Rocky shores, black markets, mangroves, and spelunking

So far, this second course in parasitology has been more exploring and less "class" per say.  These are the adventures from the last several days.

Tuesday:

Tuesday, we headed off to the causeway to collect snails in the Pacific Ocean.  Mark Torchin, an aquatic invasive species expert from STRI gave us a lecture on the organisms he works on to start off the morning.  Then, we headed for the tide pools.  The place was called Punta Culebra, and we were interested in the snails inhabiting the tide pools dotted all across the rocky shore.  After collecting a class-wide 100 snails, we were done with field work and allowed to explore the shoreline.  I took my first steps in the Pacific Ocean (that I can remember).  Scratch that one off the bucket list!

The beach, Pacific Ocean

Old supports for a quarantine house (malaria and yellow fever)

Brittle star

Punta Culebra

Ships waiting their turn to enter the Canal

Where I took my first steps

Punta Culebra had a nature center nearby, so after our snail collecting and rocky shore exploring, we went to the touch pools and marine tanks to look at the fish species native to Panama.  Surprisingly, I could identify many of the fish here from my fish knowledge of Bermuda.  Disclaimer:  I'm just going to toot my own horn for a second here.  I was able to identify all the fish in one of the tanks for a friend who asked, which soon after was verified by the center's staff.  You don't win the Nemo Award on the EEB 312 fish exam for nothing!  Ok, I'm done.

Surgeonfish at the marine center on Punta Culebra

Remora

After looking at the fish and playing with the sea urchins in the touch pool, we had lunch and then venture off to the causeway for ice cream and souvenir shopping.  Then it was back to the bus to drive over to Tupper, the main campus of STRI.  Professor Graham was giving a lecture on her work with nematodes and sheep in Scotland.  It was pretty cool to see our professor lecturing to all the important scientists at STRI.  It was also rather interesting to see what these scientists looked and dressed like.  Lots of people in grungy/hippy-like field clothes, scientists with dreads, guys with long hair, Birkenstock wearers, and the like.  Ah, Panama.  And to top it off, after the talk, everyone went out into the courtyard to get a beer together.  If this is representative of a more widespread attitude, science in the tropics seems like a pretty sweet deal.  Just saying.

We went into the city for dinner that evening, ending up on Calle Uruguay.  It was a cute American/Panamanaina/Italian fusion restaurant.  I, sheepishly, had a cheeseburger.  I didn't think I'd miss American cuisine, but boy, that burger was divine.  We entertained ourselves over our delicious food playing would you rathers.  A favorite of mine was Lukas' "Would you rather eat a tub of mayonnaise, or put it down your pants?"  Thinks about that one...

Once we got back to Gamboa, we dissected our snails, looking once again for trematode parasites.  It was a long day out and a long evening in lab, but still fun and full of learning.

Wednesday:

Wednesday, we packed up early for a drive out to the Caribbean coast.  I slept most of the way, but I did wake up when Victor, one of our (very very crazy) TAs, pointed out to us the location where all the shady black market deals go down.  Apparently, this shipping yard outside Colon is a hub where people from all over the world flock for tax free, no questions asked, waiting-for-you-on-the-other-side-of-customs-at-the-airport goods.  We're talking anything from electronics to hard drugs.  Let me just say that I have no interest in experiencing that bit of Panama.

Containers at the black market site

We arrived at the Caribbean site, a marine station affiliated with STRI.  For a quick stretch of the legs, Victor took us for a stroll on a path through a black mangrove forest.  And by stroll, I mean ropes course over a very rickety and broken platformed path, requiring both balance and agility.  There were nails coming up, boards sliding away under your feet, and people falling on all sides.  Often the path was so impassible we had to walk in the trees instead.  A big round of applause to Victor...But it was actually kinda fun.

