Panama Polleras

I am linking up with Scenic Sunday and click to see my Camera Critter post at the El-Nispero-zoo-Panama

I am skipping around some showing our last night in Panama, our tour guide arranged a special dinner at the Miraflores Lock at the Panama Canal. After a great dinner we were treated to a show which was a group of Panamanians doing their traditional dance with their beautiful costumes.

The women's costumes are called Polleras, it is said this dress is the most admired and beautiful costumes of the Americas. There are tales saying that the Polleras are copied from a gypsy dress in Spain at the time of the conquest of Peru and was brought to Panama by servants of the colonial families.

Each female dancer had a different color dress, shoes to match, jewelry and the ornments to decorate their hair was also gorgeous. The hair piece called a tembleques is made of a tortoise shell comb embellished with pearls and gold and is worn on top of the head and resembles a crown or a halo.

Watching the men and the women dance was just lovely as was the music they played. It was a wonderful time on last night of our trip. We met nice people on our tour and everyone got along great during the whole week we were together.


To see more wonderful scenes from around the world please visit Scenic Sunday.. Thanks to the Holley's for hosting Scenic Sunday. And thank you for stopping by my blog for a visit.  I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend.

Panama Skyline and skyscrapers

For my Scenic Sunday  I am showing some of the Skyscrapers in Panama City, Panama.


My link for Camera Critters...common-moorhen


Panama has some tall buildings and still even more being built.  You can see some of the Panama's skyline on my header photo above.

The corkscrew design on this building above was one of my favorites. Some people in our tour group said it reminded them of lego building toys.

The skyscrapers include offices, banks, hotels, casinos and condominiums.  There are over 80 banks in Panama City.

A Hard Rock Cafe is a must have in a big city, I also heard there will be a Hard Rock hotel also.

This shot above was taken from the moving bus, I assume they are playing a soccer game.

There are over 100 skyscrapers in Panama City and over more than 150 being built.  Panama is in the middle of a building and economic boom.

Before visiting Panama, I pictured Panama more of a lush rainforest and the canal. I did not even think of a booming city. The cool thing is the rainforest is probably no more than an hours drive away.

The Metro Mall was right outside our Panama City hotel. A very popular place to shop with the locals and the tourist.

Edit: An answer to Ann's question I am adding some info on Panama's economy and wealth. The tourism industry generates over 2.5 billion dollars, the re-export business (free trade zone) is another 2.5 billion dollars and the canal generates over 1 billion a year.

To see more beautiful scenes from around the world check out Scenic Sunday. Thanks to the Holleys for hosting Scenic Sunday. And thank you for stopping by to see my post. Have a safe and wonderful weekend.

Scenic Sunday Panama

I am linking up with Scenic Sunday

I have some more photos from our first full day of touring Panama City.  The tour included stops at the San Jose Church in Panama known for its famous gold alter.

The church is use to visitors stopping in to see the gold alter. We arrived in time for the mass and the singing of a pretty hymn. It is a lovely church located down a small cobblestone city street.

One of the few murals painted on the buildings near the church.

After leaving the church in Panama City we headed to the Miraflores Lock and the canal. We were able to stay long enough to see some ships make their way to the lock and to enjoy the exhibits at the visitor center.

For more wonderful photos from all over the world please visit Scenic Sunday.  Thanks to the host of Scenic Sunday and thanks for stopping by to see my post. Have a great weekend!

Panama Caravan tour

I am linking up with Scenic Sunday

Hubby and I took a week long tour of Panama with Caravan tours. The Caravan tour included two nights in a Panama City hotel and tours around the city and then two nights at a rainforest hotel with more tours and two nights at the Pacific Ocean resort and the last night back at Panama City. I did arrange a bird guide for a day. I could not go to Panama without getting the chance to see some of the exotic and my cool Panama birds. But, this post will be on Panama City and some of the sights we saw during the two days we toured the city.

The morning part of the tour included the Panama Viejo visitor center museum displaying artifacts from 500-700 years before the Spanish arrival. The center included displays of clothing, furniture, pottery and a model of what old Panama City would have looked like.

Panama Viejo (old Panama) city founded by the Spanish in 1519 . A gateway for gold from the Inca Empire.

