Day 8:
Today was a very productive day! We accomplished the drive back to El Valle from Boquete and still had time to collect most of our baits. We were thrilled to find that each one of the baits in the pine area had more than all of our previous baits combined! We took our time walking through the tropical habitats, hiking up a river lined by ivy and moss covered boulders. We were all jealous of Andrea’s rainboots as she walked effortlessly through the river; we grasped weak vines for support on the shallow banks, observing brightly colored dragonflies and trying to catch lizards. Absorbing our surroundings, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves as we collected our remaining baits.
We brought our specimens home with us and took turns aspirating, taking a food break in the middle. We enjoyed Peruvian cuisine with the professors for lunch and patronized an Italian restaurant called Bruschetta for dinner. Bellies full, we returned to our flies at home, some of us staying up until 1am aspirating them into vials. Some of us are increasing our tolerance for that fermented banana smell and taste. Yum, yum!
Here are some photos of our view from the pine area in El Valle:
Until our next adventure,
STRI techs of Panama
Day 9:
We had a wonderful morning. Excited to greet the El Vallan Drospholids first thing, we collected the baits around the hotel that we had placed 4 days prior. The flies put up a fight, but we aspirated them into vials and left our homey B&B for the market. We all enjoyed seeing the handmade crafts, especially watching one man intricately paint a giraffe onto a bird feather. We quickly bought trinkets for family and friends at home (hola familia y amigos!) and some produce for the drive ahead of us.
Through the rain and pink lightning, we arrived in Gamboa and settled into our Smithsonian housing. Spoiled at two per apartment with stocked kitchens and full bathrooms, we only find ourselves grumbling about the lack of air conditioning in 80% humidity. No complaints though, we're having fun!
Terri took us to an amazing market filled with both local treasures and cheesy tourist buys. Need a hammock? Pick a pattern, any color, varying qualities. A panama hat? What size my friend, we have every size. Elaborate wooden carvings of exotic fauna, tradition fabric weavings, miniature nativity scenes whittled into giant seeds... We shopped to our hearts' content and left in search of food. We finally arrived at a truly authentic Panamanian restaurant. After consuming our big macs and mcnuggets, we returned to our housing and settled in.
Tonight we discussed a 1993 Journal of Animal Ecology paper titled "A life history trade-off in Drosophila species and community structure in variable environments" by Sevenster and Van Alphen. Over our nachos and card games, the students theorized amongst ourselves about the advantages and disadvantages of characters like development time and opportunities for reproduction.
Write to you tomorrow!
-The coolest kids in Panama
1 comment:
To the coolest kids in Panama:
Sounds like all of you are having a great time - and catching lots of flies (yeah!). Glad you are getting used to inhaling fermented banana (took me a while, but I actually like it now) - banana beer anyone?
If it makes you feel any better, its 80% humidity at night here in San Diego. We are expecting lots of presents here upon your return =).
Did you really eat at a McDonalds in Panama?
Post a Comment