Day 1 - Bocas Del Toro

Yesterday we had a wonderful day touring Panama City. We went to the fish market, the Bio-museum, and the Panama Canal! 

The Lock at the Panama Canal

Bio Museum

Today we left Panama City early in the morning for a quick flight to Bocas del Toro.

When we first arrived at the lab the students (including myself) eagerly looked into the trees looking for sloths and other creatures not seen in North America. Although we did not see a sloth today, we were lucky enough to see a baby howler monkey being fed by graduate students and an alligator! 

After we unpacked our belongings we swiftly headed into the dining hall for a wonderful lunch. The cooks here are amazing, and insist that we only say "thank you" a limited amount (it is very hard to not be grateful for such a wonderful meal, and we Americans are very expressive). I haven't eaten Yucca before, so the Yucca pudding for dessert was very wonderful. The dining hall has a wonderful view of the trees, which we scan for interesting animals frequently. 

But, let's get to the good stuff-- Marine Biology! After lunch we went and did our "swim test." We needed to go and swim from the dock, around a platform, and back. We all passed.

All of us prepare to go to the reef

Beautiful Fire Coral

After our swim test we got to go and swim around House Reef and the mangroves. This is a dream of mine come true. There was so much to see! I think my personal favorite was seeing the damsel fish. These fish are territorial, and will be aggressive to defend their territory. You most likely will not have to worry about them attacking you, as they don't get too close. But, they will watch you closely as you swim over their territory.  While we were enjoying the coral and mangroves, we collected algae to identify later in the lab, after Maya's lecture on algae. Some round, grape-like algae, called Valonia ventricosa, is very interesting. It shines iridescently underwater like a small, opaque globe and looks like a grape in the lab. 

Mitch is holding the sea cucumber

The mangroves were beautiful. There was so much color and life attached to the roots of the tree. What especially caught my eye were the orange and pink sponges. One of our professors, Richard, found a sea cucumber. 

-- Gabby P