joined.

We are not keen birders and not enthusiastic for watching many birds, rather we are nature lovers and satisfy to stay in the nature. Ordinalily, we do not do the birding tuor agressively and rather stay in more time in the lodges to watch the birds come to gardens in the lodges. Another reason is that we are not strong to walk much in hard places and especially Tahey has some kinds of physical condition (back pain, knee pain and weak legs).

But in our previous many trips, we enjoyed birding with guides and knew 20 over guides in the world.  

For our experiences, Tino's guide was most excellent and we could enjoy the birding every day while in the Lodge.

This time, we tried to join the two birding in a day. Tino understood our phusical condition and selected easy trails for us, we suppose.

He was careful for our walking and paid attention for us about trails condition.

It was the rainy season and rained every day, but the birdings were so wonderful.

Tino called many birds with his whistle and sounds also he knows all about the each birds. We were surprised and impressed with his knowledge, experience, studies and loves to the birds (and butterflies). He enjoys himself for communicate with the birds and gave us his joy and happiness for the birds and the nature.

We could watch many birds with him, humingbirds, trogons, antbirds, woodcreepers, tanagers, manakins and more. The 4th day was the hilight for us. We could watch several beautiful wrens, Rosy Thrush-tanager (both male and female!), Tody Motomoto (this is our target bird), Golden-collared Manakin (very beautiful) and at last Rufous-vented Ground Cuckoo!!

He tried to call this bird with his whistle for 15 minutes over in the forest, and this bird returned to us. After that, he said "I am very happy today, how about you?" "Of course, we are happy too!" we answered with our appreciation for him.

Most of all, we appreciate so much for his best job with his love, happiness and enjoying for the birds and birding without limiting the time.

Canopy Tower :

We stayed three night in world famous Canopy Tower.

In our stay, it was good weather and we felt happy after much rain in Canopy Lodge.

The lodge is in wonderful situation and we could enjoy the nature enough.

Honestly speaking, the room in Canopy Lodge is more comfortable than the Tower. But it stands to reason, because the Lodge was constructed based on the planning but the Tower was used the existing structure.

Our room, Blue Cotinga, is wonderful room with hammock.

To compare between Tower and Lodge, the room, equipments and comforts are better in the Lodge. But of course, Tower has other excellent points and it is sure one of the best lodges.

The staff and food were very wonderful same as the Lodge. We surely felt very easy in the Tower too.

While our staying in the Tower, we could communicate with several American birders. We were surprised with their knowledge and good eyes as they are not so young. That was our good memory we can share the good birding times with them.

Birding in Canopy Tower :

As introduced in some websites, this is one of the greatest birding spots in the world, we confirmed. From the top of and from the garden of the Tower, we could watch many birds and mammals. Aracaries, Manakins, Antbirds, Tanagers and Monkeys (especially Tamarin!) made us happy.

In the days tours, we of course watched many birds. In them, we were astonished to see many trogons in a day. Further, antbirds and Great Jacamar impressed us.

The guide, Alexis is another type of guide than Tino, Alexis is calm and not to speak much. He is also the best guide for us to let us see many birds. He did not use whistle and sounds much, but he found many birds while the birdings.

We appreciate his wonderful job so much.

We did the birding with American birders and were noticed one thing.

There were several difference for interests to each bird between American and Japanese. In the tour, we found a bird, purple gallinule, at the river. For us, this bird is very rare (not in Japan) and very excited. But all of other persons did not have interest in this bird. We understood, this birds can be watched in south side of the USA easily. Also about pygmy kingfisher too. 

As we are not keen birders, we would like to see colorful, beautiful and pretty birds. But for keen birders, they are not so intersting for such birds like us.

We would like to tell you again we surely enjoyed all of the times in Panama with your best services.  

Your friendship, kindness, professional services and the love to the wonderful nature are so much appreciated.

We are waiting for the next days we can stay the both lodges again, and we hope it shall be soon.

Sincerely yours,

Tahey and Madoka Ito

Tokyo, Japan