Travel and Leisure

As part of its Hottest Travel Destinations of 2012, Travel and Leisure states that Panama is courting high fliers. This article doesn't reference Bocas del Toro.

Gyotaku Fish Printing - Results

We have the basic materials all ready now. We are anxiously awaiting our next rainy day… we shall see how many more prints we make.

Gyotaku Fish Printing - Process

Sunday morning, I searched the house for plain t-shirts for each one of us. Gayle, Jim and the kids went fishing again. This time they decided they wanted a few different species to print. After they had caught the required subject matter, they went to work. They cleaned the fish, set up the area for painting the face of the fish and then started printing and printing and printing.
All in all, over the two days they worked on this, they printed 6 art prints and 15 articles of clothing. Jim, Gayle, Yohany, Natalia, Boty, Tres and Ramon worked on all of these things. It was a lot of fun.

Gyotaku Fish Printing - Fishing

Gayle, Jim and the kids went fishing off the dock and in a kayak to catch some fish. The first day they printed one fish several times onto a square piece of cloth. Then Gayle decided to try it on her t-shirt. After we all saw Gayle’s shirt we each wanted one of our own.

Gyotaku Fish Printing

Gyotaku is the art of Japanese fish printing. It is an amazing way to preserve the beauty of a fish. And because each fish can be printed many times you don't have to catch a lot of fish to learn about this art form.



We first learned about it in October 2010 from Doug Olander. Doug was here to write an article on Tranquilo Bay for Sport Fishing. He is the Editor in Chief for Sport Fishing and an author of a book of fish prints. His book Gyotaku Fish Impressions was released in 1994.

He explained the basics of the process to Jim while he was here. Jim looked into a bit further and purchased a few supplies. Over the course of the next year, Jim printed a couple of fish. You have to be prepared to print the fish when you return from a day of fishing and you need to allocate the time to do so. Jim is usually running tight on time after he returns from fishing thus the limited prints for 2011.

Thus far 2012 has surpassed our limited editions for 2011. Jim’s sister, Gayle, visited us last week. She is quite an artist so the two of them decided to try again on the prints.

Clements Bird List - 321 Species

We had a few guests here the first week of January who were here to bird. They had some great days and some rain. On one of the days they saw 101 species over the course of the day. We encountered a few new birds for the list during their stay here. There have been other additions as well, but Ramon and Natalia were on vacation so the list hasn't been updated since September. We have a number of guests and groups coming to look for birds over the next few months so we anticipate additions to the list over this period as well. You can see the updated Bird List here.

Sea Turtle babies

Insect babies

Momma & baby Sloth

Dolphin babies

Baby birds

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New York Times - The 45 Places to Go in 2012

Take a look at this New York Times Travel article - The 45 Places to Go in 2012. Panama is number one on the list. The article gives a brief description about things in Panama City and recommends Bocas del Toro. Bocas del Toro is much more than a backpacker's haven - it is a naturalist's dream. The province of Bocas del Toro hosts two national parks, one of which is a world heritage site. One park, Bastimentos National Marine Park, covers a large portion of the archipelago and is home to a variety of ecosystems that thrive at or around sea level. Expeditions into the parks are designed to cover a diverse range of ecosystems and terrain and can be tailored to meet your areas of interest, experience and physical abilities. You can find more on the specific excursions available from here.

Happy New Year!

May 2012 bring you health, prosperity, and love. (And maybe a visit to Panama to see us!)

Happy New Year from all of us at Tranquilo Bay.