Don't worry. I'm still here.

After being largely without internet for 3 weeks of coral reefs and 1 week of spring break, it's about time I updated this long-neglected blog.

San Blas: hammock, fishermen, palm trees

The coral reef course took us first to the San Blas Islands, an archipelago in the Caribbean inhabited by the Kuna people. The men of the Kuna fish from dugout canoes; the women wear elaborately stitched traditional clothing and bring in most of the money selling mola textiles to tourists. We lived in huts on stilts above the ocean, built around an island no wider than a tennis court and barely a few feet above sea level. Our days were spent visiting various reefs around the islands, learning the names of the colorful fish and gaining an appreciation for how incredibly difficult it is to do field work underwater. Establishing quadrats, counting animals, recording data ... all become far more difficult when your study subjects are 2 meters below you underwater and every time you stop to talk about what you are doing you find you have drifted far away from where you left your PVC quadrat square on the coral. After an exhausting day of this we would return to our island, "shower" in rainwater scooped out of a bucket with a coconut shell, and relax in the numerous hammocks and wooden chairs scattered around the island.

The coral reef course took us next to the Pacific, where we spent a few days on Coiba (now a national park, formerly a prison island inhabited by roving gangs of criminals; the pristine beauty and endemic species of the island owe much of their preservation to the fear that once surrounded the place) and a few days in Achotines, a tuna research facility on the Azuero Peninsula. Coiba was particularly special, unharmed by overfishing, host to sea turtles, sharks, and enormous fish. (Coiba's waters also contained lots of invisible jellyfish. The experience of swimming through constant stinging was not so special.)

Slacklining on Coiba


What's everyone looking at?

Answer: CROCODILE


Exploring the old prison facilities

Before I knew it the coral reefs course was over, and it was time to put away my snorkel gear and head to the Chiriqui highlands for spring break. Rajiv came all the way from Maine to visit me for a week, and on his first day in Panama we took a 7-hour bus ride and another 45-minute bus to get from Panama City to Boquete. The journey was worth it. With its coffee plantations, misty rainbows, cheap food, intense hiking, and stellar rock climbing, Boquete enchanted us.

Beautiful river (and castle?) on a scooter tour of the hills around Boquete


Climbing at "El Gunko" outside of Boquete


Summit of Volcan Baru, 11,398 feet. See the famous view of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans? We couldn't.


Flowers on the lovely (but very long) hike back down Volcan Baru.

That wonderful week is over ... and it's been back to school for a week now, this time on Barro Colorado Island, a research station on a forested island in the middle of the Panama Canal, where I wake to the roars of howler monkeys every morning. We're studying vertebrate ecology this time, and I'm doing an independent research project on the behavior of tungara frogs. Our days have been busy with field work and lectures, but I still had time last week to celebrate my 21st birthday (a less-significant milestone in a country where I've been drinking legally for the last 2 months).

I'll write more again soon!