Framed by a quadrat

Yeah, we walked across that rickety footpath/death trap

Once we emerged from the mangrove forest, everyone alive, it was time for more snail collecting.  Good times.  Especially when hermit crabs have an affinity for the shell of the snail species you're looking for.  Those little buggers are fast.  We collected snails in the red mangroves, on the edge of the mangroves, and 2 meters past the last roots in the open water.  Found more snails as we got further from the trees, which was interesting.  When we finished with this marine site, we headed to Playa Alongosta for a freshwater site, and then some swimming.  The freshwater site was hardly fresh.  It was yellowish-brown, stinky, dirty, and full of trash.  A perfect environment for parasites, it would seem.  The swim in the ocean was much appreciated after having my arm elbow deep in putrid water.

Panamanian beach, Caribbean side

 Back to the lab for more snail analysis, parasite identification, and microscopy.  Another long day, but again, fun and story-filled.

lab table ready for dissecting snails

 Thursday:

Today, we took yet another long bus ride, this time to the west towards Lake Bayano.  The second largest lake in Panama, it was created when the Bayano river was damed in 1976.  You can still see the skeletal remains of large trees that were flooded in the lake formation.

When we arrived at the lake, we had to gain permission from the town's chief to be allowed access to the waters.  Apparently, this area is run a a sovereign nation, and goes by different rules than the rest of Panama.  Once granted clearance, we hopped onto two boats to be ferried to the opposite shore of the lake.  I of course managed to get on the boat with engine problems.  After the engine stalled three times in the middle of the lake and eventually refused to start entirely, we had to turn back to get an entirely new motor, which still stalled about 4 times over the course of reaching our destination.  What could have been a 30 minute boat ride turned into about and hour and fifteen.

The boats we took to get to wherever we were today

The manmade lake flooded a forest, leaving behind only skeletons

I don't actually know where we were when we got off the boat, but I do know that a few Peace Corp members lived in the tiny lakeside community.  If anything, it was charming and beautiful.

We walked inland along a small river for a bit, until we came upon the beginnings of massive rock formations.  We had arrived at the bat cave.

The style of house in the tiny community where we landed

The start of the river leading into the cave

Entering the cave

We had a friend with us

Because I didn't bring my camera, I have no pictures of just how breathtakingly beautiful, enormous, and awesome this natural formation is, but I'll do my best to describe it.

Essentially, the mouth was like a canyon, with the river on the bottom and rock walls on each side raising up towards the rainforest above.  As we ventured further down the river, the rock walls began to join, eventually meeting to create a tunnel into a deep, watery blackness.  Everyone stripped down to shorts and sports bras, and pulled out the headlamps.  Then, we went in.  The water was freezing cold, and at first it was very difficult to see.  I was basically blindly shuffling through the first pool, the water slowly getting deeper until I was wading up to my neck.  Once past this first pool, we scrambled over rocks and onto a small strip of sand in the pitch darkness.  Then we looked up.  Thousands of bats flew from the cave ceiling, a swarm of leathery wings beating above us.  They swooped and dived in and out of our beams of light.  Then we turned off the lights and just listened.  Behind the dripping of water down the rocks, you could head tiny high-pitched squeaks and the woosh of wings.  It was wonderfully eerie, knowing that though you couldn't see them, these creatures were flying all around.  Absolutely magical.

After our moment with the bats, we pressed forward through the cave.  We continued to clamor over rocks and through dark pools.  Sometimes the ceiling would open to reveal a gap of green light, where moss would be growing in the soft glow.  Other times, it would get darker than before, and I'd blindly feel for the next rock or log in my way.  Small catfish lazily followed us in the pools, the bats fluttered overhead, frogs hopped from the rock in the sunnier areas, and the occasional Princetonian would epically trip over a rock and fall into the water. At the other end of the cave, it once again opened out into an open-air pool surrounded by the rock walls and bathed in sunlight.