In 1671 famous Buccaneer Henry Morgan ransacked the city and burned it to the ground. It is interesting to see the old ruins with the new city skyscrapers in the background

The Panama Viejo is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Vasco Balboa a Spanish conquistador and explorer. The first European explorer to see the Pacific in 1513. He claimed the Pacific Ocean and all its shores for Spain.

These photos and tours were done on the first full day of our Panama Caravan tour. Actually, the Viejo visitor center and ruins was just the morning part of the tour. I will do another post on the afternoon tour. We visited the San Jose Church with the gold alter and had lunch at the Miraflores Canal Locks.

I hope you enjoyed my tour of Panama Viejo center and ruins, to see more wonderful scenes from around the world check out Scenic Sunday. Thanks to

Chincoteague Ponies

I am linking up with Scenic Sunday   and  Camera Critters

I am sure a lot of bloggers have read the book Misty Of Chincoteague, it was my favorite book as a child. The Chincoteague volunteer fire dept auctions off the ponies in July every year to raise money. They are also doing what is called buy-backs. The buy-backs are foals that the firemen had picked to stay in the herd. The foals are auctioned off  at the pony penning to give people a chance to "own" a Chincoteague pony without having to take it home. The new owners will get the foals official registry name and a certificate but the foal will stay on the island with the rest of the Chincoteague herd.

On Friday evening the cowboys were rounding up the 40-50 of the Chincoteague ponies for a vet check and to get their worming medicine. This happens three times a year in April, October and July.

One of my YouTube videos of the Chincoteague horses all gathered for their worming medicine. I captured some of the horses making sounds after getting their medicine, probably something similiar to the sounds I would make if I was given some icky tasting medicine. Well maybe not the same sound I would make but you know what I mean..

A shot of the horses penned waiting for their turn of the worming shot.  The Pintos are my favorite I love the multi colors.

The horses have numbers on their thighs, which are actually the number showing the year they were born. This one above was born in 2006

In the background the Palomino  stallion Chief( the white one)  is fighting again with another stallion. They do not like being penned up in a small area. They get jealous over their groups of mares.

I would not want to be the one trying to hold this gate shut.  The Chief was being a bad boy while penned up, fighting and kicking other horses.

Above you can see the vet shooting the worming medicine into Chiefs mouth.

The two dominant stallions Prince born in 2007 is off white with white spots and the other off white horse is the Chief born in 2008. They are all beautiful horses and I took so many photos. It is was hard to choose which one to add to my post.

To see more scenic photos check out Scenic Sunday  and to see more cute and wonderful critters check out Camera Critters.  Thanks to the Holley's  and to Misty Dawn for hosting these fun memes. Thank you also for stopping by to see my post. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend.

Lighthouse & Chincoteague Island, Virginia

These are some scenes from Chincoteague Island Virginia and the Assateague National Seashore for my Scenic Sunday  post. To see more scenic shots from around the world click on my link.

The view from the top of the lighthouse. There were free climbs to the top celebrating  the 144th  birthday of the lighthouse.

This shot above you can see the wildlife drive and the Atlantic Ocean.

I hope you enjoyed my views of the Assateague Lighthouse on the Chincoteague NWR. To see more beautiful scenes from around the world check out Scenic Sunday.  Thanks to the host of Scenic Sunday and also thank you for stopping by to see my Scenic post. Have a great weekend!

Bermuda's Crystal Cave

I am linking my Bermuda's Crystal Cave with Scenic Sunday. I have not shown all my Bermuda photos and I thought our visit to the Crystal Caves would be a great post. After our three hour tour of the island we asked to be dropped off at the Crystal Caves. Hubby loves spleunking so I thought a tour of these caves would be perfect for him. We had time to get a quick bite to eat while we waited for the next tour. I was happy sitting at the tables outside watching the birds we waited. 


We had a nice tour guide during our visit to the caves, he told us the story about how the caves were originally found. The story goes two 12 year old boys looking for their lost cricket ball that fell down into a hole. The boys follow the ball down into the hole and discovered the cave. Crystal Cave got its name from the deep crystal pools in the cave.

The water is so clear you can see the bottom of the cave floor.

I am pretty sure these formations are called straws.

There were floating bridges so we could walk back further into the cave. It was pretty cool checking out all the formations.

More formations in the water and reflections.

