Welllll it's been a little longer than I'd intended since my last post. In the past ten days, I've completed an entire Environmental Policy course (which was a very intense 6 days, let me tell you), moved into a new place in Diablo, Panama City and gotten myself oriented in the city and the lab where I will be working for the next 3 or so months. So, I've been a little busy. But I shall now try to rectify my absence and regale you with tales from the final week of the Tropical Biology and Conservation course, and perhaps wrap up with a couple photos from the past week or so in Panama. Hold onto your hats, this might be a longer post than the last one.
The last post left off right before our group left Gamboa for a little adventure to a place called Fortuna. Fortuna is located more on the western side of Panama, and is (at its highest point) 2200m above sea level. This means it's a little chillier than the +35°C temperatures we'd been getting acclimatized to!
A 5:30am wake up, and on the road at 6:45am, we got to the Fortuna research station around 4pm. Fun fact: Jonathas (one of the guys in the course), found a scorpion in his camera bag during this trip!
When we arrived, the instructors turned to us and said "Alright ladies, this is where you're staying tonight, and the gentlemen, you'll be staying at the hostel down the street." We thought it was a joke... then we realised they were serious. There wasn't enough room for everyone at the station, or at the hostel, so us lucky ladies got to stay at the research station. The rest of that night was mostly allocated to dinner and "mothing". What is mothing, you may ask? This is a pastime of entomologists, where a large white sheet is hung up outside, often against a wall, with a light glowing on it, to attract insects. The number and variety of moths we saw was pretty incredible... but to be honest, moths aren't really my thing. They especially aren't my thing when the entomologists decide it would be a good idea to set up the sheet on the research station wall.. right beside the entrance... with the door we couldn't close because it locked from the inside and- joy of joys- we didn't have a key for. This meant we had to keep the door open until all of us were in the station for the night. Needless to say.. we had more roommates than we'd really cared to have.
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| The guys really liked mothing! |
That night was not particularly pleasant. Lynette found gecko poop on her blanket, so she had to get a spare blanket. The research station was not well equipt with blankets, so each of us had a wool blanket. One wool blanket was definitely not enough, as the temperatures dropped below 10°C at night. Tara got sick, and I definitely wasn't feeling well the next day.
Our first full day in Fortuna was amazing. The group was split in two- our group went on a big hike up one of the trails. The hike up was quite the trek, but when we got to the top, the view was incredible. On the hike down, our group got a little split up, so a few of us ended up doubling back to make sure everyone made it down ok. Our lunch goal was supposed to be noon, and we ended up making it back around 1:30pm. Very hungry. The other group didn't show until 3pm, so they were even more famished than we were!
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| The view from the top! |
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| Also view from the top |
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| Enjoying the view |
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| A blue fungus we spotted on our hike (samples taken to determine the species) |
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| Christina and I at the 'Big Tree', aka Treebeard, on our hike |
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| This tree was huge! We could walk through it and it was still alive |
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful, except for a spider cognition lecture we had (I wrote about this on the course blog, see the link below), and the fact that Lynette and I decided to push our little twin beds together and combine our blankets, so we wouldn't freeze. I slept so much better that night! The next morning, we woke up and found that we'd actually just ended up sleeping on one of the twin beds for, what I assume was, body heat conservation. Though I had a better sleep, I think I was really fighting off a cold by this point, so I wasn't feeling so well the next morning.
That second day, we went out hiking again, but this hike was different. Oh yes, this was a special hike. We went hiking with some researchers who specialise in soil sciences. We started out on a marked trail... but a decision was made to go find a soil pit. A soil pit is essentially a hole in the ground where soil researchers can analyse the soil nutrients and determine the different soil types in the area. And so, we ventured off the trail so we could see this research plot. And then we ventured even more. We bushwhacked for well over an hour, through mud, roots, vines, a stream, and up and down hills. I fell on my face. This was perhaps the initiation of my sour mood that day. By the time we got to this soil pit, I was not the only one who was not amused. Lynette walked up to the edge of the pit, once we'd arrived, and said (what I was honestly thinking), "This better be a magic dirt pit". Pure gold. I have a great amount of respect for people who conduct soil research, especially because I couldn't do it... but the trek through the jungle to this glorified hole did not help my mood, or my cold.
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| The trek across the stream |
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| This is a really cool flower called "Hot Lips"... aptly named eh? |
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| I hadn't realised this panorama was being taken, otherwise I would have stopped moving and the photo wouldn't make me look like I have serious shoulder realignment issues. Do not fear, it's the effect of the panoramic setting of the camera, but the shot gives a nice view of what we would typically hike through |
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| Lynette and I at the "magic" dirt pit |
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| Learning about soil profiling in the soil pit |
When we finally got back from that hike, we were all really excited to see... well, excited to see light. It can get really dark in the jungle. We got a special surprise when that time came... we were going on another hike to see another soil pit! Yay! Added bonus, this new hiking spot was home to a high density of palms, which are ideal habitat for viper snakes. Also yay! Fortunately, this hike did not last longer than an hour and a half and we didn't see any snakes. This was our last day in Fortuna, and a lot of us were looking forward to the next leg of our trip.