The only thing I could keep thinking was that nature is truly something amazing.  This cave had been formed over thousands of years, carved out by the river and the rain.  This was a work of completely natural forces, and now we were lucky enough to experience the amazing ecosystem supported inside.  The cave was barely touched by humans, pristine and naturally beautiful, and we were only here because our hair-brained TA knew where to find it.  And, this was class.  Once again, only in Panama.

Diablo Rojos, Casco Viejo, Snails, and Bloody Knees

 We're slowly becoming pros at negotiating Panama.  It's pretty exciting.

So this weekend was COMPLETELY free.  No class, no homework, no nothing.  We were able to celebrate Patricia's birthday right on Saturday night, and took her out to Casco Viejo.  We ended up at a place called Relic, a really cool outdoor bar in a courtyard surrounded on all sides by a hostel.  It was a wonderful mix of cultures - American, Panamanian, Argentinian, Australian, etc.  Lively and fun, but still pretty chill and for once, us blondes didn't stick out like sore thumbs.  A group of us played an entertaining game where we'd guess what countries certain people in the crowd were from.  If a consensus wasn't reached, someone had to go ask.  As a result, I met three pretty awesome Aussie gents, who in turn guessed I was from Kentucky.  A bit off, but hey, midwest all the same.

Sunday, we all slept in (which was THE BEST), and then hopped onto the local bus to Albrook Mall.  These buses are definitely unique.  The Diablo Rojos (red devils) get their name presumably for their crazy driving, the fact that they'll start driving away while people are only halfway on, and the fact that they are the most rickety, colorful, jerry-rigged contraptions I've ever seen.  Each one looks different because each driver has total creative control with the graphics and extras on his bus.  I've seen one that was science themed, with the quote "Faith doesn't move mountains.  Science does" on the back.  I've seen one's with so many lights you could probably see it from space.  The only way to describe them is unconventional and wild.  But, on the plus side, they're only 65 cents.

There's a hole in the bottom of the bus. Actually.  The lighter gray hole is the road.

After we had puttered around the mall, most of the group headed back to Gamboa.  Blair, Simone, Nikki, and I decided we weren't quite ready for the day's adventures to end, so we hopped in a $5 cab to Casco Viejo.  We were in the mood for the ocean and the cultural experience, and maybe some food that wasn't the usual schoolhouse meal...

Ruins in Casco Viejo

 We wandered for a bit, and ended up in a place called Tantalo, a hotel restaurant/bar with a swanky, modern feel inside.  It was early, and the place was pretty empty, so by the end of the meal, we were chatting it up with our waiter, Junior, and the manager, Ricky.  Our first Panamanian friend! Ricky invited us up to the rooftop bar free of the cover charge (!!) and when we stepped out of the elevator, I'm pretty sure my mouth fell open.  It was a breathtaking view of Panama City, the roof was beautiful, and the night was pretty much perfect.  The whole evening felt like a scene from Sex and the City, especially since basically the entire waiting staff was there to bid us farewell when we left.

Our cab ride home was also quite entertaining, since the cabbie had his 6 year old son with him.  Blair, Nikki, and I sung in the back seat, Simone talked to the driver in impeccable Spanish, and the little kid just starred at us in wonderment.  I don't think he liked our singing very much...

Panama City skyline from the rooftop bar

Blair, Me, Simone, and Nikki (A.K.A. Miranda, Carrie, Charlotte, and Samantha)

 After what couldn't have been a better weekend, it was back to class.

This new one is about tropical ecology and epidemiology of parasites and diseases.  Today, after an orientation lecture, we went to the field to collect an invasive species of snail, Melanoides, from near the Canal.  This snail, introduced both from Africa and from Asia, has a particular parasite (Trematodes) which takes over the snail.  Though morphologically, it still looks like a snail, the parasite changes the genetics of the snail so that instead of asexually producing baby snails, it actually manufactures more parasite larvae.  These larvae, once they can swim, then infect a fish host.  Around here, that fish is another invasive species call the peacock bass.  When infecting the fish, the trematode burrows into the fish's brain, causing it's behavior to change.  The fish becomes less wary of predators, and thus susceptible to predation by birds.  Birds then eat the bass, and consequently the parasite.  In the bird's stomach, the parasite mates with others of the same species, and then the eggs are excreted into the ocean where they will infect the snails once again.  Ah, the circle of life.

