Parque Natural Metropolitano: Day 1

Day 1 at our second field site started out with the amazing experience of being hoisted into the canopy of the rainforest by the "STRI Canopy Crane".

Harnessed up for the canopy crane
(And yes, Particia and I are wearing the same shirt)

On the way up

50 meters up! (That's 164 feet up into the air)  As we stepped into the metal cage, Professor Yves asked us if we had any issues with "ze heyte o ze umptiness" (imagine a heavy French accent), and as we lifted off the forest floor, high and empty it felt.  There was only a thin metal grate (and a heavy duty harness system) between us and certain death.  Good thing I'm not afraid of heights...

Don't look down!

Sweeping views of the rainforest and Panama City + the harness system.  Hooray safety!

Parque Natural Metropolitano is about 30 minutes from Panama City, and is unique in that it is the only wildlife refuge in Central America located within city boundaries.  It's part of a protected biological corridor along the Panama Canal.  STRI installed the canopy crane in 1990, and this crane is one of only two in the country (we'll also be going to the other one!!).
Up in the crane, Yves directed the crane operator to take us to see Ficus (fig) - a unique tree in that it has asynchronous fruiting and flowering, so at any point in the year several but not all ficus are fruiting or flowering while others are not; Anacardium - wild cashew; liana - woody vines; canopy epiphytes; and an adorable sleeping sloth.  All the while, we were suspended in mid-air and could look in one direction to see the Pacific Ocean, in another to see Panama City, and in yet another to gaze over the sweeping rainforest.  It's was pretty radical to say the least.

Out at the end of the arm

You can just barely see the ships in the distance waiting for entry into the Canal

Sloth hugging the tree (he was asleep)

Epiphyte!

Looking up.  The crane goes 50 meters up into and above the canopy

Once we were back on the forest floor, it was time for more transects!  This forest is a dry forest (relatively speaking), and just as predicted, the abundance of my epiphytes dramatically decreased, which means I have less to count.  This is a plus.  It'll all balance out at the wet forest though...

Today, Simone, Lukas, and I kept each other entertained with stories about our high school selves.  If we keep this up, we're going to know just about everything there is to know about each other by the end of this course.  Plus, it keeps the work from getting too repetitive.

Just as we were taking down the second transect we were working on, Simone and I were attacked by a small wasp species.  Unprovoked, I might add.  I sustained stings on my forehead and cheek, and Simone on the lip and elbow.  For such a minuscule insect, those stings hurt like hell.  Fortunately the swelling went down pretty quickly.  In the excitement of getting away from the wasps, we managed to leave some equipment behind in the forest.  Hopefully it'll still be there tomorrow.

Some kind of grasshopper

Out last two transects of the day were interesting because it started to rain.  Imagine that! Rain in a rainforest.  I actually hadn't considered this, but it did make it very difficult to stare up into the canopy to count epiphytes, what with all the water in the eyes.  We got pretty soaked, but it felt kinda nice after being soaked in sweat all morning.  Hopefully, we won't get any more rain, because this forest is complicated enough without that added struggle.  The dry forest environment is ideal for an invasive bamboo vine species, which is quite difficult to walk through when trying to penetrate 50 meters back into the forest.  I didn't think I'd ever say it, but I miss Pipeline Road (our first site) and it's simplicity.

Tomorrow, we'll return to Parque Natural Metropolitano for more transects and more wrestling with bamboo vines.  Fun times ahead, y'all!

P.S.  Don't forget to let nature know you love it.

(Also, don't carve trees. It's bad for their xylem and phloem)