August 20- Return from Panama

I've been home for almost a week now, and I still can't quite believe that my experiences on BCI really happened.  This has been such an incredible summer- I learned so much, met some incredible people, and got to spend almost three months on a fantastic island!  I'm so grateful to everyone who made this experience possible- Jane and the rest of the Kaspari lab, STRI, the NSF REU program, and of course my fellow interns!
The last few days on the island went by incredibly quickly.  A lot of time was dedicated to finishing and rehearsing my final presentation, cleaning up the lab, and packing.  I did have the chance to go on a few last hikes (and get startled by a coati one last time).  It was an emotional experience to say goodbye to my favorite trails and my favorite spots around the labs and dorms.  It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was seeing it all for the first time.

Last Friday, we gave our final presentations at STRI's facilities in Panama City.  It was really great to be able to hear about everyone's projects!  We had a full day of presentations, followed by a last dinner in Panama City.  The BCI students all spent the night in Gamboa, since we returned far too late to catch the last boat to the island.  It was a good chance to say some last goodbyes to friends there.  I had one last chance to wander around Gamboa in the morning, and then it was time to head to the airport.  After an adventurous day of travel (featuring a traffic jam/road closure that forced us to go towards a city on the Atlantic side of Panama to get to an airport on the Pacific side, an almost-missed flight thanks to said road closure and traffic jam, two thunderstorms, and four flight delays and three gate changes in Miami) I got back to Philadelphia at 3:30 in the morning.  After almost three months away, it was really great to get to see my family again.

It was such an incredible summer- I'll never forget the countless hours I spent in the jungle, the stunning wildlife that I saw, or the amazing people I met.  Thank you to everyone who was part of this journey, and thank you for reading this blog!

August 10- Cinta Costera and Night Hiking

It's been a busy week!  All of the REU students visited BCI for a night last weekend.  It was really fun to have the whole group together.  We did a few hikes, and spent lots of time practicing the final presentations that we're giving in the city on Friday.  Dan and I took the boat and bus back to Panama City with the REUs when they left, and stayed with two of them on Saturday night.  Dan was running a race in Panama City early on Sunday morning, and I had wanted one last chance to explore the city.  It was a great two days!  Dan's race was along Cinta Costera, a beautiful road along the Pacific Ocean that goes from center city to the historic Casco Viejo.  He ran a very impressive time, and I hung out in a park with a book.  It was a good morning!

We ended up walking 10 miles that day- along Cinta Costera (past parks, fountains, and the fish market), along Avenida Central (the street market in Casco Viejo), through Casco Viejo, and out on the Amador Causeway.  The causeway is gorgeous- a narrow strip of land with a road going to the island of Naos in the harbor.  The Smithsonian has a little public facility there, where we saw exhibits with frogs and sea turtles, and walked along some pretty little trails.

On Tuesday night, I was able to fulfill another goal for the summer: go night hiking!  I was out from 10:30 to 12:30, and it was incredible!  I was alone, which made it more nerve-wracking, but meant that I saw a lot more wildlife.  I saw tons of bats and tarantulas, a peccary (only 10 feet away from me!), a cute little animal called a paca, and several animals high in a tree that I'm almost positive were anteaters.  The most exciting and terrifying moments were when I heard movement, or saw eyes shining in my flashlight beam, but hadn't yet figured out what the animal was.  I may have nearly jumped off the trail a few times because something startled me, but it was a fantastic experience.

August 1- Exploring Gamboa

Last Sunday, through a fortuitous combination of some interns having weekends off, project leaders being out of town, and requesting days off, a big group of interns had the chance to do some exploring in Gamboa.  Gamboa is a half hour boat ride from BCI, and has our docks, Smithsonian facilities, and housing of STRI employees and some canal workers.  We've been to the town by the docks before, but this time we explored further, around the (very fancy) Gamboa resort.  It was a stormy morning, which made for some very cool views!  There were many parrot sightings as we walked up the road.

After I successfully sent out several emails in Spanish (a feat of which I am quite proud), we were able to get a reservation to tour the Asociación Panamericana para la Conservación's Centro de Vida Silvestre, an incredible wildlife rescue and rehabilitation facility.  It was an fantastic experience!  The center is run by Néstor Correa and his wife Yischel, along with a very dedicated team of scientists and volunteers.  Many of the animals currently at the center were orphaned by poachers, being struck by cars, or other tragedies.  Several were injured and are currently being rehabilitated.  When possible, the center rehabilitates animals and releases them back into the wild.  In cases where they can't (often when the animal was orphaned young and was not able to learn necessary survival skills from their mother), the animal is sent to a zoo to participate in a Species Survival Plan (SSP)-managed  captive conservation breeding programs.  We had the chance to pet a porcupine and an anteater, watch an adorably hyperactive baby kinkajou, watch a capybara swim, go into the sloth exhibit, and see a jaguar!  The jaguar's name is Fiona, and she's almost two years old.  She was rescued at two weeks old, after poachers killed her mother and severely injured her.  She can't be released back into the wild due to being orphaned so young and due to her comfort around humans (who she sees as providers of food and playtime), so she'll be headed to a zoo in Florida soon to join the jaguar SSP breeding program.  Since she was born in the wild, her genetics will be incredibly valuable for maintaining diversity.  The Smithsonian wrote a very cool article about her and the struggle to protect Panama's jaguars here.