Looking back towards the Chagres river

Me, collecting snails from the mud

To collect snails, we laid down quadrats, and then just stuck our hands into the mud, sifting through for the little buggers.  We found two types of snail: the Melanoides and a native snail, which incidentally remains unaffected by the parasite.

Aquatic plant life

The railroad/car/pedestrian bridge we took to a field site.   At any moment, it could collapse into the Canal/Chagres river below.

After the field, we analyzed our collection in lab.  That basically entailed measuring each snail, then breaking them open, removing the organism from it's shell, and looking for presence or absence of parasites under the microscope.  Additionally, we could also see if the snail was brooding young - tiny baby snails in shells inside the mother's shell.
Tomorrow, we're headed off to a mangrove swamp.  Should be fun!

Public Service Announcement:
Do not run at night if your headlamp, due to old batteries, is dim.  I managed to fall twice.  Once because an open air bus full of tourists going on a night safari pulled out and blinded me with it's headlights.  I couldn't see the approaching pot holes, and fell.  Right next to the bus.  It stopped, everyone wanted to know if I was ok, and I just wanted to crawl under a rock.  I'm pretty sure someone took a picture, too.  The second time, a bit of rogue uneven pavement tripped me, and I went sprawling forward.  Got these nice, deep battle wound from that fall.  Hopefully, everything will heal up quickly. (P.S. If you don't like blood, don't scroll down)

This is what happens when I run at night

All the gruesome detail!

It's Been a While...

Alright, so it's been a solid 5 days since the last substantial post.  This may take a while.  Feel free to just look at the pictures.  But be warned, you'll miss the fun stories.


Monday:

We packed into the bus at 7am for the 2 hour drive to San Lorenzo Protected Area, our last field site.  Most people took these hours as an opportunity to sleep, rightfully so.  I did manage to wake up for when we crossed the Panama Canal through a lock.  Pretty cool.  After waiting a 20 minutes for a huge container ship to pass through the lock, we drove right below the massive steel doors that were the only barrier between us and a watery wall of death.

Once we arrived at SLPA, it was again time for a ride in the other of Panama's two canopy cranes.  This one was a bit taller than the last, and this time, we were on the Caribbean side of Panama, so the views and the tree species were slightly different.

The Chagres River, flowing into the Caribbean Sea - from the canopy crane

The guy in the red shirt is Professor Yves, back in the 90s

Once back down on the ground, it was time for more field work.  SLPA was a bit more treacherous than the last two forests because once we left the path on the transect, the ground dropped off about 10 meters in.  A lot of climbing and falling was involved.  Additionally, in literally every single transect we did, an orb spider was lurking within our study area.  Not awesome, especially when you don't notice them until you're almost touching the web.

Gorgeous view into the canopy from the ground

Once we were done with research for the day, we headed for the town of Achiote and our "accommodations", about which we had no idea what to expect.

Turns out we were going to be staying at a pretty sketchy hostel in the literal middle of nowhere in the tiniest town I have ever seen.  Like Springfield, IL in a way... (just kidding, but the rural-ness felt just like home).  The Centro El Tucan is a hostel/base for research programs like ours since it's pretty close to SLPA.  Apparently, it's a hot spot for birders as well.  

It was quite the place.  There were two rooms, one for guys and one for girls, with twelve beds each, two bathrooms, a study/seminar room, and a covered porch-like area.  It was, what we could call, "rustic" if we're putting it mildly.  There was only cold water, no air-conditioning, poor lighting, no internet, bugs, and you couldn't flush toilet paper down the toilet, but fortunately for me, I'm used to living on sailboats where all of these issues also exist.  (Yep, we've got a badass right here.)

The sign for the hostel

The hostel in all it's yellow glory

Grated windows, outdoor seating where we could study

Cool mural on the front wall

Once we got settled into our (very very) close quarters, we headed into the town to the restaurant where we'd be eating all our meals for the next three days.  The town of Achiote was essentially a single road lined with very small, colorful cinderblock houses.  There were cats, mangey skinny dogs, chickens, horses, and cows wandering around everywhere.  The people always seemed to be out on their porches or in the street chatting.  It seemed like a place where everyone knows everyone else.  

This was truly another side of Panama, however.  I've seen the city slums, the ritzy areas, and now the epitome of rural poverty.  Though the town was in a beautiful area, the houses were well kept, and the people were genuinely kind and pleasant, it was clear that the people here were living off very little income.  Many houses had signs advertising things they sold (ice and ice cream, for example) or had small amounts of coffee beans drying on tarps in their front yards to be sold later.  Where we had our meals was the one of two businesses in the town, the other being the convenience store/bar.  Definitely an experience.

The town's welcome sign

Cows playing follow the leader

COW!

Christian with the cow.

So many epiphytes

Typical home in Achiote (this one has satellite TV)

The convenience store/bar

Restaurant where we ate every meal - it was really just a small kitchen with three long tables outside

Tuesday:

More field work on tuesday.  Not much to report, except that we were so incredibly motivated that we did two days worth of work in a single day. Eight transects!  Whoo!  We had to stay a little later than everyone else, but profited on that account too because Yves took us back to the hostel in his pickup and let us ride in the back for the entire drive.  If you haven't ridden in the back of a pickup yet, add that to the bucket list.  It's so much fun!

Lukas, being a nerd

Simone, during our ride to the hostel in the back of the pickup

Ryan likes bugs...

Wednesday:

Since we'd finished our work early, we were able to stay at the hostel Wednesday morning to get some work done on our reports.  We spent the time up until lunch running statistical tests on our data, and then it was time for our surprise break, organized by Yves.  To Fort San Lorenzo and the beach!

Sunrise on our last morning in Achiote

Yep.  This happened in the middle of the road.  People were staring.

 We all hopped in the bus, said farewell (or good riddance, depending) to our lovely accommodations, and headed toward the Caribbean coast.  On the way, we had to stop at a ranger station, where we were told the road ahead was "broken".  Most of us were imagining just a bunch of pot holes, or some asphalt damage, but not this:

The road to Fort San Lorenzo literally was broken

Nino, our excellent bus driver, got us around this opening to the pits of hell on an off-road dirt path, which was exciting.  Can't say I've ever seen a road that actually just fell away.  The Panamanian infrastructure is really killing it here.

Anyways, after that mini adventure, we finally made it to the fort, which is built in the 1680s on top of a cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea and the mouth of the Chagres River.  Quite stunning.

A brief history of the fort:  In the mid 1500s, Spain had established a gold route across the isthmus of Panama, connecting Panama City to the mouth of the Chagres where the plunder from the conquest of Peru would then be taken to Spain.  Of course, when the pirates got wind of this, they began attacking. So Spain built the first version of Fort San Lorenzo.  In 1670, however, Henry Morgan left the fort in ruins, invaded Panama City, and used San Lorenzo as his base.  Spain regained control and rebuilt the canal in the 1680s.  It was attacked again in 1740 by the British, and Spain retreated further into the Chagres river to strengthen fortifications at Gatun.  By the 1750s, Spain had largely abandoned the gold trail, preferring now to sail around the tip of South America. Fort San Lorenzo was then used as a prison, and then later fell into disuse.  The Panama Canal was completed in 1914, a massive dam was built in Gatun, and the Chagres was permanently sealed off form inland trade.  The ruins of the fort are now protected under the auspices of the San Lorenzo Protected Area, part of the former Canal Zone territory.  Fort San Lorenzo sits right next to the also defunct Fort Sherman, a former US Army base built to protect the Canal when it was still owned by the United States.  Fort Sherman has now been turned into a marina, but the old, crumbling barracks are still there, creepily lining an abandoned road on the way to Fort San Lorenzo.

Exploring the fort was especially cool because you are actually permitted to walk around the entire structure.  There are no barriers, unlike many historic sites in the US, we we actually were able to walk around in the dry moat, touch the walls, explore the tunnels, and everything.

Ocean views

The view from in the moat 

Beautiful, creepy, moss-filled tunnel

After exploring, we walked down to the "beach", which was more like the bay where all the trash from Colon and dead wood from the Chagres ends up.  There were plastic bottles everywhere and the water was the grimiest I have ever seen the Caribbean look.  It was still pretty, however, lined with mangroves.  There was also a secluded lagoon/river on the other end of the beach where we could wade and watch the fish swim in and out of the mangrove roots.  Though we were hesitant, we went swimming anyways - a good decision too, because though gross on shore, the water was the perfect temperature out at the mouth of the bay.  I swam out and just let the waves carry me around.  It was heaven.  And for those who know me well, you understand how much I love the ocean.

The beach!

The group - photo credit to Chhaya

Sadly, we had to leave the ocean and head back to the schoolhouse.  On the 2 hour bus ride back, all the OA leaders on the trip lead camp/trail songs, and once those were exhausted, we moved on to Disney songs.  It was great.  We were still singing as we headed into the doors at Gamboa.

Thursday:

Thursday was a work day, and I spent all of it writing my report.  However, it was made slightly more interesting by the fact that the internet went out around 3:00pm, right when everyone needed it most for research.  Apparently, the fiberoptic cable that provided Gamboa with internet was laid through a pretty bad area outside of Gamboa.  On Wednesday night, someone had dug up the cable and stolen it, presumably for the valuable materials the cable is made of.  The provider had gotten this fixed quickly, which is why we had internet Thursday morning, but around 3pm, someone dug up the new cable and stole it again.  So a crew was sent to relocate the cable entirely, circumventing this bad neighborhood, which would take about 6 hours.  Good times.

Friday:

Friday morning was spent frantically finishing up reports and working on the presentations of our research findings.  Then, because we have 19 people in the class, we spent 4.5 hours listening to presentations.  It was cool to hear what people had found, but also a lot.  My presentation was ok - I've never been a fan of speaking in front of people and I hadn't prepared enough, but it is over.

Also, in case you were wondering, I got significant results in my study!!! There is a difference in epiphyte abundance between the forests.  As expected, I found fewer in the dry forest.  There was no difference between the wet and intermediate forests, however, which is not what I expected - experimental error may be to blame, but who really knows?  Also, epiphytes prefer to grow in canopy gaps over areas with a closed canopy, except in the dry forest, where desiccation is more of a problem.  It's fun to be able to say that I've done this research project, and also good practice for the senior thesis monster lurking around the corner.

Friday night, after presentations were all over and our first class was officially done, everyone, including the TAs and Professor Yves (and his insanely adorable 4 year old son) went out to dinner at Beirut, a Lebanese restaurant on the Panama City causeway overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  It was a wonderful way to end the class - delicious food, friends, and celebration.

I'll miss our TAs (Diana and Ioana) and Yves.  It feels weird that we only had three weeks with them, and now it's time to get used to a whole new set of professor and TAs.  And strangely, I think I'll miss the field work too.  There is something about spending that much time discovering and understanding the dynamics of the forest that I really love.  No one knows what to expect for our next class, either.  All we know is it'll be about tropical parasites and diseases.  But hey, that's the nature of the program, and it wouldn't be as much of an adventure if it was any other way.

The whole group

Love these guys :)