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| The busito that drove us around the country |
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| Fortuna- whatever the weather, still beautiful |
The next day, we drove to a cacao farm and took a tour of it on our way to Bocas del Toro. The cacao farm we visited is a small-scale, highly integrated, biodiverse system, with forestry, agro-forestry, gardens and silviculture. It was absolutely beautiful! At the end of the tour, we got to try some chocolate, hot chocolate and cheese that they all made on site. "Yummy" doesn't even cover it!
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| Poison dart frog at the farm |
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| So cute! |
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| Cacao fruit- it's reasonably sweet! |
We had to take a boat to get to Bocas del Toro, and let me tell you, after being cold in Fortuna, this place was like paradise. The hotel rooms were clean... the showers had hot water... and the food was amazing. We stayed in a hostel/hotel right on the ocean. The layout of Bocas kind of reminded me of a Caribbean-style Venice, with a lot of businesses and houses right on the waterway.
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| Our hostel |
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| The view outside our room |
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| The view from our hostel dining room |
On our first full day in Bocas, I was sick, and elected to stay back while the rest of the group went to look at fossils and did some snorkelling. Not too much to report for that day, except that I got some much-needed rest!
The next day I felt well enough to go snorkelling, and we visited 2 sites- one in more open water, and the other near a mangrove forest. At the mangrove forest, we collected ARMS plates, which are essentially plates that marine biologists place in different ecosystems to collect organisms as they settle on it. The plates are about 1 square foot in diameter, with about 10 plates stacked, one on top of the other. About an inch space is kept between the plates. There was some amazing organismal diversity on the plates, and we got to look at quite a few things under the dissecting microscopes at the lab. We also got to take part in the whole disassembling process of the ARMS plates, which was really fun!
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| Taking the boats out |
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| Spider crab- lives near sponges |
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| Sponges- so many sponges! |
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| Free diving with snorkelling gear |
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| An ARMS plate |
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| Disassembling the ARMS plates |
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| This is a mantis shrimp. These little guys are super cool and can see in both the UV and infrared spectrum, not to mention being very deadly predators. Check out this video on National Geographic |
That night we had a visiting lecture from Nancy Knowlton, who is a renowned marine biologist. She has done years of work on coral reef conservation, and it was inspiring to hear about her work.
On our last full day in Bocas, we all piled into 2 boats, and set off for a reef about a 45-minute ride away. It was pretty dark, cloudy and wavy, so it was definitely chilly- but the water was warm once you were in it! It was worth the discomfort and cold though, because there was a lot more diversity there than the places we were at yesterday. We saw parrot fish, rainbow fish, blue-headed wrasse fish, a blue needle fish- so pretty! We also got to stop at a little ocean-side bar on our way back, and by then the sun was coming out from behind the clouds, so that was beautiful to see as well.
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| The view from the ocean front bar |
That night, as it was our last night in Bocas (essentially a big party town), a big group of us decided to go out. We went first to a place called Aqua Lounge, which we actually had to take a water taxi to get to... this place would not have passed a safety code in North America. There was a trampoline and an ocean pool, swings and very uneven floorboards. Not a good place for drunk people. Good thing I was totally sober and could keep an eye out for people. Also, it closed at 11pm, so we had to leave after about an hour.
The next place we went to was called Barco Hundido (Ship Wreck). It was an outdoor-style bar, with a sunken shipwreck surrounded by decks. We stayed there, dancing, for a few hours. It was really fun to be outside of an academic-type setting for a little bit.
Early the next morning, we were up before 6, so we could catch our flight back to Panama City at 8:15am. A few people were probably still drunk from the night before, but everyone made it on time. I only had one drink, so though I was tired... I was definitely feeling better than some other people. I may or may not have also been a little smug about that.
Once we landed in Panama City, we drove to Gamboa, where most of us crashed for a couple hour nap before lunch... and then another nap after lunch. Mid-afternoon we went back to Panama City for a lecture at the main Smithsonian building, followed by a trip to Casco Viejo (nice, older part of Panama City).
The next day, January 28th, was our last day of the course. We went to an archaeological site that lies beside the Panama Canal; with the expansion of the Canal, they are uncovering a lot of fossils. We got to dig at a couple places and I found a piece of bone, which was pretty cool. Owen, our course instructor, found a molar, which looked really neat. All the fossils were shiny black in colour. The only draw-back: tt was soooo hot. It felt like a desert… thankfully there was a breeze, and we were only out for a half day, or there would have been some serious dehydration issues. When we got back, I ate lunch and then fell into a coma-like sleep for 3.5 hours. It was amazing, I couldn’t get over how tired I was!
And THAT is the end of the course!
A few days later, my Environmental Policy course began, and that brings us to the beginning- and the end- of this post.
Before I go, I want to share with you, a couple photos I took of a three toed sloth that I saw crawling slowly on the ground when my housemate and I went for a walk near my new house. It was both cute and creepy at the same time.
Have a Happy Valentine's Day!
To see more photos from our group of awesome photographers, check out below:
If you're interested in reading our blog posts, see the link below as well:
