Hola todos!

As I said before, it seemed like I brought the rain to Panamá.  However, since Tuesday we’ve had nothing but bright, bright sun!  I’m slightly less white….  And, I’ve started appreciating the a/c, whereas before it just felt too cold!  It certainly is hot!  As I said before, the bare minimum for daily showers is two: as soon as you get up, and right before bed.  However, if you do anything outside, you need at least another.  It’s amazing how we gringos make so many adjustments for life here in Panamá, but for the Panamanians, it’s just normal life!  Every house has several dry closets or dry boxes, as I may have said before.  It’s basically just a closet in which several light bulbs are constantly shining, or there is a heat rod.  It works surprisingly well.  Although, field damp and dirty clothes have no hope in there and are best kept on the balcony until wash day!  All houses/non-air-conditioned rooms have the ceiling fan running constantly.  This seems to help evaporate dampness.  It’s amazing how cool they keep you, I almost always wake up in the night and have to turn it off!  (Then again, I like it hot!)

It’s amazing how slowly your first week in a new place goes, and then how quickly every week after goes!  It feels like I’ve been here a month!!!  So, to fill you in on what’s been happening in the last month—er, week! —here goes:

Tuesday we took the 9:00am boat (there is, as far as I can tell, 4 boats back and forth, and sometimes another evening one!  Amazing!) to Gamboa.  Furthermore, there are several different boats that go back and forth.  The main one, and the one that runs at commuter time, is the Jacana (which is named for the wading bird with the brilliant yellow bill, that you’ve probably seen photos of walking over Amazonian lily pads!).  This is a typical (smallish) ferry boat.  It’s amazing to me how many people work on the island, who aren’t resident scientists!  There’s a team of men who are guardabosques—literally forest guards, i.e. park rangers.  They prevent poaching on the island (which is a national monument).  They seem to live on the island in shifts of 4 days on, 3 days off.  Then there are the kitchen workers (who provide us those fantastic, regular meals, which are really good!  Certainly cafeteria food, but well done and with many options.  And lots of flan!).  The work on a similar shift to the guardabosques.  However, daily there are many more people who work in the offices, organizing housing on the island, as scientific coordinators, carpenters, mechanics, janitors, etc.  Right now they are doing construction on the dock, so there’s a dozen or so Panamanians doing just that.  Everything is kept spotlessly clean, impressive since the lab clearing is just a tiny area next to a magnificent tropical forest!  There’s even a truck on the island, the “roads” must add up to no more than 200 yards, but it is useful since there is quite a hill leading from the docks to the cafeteria, etc.  Tap water is very safe to drink in the canal zone of Panamá (Will will attest to the fact that this isn’t true throughout the country!).  The tap water on the island is filtered canal water, and the residents drank it for years….  However, it was recently tested and found to contain very high levels of heavy metals.  Entonces, (permiso, I seem to be thinking in Spanglish) they now bring bottled water onto the island for us!  That’s certainly a lot of work.  The original dining hall was up a much higher hill, and there was a little trolley/train system to cart things back and forth.

Anyways, the Jacana ferry is always chock-a-block full of Panamanian workers.  This ride takes 40 minutes.  The 9:00 ferry, the Morpho (the gorgeous iridescent blue butterfly, that again you’ve all seen photos of!), is a quicker ride, a smaller boat, and you can sit outside.  It was fantastic!  Like a sightseeing tour of the canal, cruising past enormous tankers.  The other boats are a water taxi, basically a speed boat, and it’s super exciting passing cruise ships in that!  And, finally, Las Cruces, an incredibly slow old passenger ferry, kind of like the Staten Island ferry, that only runs on the weekend, and is being phased out, but is beloved by island residents who would frequently take it just for fun!  Since it is so close between coasts, Pelicans often flock back and forth along the canal.  This morning on the boat, I saw a big flock!

So…  The ferry takes you to Gamboa.  Gamboa is a tiny little town (like perhaps two blocks by two blocks!) right on the canal (http://www.stri.org/english/research/facilities/terrestrial/gamboa/index.php).  It is full of houses that were built during the building of the canal, they are all very tropical colonial style.  Many are in disrepair, but many have been fixed up and are gorgeous.  Quite a lot of the long term BCI scientists own houses there, and were able to buy them for $20,000.  Prices are going up…  Many Panamanians now live there and commute to the City, there is a new, fancy “rainforest” resort there, and some other people living there are associated with the Canal Authority.  Rachel is renting a house there from Bob Stallard, a USGS scientist who studies water levels and rainfall, etc.  He spends a few months of the year in Panama, and I recently read about him in The Tapir’s Morning Bath (all about research on BCI).  His house is gorgeous!  I really enjoy being there….  As it turns out, Rachel will probably be moving her research to Gamboa.  She has a really nice new flight cage there.  So, I will most like be spending most of my time in Gamboa, not BCI.  More on this all later!  I have to get my laundry and head to lunch.