The frogs were school bus yellow with brown markings on their backs. They were housed in an aquarium along with water, plants and sticks to perch on. Their bright golden color was a warning to predators because they had a potent poison in their skin. Biologists were breeding the endangered amphibians because a deadly fungus had just about decimated them.
While the frogs lounged in their tank, we hiked the former habitat that still held the fungus that made their return impossible. We paused by a bubbling brook of the clearest water that had once been teeming with generations of golden frogs.
Another treat of the natural world to be found on this trail were Los Arboles Cuadrado - giant trees with squared trunks. The ancient trees evidently just grow this way and are common to this area.
We returned to Casa Mariposa just in time for lunch and ambled over to El Camino del Inca for a typical Peruvian meal of the most succulent and perfectly fried filet of corvina (local sea bass) that I have ever eaten. The meal, made by a Peruvian chef, consisted of rice, lentils and a small salad along with your choice of pescado, pollo or bistek. There is no better meal that $4.75 can buy you! While we were there, we talked to a young man named Sear from Toronto, who's family was originally from Afghanistan. He knew little Spanish, had only a few days in Panama but was determined to travel it well. We gave him some advice (order the fish!) and felt encouraged by his optimism and attitude.
After lunch, we visited El Museo de Victoriano Lorenzo, an indigenous young man who was recognized as a martyr for standing up for social justice. In addition to a nice model of the valley created by various volcanic craters, some beautiful rock and petrified wood samples, the museum had a replica of the kind of adobe home that Victoriano would have lived in, as well as artifacts from the area in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Returning to Casa Mariposa, we were treated to special visit with the sloths! Their faces are frozen in perpetual smiles like the smiles that appear on our faces when we see them. I got to hold Samie, one of the three-toed sloths, and found them strangely comforting to hold. Samie's claws could have ripped me to shreds, but that's not what sloths do. She clung to my shoulders as I supported her bottom like a baby. Their long fur, though it looks to be coarse and wiry, is really quite soft. What an experience!
We relaxed in the strong mountain breezes that afternoon, made limeade and walked across to another local place for dinner (more fish!) and made it home just as rain drops were beginning to fall.
Hike near Las Ranas Doradas (golden frogs') creek
Beautiful Ranas Doradas at laboratory
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