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Willie Mazu
Bocas del Toro, Panama
Feb. 18,2008 Monday
We had to get up early in order to catch a flight to the city of David. The plane was 30 passengers prop type. Once we landed in David, we piled into a small bus to drive the rest of the way to our destination, “Willie Mazu” where we would stay three nights.
The scenery along the drive was breathtaking. I’m always fascinated by the way people live in these countries. 
The houses were brightly painted yellow, green, aqua, melon, purple a very colorful sight. We stopped to check out fences made from tree branches that rooted and grew into living fences. The main tree for this fence building was the "Erythrina" These trees are very colorful with bright red orange flowers. 
Our journey by bus was about 2 1/2 hours. The last hour or so was up mountains. We crossed the continental divide and saw some beautiful vistas and many small waterfalls. Our lodge was set partway up one of the mountains, next to a river with a small waterfall.
Tuesday (Feb. 19, 2008 ) The whole crew left in the morning to hike up to a big waterfall the hike would climb 2600 meters . Little did we know what was in store for us. The first major occurrence was when we heard one of our crew yell, followed by a thud. He was behind us, so we went back to see what happened. There had been a jumping pit-viper with its mouth open ready to strike at him. He threw the camera at it. This snake is a rarely seen and we captured it for study at the University of Panama.
Further into our walk, it started to rain.
Everything turned to mud and the rain never let up. It rained about 4 inches during the hike. You should have seen us, most of the trek was uphill and slippery. The paths were full of mud, rocks, roots, and fallen trees. It was a slow process up the steep, slippery inclines. Our final destination was high in the cloud forest to the top of a waterfall with a drop of 150 meters. We crossed a stream and stood on the edge of the falls. What a spectacular view of the rainforest below.
The trip back was much easier, though still slippery. We were covered in mud from either falling or sitting to maneuver over obstacles and down steep hills.
Copyright (c) 2006,2007,2008 The Carefree Gardener Privacy Statement
The Willie Mazu Ecological Ranch is one of the many conservation efforts of its founder, Wilberto Martinez. It is nestled in the highlands of Bocas del Toro and offered us the opportunity to explore unspoiled cloud forests while supporting Willie’s efforts to protect and preserve the surrounding rainforest and its occupants.
Photos
My other travels
Craig with Willie