A Week in Bocas del Torro

We arrived at the STRI research station on Isla Colon in Bocas del Torro on Tuesday afternoon, after hours of riding in the bus and an hour boat ride to the islands.  After everyone picked rooms and settled in, we all went straight for the wifi, finally back in contact with the outside world after a week on Coibita.  Personally, I was enjoying the tech-free lifestyle, but hey, you know me and my love of that distraction-free bonding time.

I roomed with Patricia, Kelsey, Lukas, and Leangelo.  The accommodations were actually really nice, minus the SUPER squeaky beds, and the food we were served at the station was amazing - only one of the reasons that I didn't particularly feel like leaving Bocas when the time came.

The Dorm

My room, first door on the left

The view out our back porch

The dive/snorkeling equipment and storage building

The dock, from where we left for class every day

The laboratory building

Hibiscus

Lionfish!!! Caught by a researcher for his studies...

Modeling trash bags

Modeling plastic bags

The daily drill in Bocas was fairly simple, 100% awesome, and essentially the same as Coibita.  We'd wake up for breakfast around 7, have lecture at 8, be on the boats by 9:30, and then snorkel until around 4pm.  Then we'd have the evening to work on independent project research, go through fish ID books, and go see the town, only a 65 cent cab ride away.  I really enjoyed being so close to a town too.  Don't get me wrong, I love the quite life in Gamboa, but sometimes it's nice to be able to hop on over to a cafe, ice cream parlor, or bar and just take in the vibe.  Bocas is a very interesting town because it draws people from all over the world - Switzerland, France, Asia, Australia, and Uruguay to name a few.  Apparently, Bocas is becoming the new Costa Rica, and people come for the hostels, the surfing, the snorkeling, and the nightlife.  Basically, it was a refreshing change to live in a place with so much life (although I still prefer Coibita).

Everyone getting ice cream - we frequented that shop so many times the waitress started to recognize us

So I'd like to take a minute and rave about the reefs in Bocas.  They were literally the most beautiful reefs I've ever seen in my entire life.  As a class we saw around 125 different species of fish, so many type of boulder, star, branching, plate, and encrusting corals, and lots of cool algae.  Highlights include the two lionfish we saw in the wild at Zapatillas, two islands in the Marine Protected Area in Bocas.  They were amazing!  We had to duck-dive down about 30 feet to see them, but once down there, the sight of their spines and the gorgeous coloring was unreal.  Right after that, we saw an enormous souther stingray as well.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any sharks this time, but I did see a massive grouper, as well as a peacock flounder (won a prize for spotting that one!!).
Also, the colors were unbelievable.  I've never seen reefs so colorful.  Look at the picture, and you'll get about half of an idea of how gorgeous they are.

Fire coral (orange), Porites (ivory), Halimeda algae (green), and Zoanthids (blue)

Fire coral and sponge

Purple brittle star, sponges, porites, urchins, and halimeda

Magnificent feather duster worms

Coral covered with really colorful encrusting algae and sponges

Sea fans

Me looking stupid with my sand dollar

Sand dollar, found on the sea floor

                    

Me and my snorkel buddy!

While most days were filled with long boat rides out to reefs for snorkeling, we did have a few unique days in Bocas.  One morning, we spent a good hour and a half snorkeling through a mangrove forest and saw some cool jellyfish and barracuda.  Another day, we went to Isla de Pajaros, which is an island populated by a huge number of birds.  We swam around and through the island, as there was a really cool tunnel carved out of the middle by waves.

The last two days of snorkeling were dedicated to our independent research projects.  Lukas and I were studying the interactions of certain coral-eating reef fish with diseased elkhorn coral afflicted by white pox disease.  Interestingly enough, we found that damselfish are the main coral biters, and one species causes more live tissue damage, while another species eats the diseased areas.

Elkhorn coral, afflicted by white pox disease

Blair and Lukas take a nap on the boat

Fun with sunscreen

Tunnel to the open ocean

The night before we left Bocas, a few of us decided to head out to Playa Bluff, the beach on the end of Isla Colon.  After a long taxi ride into what seemed like the middle of nowhere, we were dropped off into paradise.  It was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful landscapes I've seen.  The sun was just starting to set behind the trees, mist was floating in off the ocean, and HUGE waves were crashing into the shore.  Talk about the awesome power of nature.  I've never seen waves as big as on that beach.  And naturally, the first order of business was to swim in them.  It was pretty intense.  The ocean swallowed two of my hair-ties in the process, if that give you an idea of the power of the water.  The night was made more exciting when Peeta showed up, after having run after us.  We all played in the water, and then started the trek back to the station.  No one had quite anticipated how far it would be, how long it would take, and the severe lack of taxis out in that area.  But, we eventually made it back, showered, and headed out to dinner together in the town.  We ate pizza, drank sangria, played pool, and then headed for La Iguana to meet up with the rest of the class.  We had an incredible night dancing to finish off our stay in Bocas.

Kelsey, Leangelo, and Nikki

Getting pounded by the waves

Leangelo's trunks got knocked off by the waves.  Naturally, this is what he did with them

Leangelo and Kelsey in the wave

The waves, from the swimming perspective

Lukas about to get pummeled 

Peeta and Lukas body-surfing

The next day, after our awesome last night out, we headed to the airport around noon for our flight back to Panama City - traveling with class and speed on the return!!  Of course, since everything runs on Panama time, our flight was delayed by two hours.  So we just walked into town, conveniently about 3 minutes from the airport.  Got some ice cream and some gift shopping done, so all in all, it was pretty fortunate that the plane was so so late.
Once we got through security (a single x-ray belt and 2 guards - didn't even have to empty my water bottle), we almost immediately boarded the plane, which almost immediately took off.  Literally, it was the fasted boarding and take-off I've ever experienced.  People were still putting their things in the overhead compartment when the plane started to taxi.  I was impressed, though.  It was a really smooth flight, and even though it was only 45 minutes, they still served us drinks and snacks.  Thanks Air Panama!

Getting off the plane.  The security woman was not pleased...

Once we landed, it was back to Gamboa to work on our final write-ups of our research projects.  It was pretty much working straight for 4 days, interspersed with a few nights hanging out with Nikki, Blair, Lukas, and Peeta.  We all finished our papers on Sunday night, and Monday, our final course began: Pre-Columbian Peoples of Central America.  It's an anthropology/archaeobotany/archaeology course.  I'm pretty stoked.  So far it's been great, and I'll be updating about recent adventures soon!