Coibita: Exploring the Pacific reefs

On Monday, March 25th, the class piled into the bus for the trek to Coiba National Park, our Pacific marine biology research site.  After the full afternoon of traveling, a stay at a roadside hotel/casino, and a 5:30am departure the next day, we made it to Puerto Mutis.  From the port, it was another 3 hours by boat to our destination.  No one knew what to expect, except that there'd be no internet, limited electricity, and some of us would be sleeping in tents (in true form, I volunteered).

Puerto Mutis, and the 3 boats that took us to Coibita

After the long boat ride, we came in sight of our island, Coibita, greeted by breeching dolphins and jumping rays.  Nobody could quite believe where we were landing.  The island was very small, with a huge sandy beach lined with palms.  And it was entirely ours, save two cooks, our boat drivers, and two park rangers.

The front lawn

Sweeping views of Coiba

Everyone unloading their stuff

After walking up the 125 cement stairs of death to the bluff at the top of the island, we found our home for the next week.  It was a refurbished private residence of a man who once owned the whole island.  Complete with a grassy airstrip for landing private jets.  While everyone else settled into the bunks inside, Simone, Lukas, Kristie, and I pitched the tent that we'd sleep in for the next week.  

The main building (mostly used for eating and sleeping)

Our tent, pitched on the landing strip overlooking the Pacific

View from the tent

For the next week, we were almost on vacation.  We'd wake up in the morning at 7 for breakfast, have a short lecture at 8, and be in the boats by 9.  From there, we'd ride out to a reef, snorkel until lunch, have lunch, get back in the water at a new reef site, and be back by 4:30 for free time for the rest of the day.  It was the life.  And since we didn't have internet, we only had ourselves for entertainment.  Lots of bonding happened that week, whether though games, mafia, stargazing, or just staying up late talking.  I always say that people are most themselves when removed from the distractions of technology and daily life stress, and that proved true out on Coibita.  I feel like I got to know people more in that week than I had in the past 6 weeks.  My kind of fun for sure.

Our teaching staff is great as well.  Professor Maria and her husband Sergio know everything about the reefs and love answering all our questions.  Our TA Sam, who we've nicknamed Peeta since he looks like the actor in the Hunger Games, is really fun, funny, and quite enthusiastic about birds (and fish too).  It's a great blend of personalities that fit very well into our group dynamic.

Landing on Granito de Oro

Granito de Oro

Crazy colorful land crabs on Coibita

Postcard sunsets from our beach 

Notable sightings of Coiba include three sea turtles, one of which Simone an I followed for over thirty minutes, a white tip reef shark, a whale shark (from the boat), lot of jellyfish, a tiny sergeant major that followed me around, two crown of thorns starfish, tons of puffer fish, and huge schools of rainbow runners.

My snorkeling buddy!

You can barely see it in the picture, but the tiny fish to the right imprinted on me one day at Granito de Oro,  It was a juvenile Sergeant Major, and it shadowed me for over an hour.  Sergio thinks it was using me as protection, but I like to think he just wanted to be my friend.

Sign for parrotfish, turtle, and pufferfish

barberfish

guineafowl puffer

urchin using a leaf for camouflage 

Pretty reefscape

Schooling surgeonfish

On Coiba

Lukas carried Edwin up the death steps.  The deal was Edwin pays Lukas $10 to be carried if Lukas could take him the whole way.  Alternatively, Edwin doesn't get to shave until May.

Tired but victorious.  Let that beard commence it's terrifying growth.

During the last two days of snorkeling, we worked on independent projects.  Simone, Lukas, Kristie, and I were looking at fish diversity and abundance in three different substrates of reef - rock, sand, and coral.  We'll be working on the write-ups for that project while in Bocas.  It was mostly to practice methods, and we're not expecting to find anything cool in the short time we were collecting data.  But we have another independent project in Bocas, so hopefully that one will have some more robust data.

Transect in the sand

Jellyfish!

The day before we left, we visited the now defunct Panamanian jail on Coiba.  The jail was built here because even if a prisoner did escape, there'd be nowhere to go.  The sharks would get him first.  IT was pretty cool, kinda creepy, and a fun break after data collecting.

Window in a cell

Christian, modeling plastic bags

Working it

Cells

Peeta taking pictures of birds

Blair, giving Lukas a ride against her will

Coconut seedlings

More postcard pictures

Relaxing in the hammock

We departed Coibita on April 1st, and began yet another long process of traveling.  That night, we stopped at Los Quetzales, an eco-tourism lodge in Cerro Punto, a town in the mountainous region of Panama.  Apparently, this is the place to go birdwatching and hiking and horseback riding.  The hotel was gorgeous, we were treated to a really nice dinner, and still without internet spent the evening piled on Patricia's bed talking.

The next morning, at Peeta's urging, we got up at 6am to go searching for a quetzal that was known to be nesting up in the mountain.  Though I didn't actually see the quetzal, I did appreciate being up there. We took a tractor-towed cart up into the mountain, across springs and through mossy rainforest until we reached one of the eco-chalet's owned by the hotel.  From there, we watched all sorts of birds from the railing as the sun rose and the clouds lifted from the forest.  It was simply magical.  I've concluded I could live there in Cerro Punto no problem.

The chalet

Peeta being really intense about photographing hummingbirds while having just shoved a quarter of a shandwich in his mouth so as to be hands-free.

After our morning excursion, it was time to get back on the bus and finish the trek to Bocas del Torro, an island region on the Caribbean side of Panama.  We're here now, and I'll be updating soon about what it's like.  Still snorkeling all day, and starting the next independent project tomorrow.  That's all for now!