3,420 miles.

We are 3,420 miles from the University of Oregon and reveling in the thrill that comes with new experiences!

Our trip to Panama started with many, many hours of airport travel. We all traveled to at least three airports and spent about 18-26 hours traveling around the world. Although we were exhausted when we landed in Panama, we were extremely excited to have reached our destination! It was exhilarating to look out of my window and not recognize any trees or landmarks, and to only be filled with curiosity about what lay below. It took a while for everyone to reach Panama, so those of us that arrived in the afternoon explored around our hostel with Richard Emlet, one of the two professors who coordinated this trip. We began to settle into the trip by taking in the sounds of a soccer game while we ate traditional Panamanian dinner (ceviche, seafood, and plantains…yum!) at a table overlooking the entrance to the Panama Canal. We then walked around the local neighborhoods before watching the sunset from the Panama Canal Administration Building. From our view atop the hill we could see planes, trains, cars, and ships interacting together in one panoramic view of the Canal Zone. It was quite spectacular!

The Canal Zone from above.
Pictured from left to right: MacKenna Hainey, Katie Medina, Natasha Coon,
Katalin Plummer, Craig Stuart, and Richard Emlet

A ship moving through
the Canal.

The first full day of the trip was spent taking in the complex metropolitan that is Panama City. We first visited the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal to watch the ships pass from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans. The walls of the locks separating the two sides of water are about 100 feet tall! I was stunned to learn that the technology of the canal was 100 years old and extremely efficient. The canal utilizes gravity to draw water in from another side of the canal in order to raise the massive ships to a level where they can be pulled safely along by trains. The fit for a boat is very tight, so ships are pulled through the canal with trains on tracks adjacent to the canal itself. It takes a full day to travel through the entirety of the canal and only 30 minutes to traverse one of the locks. To see the Panama Canal in action was a humbling experience.

There are no two sides of the museum that look the same!
The Biomuseo is a physical representation of Panama's
complexity and colorful personality.

We then continued to Panama City’s fish market and enjoyed a fresh seafood lunch while we took a reprieve from the stifling heat and humidity. Our amazing tour guide, Millie, drove us through Casco Viejo, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, in order to let us experience a little taste of Panama’s colonial architecture and history. The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Biomuseo, a recently opened museum dedicated to educating guests about Panama’s biodiversity through a combination of art and science. The museum was extremely colorful and utilized a wide range of media and educational tools to convey their messages of conservation and culture. My favorite part of the museum was learning from Igua, an exhibit interpreter who was passionate about paleontology and her Kuna Yala heritage, about how the Biomuseo acquired the only complete Marlin fossil in the world.

Colorful shrimp are displayed at the fish market.
We saw a variety of fish, octopus, lobster, snails,
and more for sale by persuasive vendors.

The most powerful moment from this trip for me was on our first day in Panama City. Picture this: you’re standing on a popular walkway along the water. The smells of sulfurous mudflats and freshly cooked fish waft through the air. You listen to families chattering in Spanish and street vendors call out to passerby’s, tempting them with cold water and snow cones on a tropical summer day. The clouds are countless shades of grey and birds (Magnificent Frigatebirds and Brown Pelicans) soar overhead as they look for their next meal. You take a deep breath, enjoying the fresh Panamanian ceviche and coconut rice from your lunch. When suddenly…distant but unmistakable rumbles of thunder. You look out towards the Panama City skyline to see magnificent lightning strikes lighting up the hundreds of skyscrapers in front of you. A thunderstorm hints at dumping its might on the bustling city, but no rain falls. Just laughter, a full belly, and a new country waiting to open its arms to you (even when you struggle to speak its language). All of the to-do lists and worries and nonsense and cares just leave your head as you embraced the moment you were living in. Most importantly, you suddenly realize, “This is what it’s like to live. I’m not thinking about me. I’m literally living in this moment.” Now what could be better than that?

Looking down at the reefs 30 feet below.

Today, we headed out of our hostel at 5 am to fly to our home for the rest of the trip, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Bocas del Toro, Panama. As I sipped a much-needed cup of coffee on the plane, I was filled with exhilaration over finally seeing the clear green water, colorful Caribbean homes, and reefs I had dreamed about since I registered for this study abroad. After lunch and an orientation, we finally got to jump into the water and explore the reefs and mangroves next to STRI. We were surrounded by hundreds of species of mollusks, fish, crustaceans, cnidaria, echinoderms, porifera, and more. I loved getting to see my first wild coral and swim among the mangrove roots. I wished I had more heads to take in the sights around me as I snorkeled and swam through the warm tropical water! Although I wanted to see as much of the reef as possible, I made sure to take a moment to stop and observe as I sat in a gap between the mangrove roots. Colorful corals and sponges contrasted stunningly against the dark roots of the tree and schools of tiny green fish danced among the roots and my fins. The sun sparkled above while the seagrass danced below, and I could hear nothing but tiny waves and a light wind stirring the leaves of the mangrove trees. This is paradise.

Pictured below from left to right: 

Left: Different kinds of corals interact with each other and other organisms to form a beautiful example of symbiosis.

Middle: A sea biscuit test I found had some air left in it and became a sea balloon. :)

Right: Two Brain corals sitting in the sand, with aggressive damselfish watching nearby.

A Spotted Sea Hare (Aplysia dactlomela) munches on corals on the
sea floor sucking the sap from coral polyps.

A Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) swims gracefully among the seagrasses near STRI.

Wonder is a word that keeps floating through my mind. I wonder how the culture differs from our own, and am humbled by the privilege our country grants us. I wonder how our original scientific projects will go when we reach the research stations. I wonder what kind of exciting food we will have at our next meal. I wonder how our friends and family are doing back home. I wonder how terrible my Spanish is. I wonder which sounds belong to which animal, and what organisms swim and crawl with me in the water. I wonder what the stories are of the people passing by. I wonder how we will change during our time abroad.

As I sign off, I am left with one more wonder: what adventures still await us in this beautiful country?

~ Alyssa ("Aly") Bjorkquist ~