7.14.2014

La Gruta y mas

I am writing this from an amazing location, which I will share in another post. For now, here's more about Bocas del Toro.

The bat cave will make the top ten list for sure! A short bus ride up the road and a one dollar entrance fee gets us unguided admission into La Gruta, a cave filled with a lot of bats.



We will need the prayers and protection for this excursion.


Super mama Liz carried her 4 year old through the entire cave.

This cluster of bats doesn't even begin to represent how many bats we encountered.
And really big spiders called whip scorpions.


Luis easily filled the role of tour guide.


The boys were brave and forged ahead. The cave makes a sharp left turn, so we didn't know he far it would go or if there was an exit or what. Rand this bend was a lair of bats with 2 foot wing spans. We made a lot of ruckus and they woke up and began screeching. We all imagined the horror of hundreds of bats swarming and swooping around us.

The girls needed coaxing and nearly turned around, but the boys encouraged us to keep on going.
The final passage to the exit. It was all we could do to just not look up and see all those bats.

Yeah we just waded through a bat cave. Definitely will make the top ten list!

Liz and Peter at the exit.


Sooooo beautiful.

In the afternoon we visited the Smithsonian Institute Research Station which gives free tools on Thursday and Friday afternoons.


We visited their labs and met scientists. Their main area of research is cataloging all of the marine life in Panama.


This scientist is part of a research team that is studying how bacteria affects coral. She is using a high pressure water sprayer to remove the crusty outer part of the coral to make it easier for bacteria to infect the coral. Real scientific research at the source. Fascinating!!!!

A well deserved juice break on the way home.











2 comments:

  1. I don't even wanna think about all the bat crap in the water. ��

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  2. The water was moving so fast it washed everything away constantly so it didn't look too bad!

    ReplyDelete