Mountain lions are common in these forests. Their tracks are often seen in the mud at streamside. Jaguars are here too, wandering in from La Amistad National Park. My neighbor Mr. Romulo Vega lost two young calves the past 10 days, this following another neighbor having lost three further down the valley. Locals refer to the Mountain lion as leon and the jaguar as the tigre. Mr. Vega has homesteaded his small farm with cattle since he started clearing his land in 1960. In 53 years he has lost 48 calves to Jaguars and mountain lions.
The chances of seeing these cats are slim. Knowing you are sharing the trails and forest with them is enough to feel their presence. We might not see them but they most likely do see us.
When powerful top predators are sharing the same forest with you this adds a distinct feel to a place where you tread with more humility.
Knowing the tigre and leon are here and not seeing them makes them in many ways more present. The result is that a deeper sense of wilderness is felt with every howler monkey heard and every quetzal, bellbird and guan seen.

We have highlighted the Lichen Katydid before. This is such a cool insect, reminds me of those camouflaged shrimp you see on coral reefs.

The usual experience with Three Wattled Bellbirds here is that you will be right under a tree getting blasted by their super loud bonk call and crane your neck and fail to spot the bird. About a week ago we found a young adult male calling about 30 feet high up a tree on a small bare branch in the subcanopy and lucky enough there was an unobstructed view from a spot at the base of a nearby oak tree. Almost like a lek which it might be, the male was faithful to this spot and was visited by other bellbirds, in the video footage one was another adult male and the other was either a female or a juvenile male (immature males have the same yellow green plumage as the females).

This young adult male bellbird still has spots of dull dirty green plumage mixed in with the adult brown and white plumage. You can compare him with the “cleaner” older male on the video.

Males can be heard calling from up to a half a mile during breeding season along a narrow band of elevation here at Mount Totumas from roughly between 1900m – 2000m. This site was only a 10 minute walk from the homestead so the video is a composite of about 4 visits to the base of that old oak tree, setting up the spotting scope and holding a point and shoot camera up to the eyepiece.

Every assent to the top of Mount Totumas yields surprises. Our most recent trip in January was no exception. This beautiful terrestial orchid was in full bloom at 2630m above sea level.

Truck in service, construction crew sent home, a few days of simplicity. Time during the last couple of afternoons to photograph the hummingbirds on the deck. The sun from 3-5pm is low enough on the western horizon to light up the deck at just the right angle. These photos were taken through a Leica APO 62 spotting scope while hand holding a Lumix DMC-Z19 point and shoot camera.

Green Crowned Brilliant (male)

Green Crowned Brilliant (female)

Snowy Bellied Hummingbird

Snowy Bellied Hummingbird

White Throated Mountain Gem (male)

White Throated Mountain Gem (male)

White Throated Mountain Gem (female)

Green Violet Ear (male)

Snowy Bellied Hummingbird

Violet Sabrewing (female)

Violet Sabrewing (male)

Magnificent Hummingbird (pollen on bill)

White Throated Mountain Gem (male)

Magnificent Hummingbird

Scintillant Hummingbird (top) and Magenta Throated Woodstar (bottom)

Guest Accommodations

We finished our first cabin in July 2012 just in time for the arrival of back to back entomology groups who christened the cabin setting up their lights on the deck. This cabin is a milestone since we can now offer guests exclusive accommodations. Prior to this visitors shared rooms with us in The Homestead. We can now accommodate up to 14 guests at The Homestead and The Cabin. Images of The Cabin on our website or on the photo gallery here

MTCF Cabin 1

In 2012 we also put a new roof on The Homestead. The previous roof was a fibrous cement product that created new micro fractures as fast as we patched it up. We got tired of placing up to 10 pots around the homestead under the drips falling from the ceiling.

The last large construction planned, the common area lodge out on the lookout point, will start in 2013. During 2012 a backhoe leveled out this area and we brought power and water to the site. We are now ready to start the foundation work. Here is a drawing of the planned structure.