After visiting the wildlife center, we met up with three of our friends- two STRI interns who live in Gamboa, and a STRI volunteer from Panama City.  We went back to the gorgeous Gamboa Rainforest Resort, and went to their restaurant's Sunday brunch.  The food was incredible, and the view was fantastic!  In the afternoon, we hung out at the resort's gorgeous pool.  It was a really great day.  As the summer winds down and interns start to leave the island, I've been reflecting on how lucky I am to have lived and worked with such an incredible group of people this summer!

July 25- Ant Research

As the summer field season starts to wind down on BCI, I'm getting close to finishing the field work portions of my projects.  In addition to helping out with a few of the lab's general projects, I have two of my own projects I've been working on as part of the REU.  Both are a continuation of work that the Kaspari lab has done with Azteca in past summers on BCI.

At the beginning of the summer, I collected Ochroma (balsa) seeds, cleaned them, and planted them.  Once the plants were around a centimeter in height, we placed them in the field.  I have 80 pots out- half of them under Azteca nests (where the seedlings receive nutrients from the refuse and potentially protection), and the other half ten meters from the nests.  Once a week I hike out to measure and photograph all the seedlings.  Next week, I'll harvest all of the surviving seedlings and weigh them.  I had expected growth and survival to be better among the seedlings under Azteca nests.  Initial conclusion: lots of things eat seedlings.

The other half of my project has been testing how other species react to Azteca.  Past studies have shown that leafcutter ants and army ants tend to avoid Azteca.  I'm trying to determine if Azteca refuse has chemical pheromones that might deter these ants.  I set out dirt, Azteca refuse, and Azteca nest material one at a time in front of the leafcutter or army ants, film each for half an hour, and then analyze the ant behavior in the video.  The issue has been that I need a perfectly stable camera set up on uneven terrain pointing directly at the ground for half an hour.  I've tried tripods, but found that the best setup utilizes PVC pipe, plastic dog food containers, and lots of duct tape.

It's been a very fun project.  Army ants are always on the move, so finding them always requires a few hours wandering BCI's beautiful 50 hectare plot.  Good days!

July 19- Canopy Crane

I typically work 6-day weeks here, with Tuesdays off.  The late afternoon on Tuesdays is for the weekly STRI seminar lectures, and we typically have professional development workshops for the REU program in the morning/early afternoon.  But last Tuesday we had a special treat- the REU interns all got to visit one of the Smithsonian's canopy cranes in Panama City!  A canopy crane is pretty much exactly what it sounds like- a huge crane that attaches to a small metal basket and lifts it 40 meters into and above the treetops.  The crane we visited is in a park near Panama City, so we got some really stunning views of the forest and the city.  It was a bit nerve-wracking at first (the basket can really sway as it's moved), but the view made it more than worth it.

Only five people could go on the crane at once, so we went hiking through the park while waiting for our turn.  We saw toucans, hawks, and monkeys.  The hike took us up a steep hill to a cool overlook, with great views of the city skyline.

And there was one more exciting sighting back near the canopy crane- a sloth!

July 14- Hostel Mamallena

After returning from Taboga, we spent the night in the very cool Hostel Mamallena in Panama City.  Dan had stayed there his first night in Panama, and knew that it had a dog and free pancakes in the morning- that was enough to convince us that it was an establishment more than worthy of our patronage.  It was a really beautiful place.  There were interesting paintings and tilework, and a fun back garden.  I had never been to a hostel before, and it was also super fun to get to experience the sense of community among the guests.

We ate at a little restaurant near the hostel (between eleven interns and two other guests from the hostel, we pretty much took the place over).  I finally tried ceviche, a very popular Panamanian dish.  It's made by curing raw fish in citrus juice, and mixing it with onions, cilantro, and salt.  In Panama, it's often served in cocktail cups and eaten on either crackers or plantain chips.  It tastes incredible!  Most restaurants I've been to in Panama City have it- I'll have to have some again soon!  Later that night, we went to a bar/restaurant in Casco Viejo.  It must often cater to tourists, because they had red, white, and blue balloons up for the Fourth of July.  A great night!  The next day we had REU project meetings in Panama City, a professional development seminar, a talk to attend on the history of malaria, and then a trip to the fish market restaurant that the REUs all visited back in June.  It was a fantastic few days.