Panama - Aguadulce

From El Valle we headed a little further West to Penonome, staying at a business hotel, which proved to be excellent and ideally located just off the main road and next to ta huge supermarket.   The food was great too a real contrast to where we'd just been.

From Penonome we headed down to the mostly abandoned salinas or salt flats near Aguadulce:

Not the sunniest day we'd had in Panama but still fiercely hot:

The cloud did begin to break-up and the temperature rose further as we explored the former salt mine (it's still mined in places but no longer on an industrial scale) where good sized flocks of waders kept their distance.   We saw a number of different shorebird species here though nothing spectacular, it was a good spot to visit.

We headed down to the coast at Aguadulce, and explored the beach, mangroves and forest along the shore.  This crab seemed unperturbed by us:

A Common Tody-Flycatcher was hunting in the trees close to the ocean:

We headed further along the road reaching a dead-end in a fishing village, where the catch was being brought in and weighed, we don't tend to take pictures of the locals quite often they take offence at this.

We did snap this Magnificent Frigatebird hovering above though:

And a Brown Pelican perched and preening in the harbour area:

Having enjoyed our visit to the area we headed back to the hotel to hide form the heat of the afternoon, spotting this Eastern Meadowlark on the way:

Another night at Penonome was to be followed by a very early start, right at dawn for a drive up to the national park at El Cope,