It will have five bedrooms (3 with private bath and two with shared bath) a 2nd floor loft with private dormer balcony, a wrap around deck, viewing platform, large kitchen, dining room and living room. When the lodge is complete we will max out our occupancy to 24 guests with the new lodge, cabin and homestead. Here is the site of the new lodge

Hydro Power

Our micro hydro system was greatly improved in 2012 on several fronts. A load controller was added to manage the distribution of power.

We now have a steady 6kw of power with stable 220V / 60hz. Here is a brief description how this works. The turbine is fully open and the generator is producing a constant 6kw. Power not being used at any given moment is being dumped into a 6000 liter concrete storage tank. Here it is with yours truly having a hot soak.

Eight 1500W heating elements heat the water in the tank.

The load controller distributes the power constantly between the load we are drawing running our project (lights, machines and appliances) and the dump load where unused power heats water in the tank. This insures steady voltage and frequency 110-240V/60Hz to the whole project.

The water intake was also improved in 2012 with the construction of a holding tank fed by five 4inch PVC pipes to capture and filter the required amount of water from the stream.

Previously the penstock (8 inch PVC pipe) was laying directly in the stream with a reservoir made of bags of sand. Flash flooding after heavy rains was washing away the sandbags and leaves were constantly clogging up the intake. This new intake tank requires almost no maintenance.

The last improvement on our hydro was to add cement columns to support the 8 inch PVC pipe in areas where the slope of the land required us to raise the pipe off the ground. We have 35 meters of drop from the intake to the turbine. We also removed dead timber during the entire 200m section that was a threat of falling on the pipe.

Our hydro system is the nucleus of our project and we are making all the efforts possible that this is stable and secure. Our generator has an operating lifespan of 80,000 hours. We calculate that it has already past the 50,000 hour mark. We plan in 2013 to secure an additional generator and keep the existing one as a backup.

Water

Our common area lodge will be higher than the current intake of our water source for the project. This required us to choose a higher location on the property to insure enough water pressure for the new lodge and all the structures. We were fortunate to locate a spring about 125 meters from the current intake and we had this water tested at a laboratory in David and it came back 99% pure. This is a great improvement over our previous water intake which was the same stream that feeds our hydro system.

Once we cleared the area of the spring we laid a 5 gallon bucket down on its side and poured a small amount of cement to create a dam. A 1 inch pipe exits from the 5 gallon bucket and travels 50 meters to a level area where we built a 6000 liter concrete holding tank.

The volume of this holding tank will insure enough water for the project even at full occupancy. In late spring at the height of the dry season the flow of the spring is lower but still steady to keep the holding tank full. The one downside is that the holding tank looks pretty stark on the hillside with Mount Totumas as a back drop. We need an artist volunteer or a school group up here during 2013 to paint a mural!

Employee Cabin

We constructed an employee cabin in 2012 to house the construction staff until the common area lodge is complete when our caretaker Reynaldo and his family will move into this new space. It is the first structure you see as you approach the common area of the project. 6 bunk beds, kitchen, bathroom, and best of all, there is local television reception for the work crew to entertain themselves at night. This is a make or break feature in convincing employees to come all the way up this isolated valley and work Monday – Friday away from their families.

Internet

Our internet service was improved in 2012. Our microwave antennae received a weak signal from the microwave towers in the valley during 2010 – 2011 with spotty service. Internet Activa, our internet provider, installed our own dedicated antennae on their microwave tower in the valley with point to point service to our onsite antennae. We now have an excellent reliable internet connection. Netflix movies anyone? Skype calls work great. We can also temporarily order more bandwidth from the provider if we have larger groups requiring internet.

Workshop

A secure storage room and expanded workshop area was constructed in 2012 out of aluminum framing and cement blocks. This space is currently being used to cure the timber harvested on site that will be used for construction of the common area lodge. The secure storage room is used to store all our construction tools and machines. This workshop would make an ideal ecology lab space for educational purposes once the construction is complete.