I hope you enjoyed my Bermuda Crystal Caves post and to see more click  Scenic Sunday .  Thanks to the host of Scenic Sunday the Holleys. Thank You for visiting my post and blog, as always I appreciate the visits and the comments.  Have a great weekend!!!

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Nairobi Elephant Nursery

This week I am doing something special for the new Our World, my first PicStory and my Friday Ark and Camera Critter. I do not advertise on my blog but I was happy to receive a request to do a blog post from National Geographic. The featured story is on the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Nairobi Elephant Nursery in Kenya. I read this story sometimes with tears in my eyes and sometimes with a smile on my face. It is a touching story and a wonderful thing happening at this elephant nursery. I believe in conservation and protecting the wildlife and endangered critters and that is what this story is about. I want to thank the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and to the wonderful keepers of these orphaned elephants.

 National Geographic (credit: National Geographic)

Nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/orphan-elephants/nichols-photography

The following excerpt comes from the September issue of the National Geographic magazine, on newsstands now and the link to

the full article online: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/09/orphan-elephants/siebert-text.

These are sad and perilous days for the world's largest land animal. Once elephants roamed the Earth like waterless whales, plying ancient migratory routes ingrained in their prodigious memories. Now they've been backed into increasingly fragmented territories. When not being killed for their tusks or for bush meat, they are struggling against loss of habitat due to human population pressures and drought. A 1979 survey of African elephants estimated a population of about 1.3 million. About 500,000 remain. In Asia an estimated 40,000 are left in the wild. And yet even as the elephant population dwindles, the number of human-elephant conflicts rises. In Africa, reports of elephants and villagers coming into conflict with each other appear almost daily.

The plight of elephants has become so dire that their greatest enemy—humans—is also their only hope, a topsy-turvy reality that moved a woman named Daphne Sheldrick to establish the nursery back in 1987. Sheldrick is fourth-generation Kenya-born and has spent the better part of her life tending wild animals. Her husband was David Sheldrick, the renowned naturalist and founding warden of Tsavo East National Park who died of a heart attack in 1977. She's reared abandoned baby buffalo, dik-diks, impalas, zebras, warthogs, and black rhinos, among others, but no creature has beguiled her more than elephants.

Orphan infant elephants are a challenge to raise because they remain fully dependent on their mother's milk for the first two years of life and partially so until the age of four. In the decades the Sheldricks spent together in Tsavo, they never succeeded in raising an orphan younger than one because they couldn't find a formula that matched the nutritional qualities of a mother's milk. Aware that elephant milk is high in fat, they tried adding cream and butter to the mix, but found the babies had trouble digesting it and soon died. They then used a nonfat milk that the elephants could digest better, but eventually, after growing thinner and thinner on that formula, these orphans succumbed as well. Shortly before David's death, the couple finally arrived at a precise mixture of human baby formula and coconut. This kept alive a three-week-old orphan named Aisha, helping her grow stronger every day.

All photo credits: ©Michael Nichols/National Geographic

Dedicated keepers at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust's Nairobi Elephant Nursery in Kenya protect baby Shukuru from the cold and rain, and the risk of pneumonia, with a custom-made raincoat.

Even orphaned babies out for their morning walk from the nursery seem to understand the complex structure of elephant society. Here the oldest orphans lie down to invite the younger ones to play on top of them.

The introduction of orphan elephants to Tsavo National Park is bringing wild herds back to a region devastated by poaching decades ago. Ithumba mountain is near the park's northern border.

Again credits for these awesome photos by : Michael Nichols/National Geographic

My interest in elephants has really peaked from seeing them recently at the National Zoo and especially two weeks ago when I heard that the elephants at the Baltimore Zoo linked trunks and all clustered together before the earthquake was felt. It is amazing these animals are so sensitive. Being an animal lover, one of my dream trips is to do an African Safari and to see these wonderful animals in the wild.

You can check out the whole story in the September issue of the National Geographic magazine on newstands on August 30.  I really enjoyed reading this beautiful story about the orphaned elephants and I hope you all do too. It is also cool that you can go to the Sheldrick wildlife trust site and adopt one of these orphaned elephants. Thanks to the hosting group at  Our World  PicStory and Friday Ark and to Misty Dawn of Camera Critters.

Thanks to everyone for visiting my blog and post.. I hope the end of your week is great and that everyone has a great weekend.