February 16, 2013
A Magical Morning Of KayakingI was so happy Robin invited me to go kayaking on Saturday.
It was a beautiful day.
We started at Robin and Diana's house in the Cucuy neighborhood of Puerto Armuelles, Panama
Robin has an old shipping container filled with his sporting gear. It is crowded with kayaks for every occasion.
We took out two of his single sea kayaks and walked them to the beach.
It was a short walk.
There must have been a sardine run. I have never seen so many Pelicans in one place.
I wasn't able to take a photo of the "islands" of pelicans on the ocean. It is hard to juggle a camera while kayaking in the Ocean. It is too bad, Pelicans are my favorite bird.
I did get a shot of Pelicans roosting in a tree by the river (see below).
The ocean portion of our paddle was short.
We soon turned and entered the river mouth of Rio Palo Blanco. (I have a map showing the location of the river in the photos at the bottom of the page)
The transition from the ocean to the river was tricky. It had been awhile since I had kayaked.
It is embarrassing to admit, I capsized. Thankfully, it happened in shallow water and I easily recovered.
The river crosses the highway not far outside of Puerto Armuelles. We didn't make it all the way to the highway. The water level is too low this time of year.
The light and the peace and quiet on the river was magical. There were so many different kinds of shore birds to exclaim over and discuss. Some of what we saw are in the photos below.
I came back resolved to buy myself a sea kayak of some sort so I can enjoy these outings more often. If only I could get my kids excited about it too.
I returned to my house just 3 hours after I left.
It was hard to believe. It felt like I had visited another world.
Robin writes about a much more recent kayaking adventure in Boca Chica Panama here