Roadwork
In 2012 ditches were dug and concrete pipes added with the help of a backhoe to improve drainage on our 2km private road. In addition road improvements were completed out to the construction site of the new common area lodge

Timber

In 2012 we got permits from ANAM to harvest 2 oaks, 8 pines and 4 bambito trees. About 8000 board feet of timber was processed by our chain saw alchemist Mr. Noe and is now curing in our new workshop. This timber will be used for construction of our common area lodge.

That’s about it. Come on up and check it out.

Hurricane Sandy was born in the Carribean as a low pressure system off the coast of Panama and Costa Rica during mid October. Since MTCF is located only 2 km from the continental divide that separates Boca de Toro from Chiriqui, we experienced torrential rains from the low pressure system that formed Sandy. This happened again in late November when the low pressure system that flooded Colon also dumped a good 15 inches of rain at MTCF. At its worst the Rio Colorado at the border of our property became impassable and when the waters receded we had to repair the damage in order to be able to cross the river with our truck.

It was during this month of low pressure systems crossing over the continental divide that we had the first time visitor of a Fiery Throated Hummingbird on our feeders. We spotted this hummer only a few times in the past years when hiking in the upper elevations above 2100m in La Amistad NP. We assume the powerful northern rains that crossed over from the Carribbean, Sandy’s embryo, brought this spectacular hummingbird down to our feeders. Once the rains started to subside in early December this hummingbird was gone. Unfortunately I only had my point and shoot Lumix camera to document this incredible bird…… (The lens of my Nikon D90 is at service with fungus problems). We now have 14 species of hummingbirds that have visited our feeders.

In the summer of 2011 we planted 1500 coffee seedlings  consisting of 5 different varieties; Caturra, Tipica, Geisha, Catuai and Pacamara. The results after one year are as follows; Cattura and Pacamara had high mortality and low growth. Typica had some die off but many healthy seedlings. Geisha and Catuai both thrived with low mortality. Main problem is control of Derrite fungus which we now have a good treatment regimen with two different copper based fungicides. Organic fertilizers are applied to roots during the rainy season and a foliage fertilizer is applied during the dry season.

In the summer of 2012 we purchased an additional 500 Geisha seedlings to replace the Pacamara and Caturra plants. Next year we plan on adding 500 Catuai, 300 on a minimal shade area 200 in shade to replace lost seedlings.

80% of the coffee area is shaded, the dominate shade trees are Inga sp., a nitrogen fixing legume tree of the area.  Geisha requires shade, Catuai can handle full sun. Local coffee growers at our elevation of 1800m have confirmed independently to us that Geisha and Catuai are the best adapted to our conditions.

Some of the seedlings have reached 30 inches already but due to the slower growth rate at our elevation (1800m) we wont see coffee production for another 2-3 years.  Our elevation is about the upper limit for coffee cultivation but we are hopeful that we will grow a superior coffee since Geisha and Catuai expresses its best qualities when grown at high elevation.

Our future coffee harvest is destined for our own consumption and to roast on site to sell to guests. Any additional production will be sent to the USA to support my nephew Robbie Dietrich’s business in Charleston South Carolina   http://www.cuponwheels.com/

The Cherimoya Anonna cherimola, native of Andean highlands, is well adapted to the highlands of Western Panama. We are greatful to the previous owners of MTCF who had the foresight to plant some trees. We are starting seedlings for future plantings around the cabins. They are perhaps the most delicious of the Annona genus as they combine the sweetness of the custard apple with the tartness of the Soursop. There is an arboreal mammal called an Olingo Bassaricyon gabbii (Mapachi) that has been coming around at night trying to feed on the fruit. We harvested these hard and let them riped wrapped in newspapers and stored in a dark place. In 5 days they were perfect.

Other members of this genus include custard apple (A. reticulata), cherimoya (A. cherimola), Soursop/guanábana (A. muricata), sweetsop (A. squamosa), ilama (A. diversifolia), soncoya (A. purpurea), atemoya (a cross between A. cherimola and A. squamosa). North America has the native pond apple Annona glabra and Pawpaw Asimina triloba