Vamos a Panama!

Hola! Me llamo Christy y estoy in Panama!

Leaving Eugene for Panama. We're Excited!

These past few days have been a whirlwind of activity, from 18 hours of travel time to exploring Panama City to settling in at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). This is my first time outside of the United States, and so far it has been quite enjoyable. I got to use my passport for the first time, fly over an ocean, and try and remember the Spanish I learned 4 years ago in high school. It is definitely a humbling experience to be in a place where you do not speak the language and have to constantly think to understand and be understood. It can be frustrating when I do not know how to say what I am trying to say in Spanish. Thankfully, all the people I've talked with have been very helpful (and even amused) at my attempts to speak Spanish.

Everyone at the Miraflores Locks

A ship going through the first lock

We spent all day Sunday exploring Panama City. At our first stop we visited the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal. It was amazing to see, and incredible to realize that the locks were running 99 years ago. We were lucky and got to see 2 ships travel through the locks. It's incredible how it works. The ship putts up close to the wall and another wall closes behind it. Then water from above is drained to the lock where the ship is, raising the ship up. Once the water level is even, the lock opens up, and the ship travels on to the next lock. It takes about 8 minutes to fill up the lock, which is quite a feat considering how big it is. In all, it takes a ship about 10 hours to travel 80 km (62 miles). It's not a quick trip, but definitely much faster than traveling around the tip of South America.We spent the rest of the day exploring the fish market, Old Panama City, and at STRI's nature center in Panama City.

Looking out my window.

Today we woke up at 4:30 for our flight to STRI on the island of Bocas del Toro. While on the flight, I had my eyes glued out the window, especially once we got over the Caribbean Sea. I could not believe how blue the water was.

 

Ready to jump in! Cassie, Teresea, Kristie, Susanna, Jaron, Christy, Robbie, Mandi, Richard, and Will (back to front, left to right)

After lunch, we quickly threw on our gear to jump in and snorkel in the Caribbean Sea! This was only my second time snorkeling, and I was excited to dive in. It was amazing. I was surrounded by fields of turtle grass (Thalassia) that extended as far as I could see. In them fish darted to and fro, nibbling on the organisms growing on the turtle grass blades (epibionts). We ventured to the patch reef and I saw my first (wild) coral reef! All in all, we saw amazing animals including sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, a sting ray, barracuda, jellyfish, tube worms, and lots of juvenile fish. We saw all of this right off of STRI's dock. Our mission was to practice snorkeling and identify as many organisms as we could. After taking Invertebrate Zoology, it was fun to know what most of the organisms were and be able to ID them using a guide. I took a lot of pictures...and I wish I could show all of them, but here are a few. Click them to make them bigger.

A Threespot Damselfish among some Thalassia blades.

Amphimedon compressa, a common reef sponge.

An arrow crab (Stenorhynchus seticornis)*

In lecture, we learned about tropical algae. While they may not look super interesting, they actually are! What I found most interesting is that some green algae that are quite large are coenocytic, unicellular plants with many nuclei. Halimeda incrassata is an example of one. You can see that this alga takes up the entire tupperware container, yet is it all one single cell! Halimeda is also interesting because it deposits calcium carbonate in its tissue to deter predation from fish. During the day, it is green, but at night it turns white due to a chemical interaction with the calcium carbonate.

Halimeda incrassata. You can see that some is turning white

Did I mention the food? I have eaten DELICIOUS food these past few days including some standard Panamian dishes (ceviche, patacones) as well as spaghetti and pizza. Our cook at STRI, Gustav, is an amazing chef. I look forward to trying all the delicious food! 

Lunch from Sunday. Shrimp in a Creole sauce with yuca and vegetables, including chayote. Yumm :)

*Incorrectly identified previously as a sea spider (pycnogonid).