Things that I have managed to accomplish this week:
- Not come to Panama with everything that I need
- Climb through six different mangrove forests
- Feel sentimental, thankful, stressed, tired, etc etc
I arrived in Panama City, Panama last Sunday after a week of frantic goodbyes and packing two large suitcases full of field equipment and clothes. At once, everything was familiar – from arriving through the same terminal in PTY (the international airport) as I did about 8 months ago to driving on Tumba Muerto, a street I took the bus on every morning to go to Spanish class with my group of study abroad friends. My broken Spanish quickly came back to me in the car with Carlitos, who was pointing out where a new above-ground metrorail was going to be built. I stayed in Panama City for one night in a swanky Wyndham hotel room alone, not really knowing what to do with myself before my next flight to Bocas del Toro, a small archipelago on the Caribbean side of Panama.
A view of Panama City (and all the boats coming to/from the Panama Canal) from the plane.
The next day, after I spent a few hours at the Smithsonian library trying to be productive, I made my way to the domestic airport just to be met at the door with all the other students who I would be working with this summer. I immediately recognized Bryan, who I met this past January at a marine biology workshop in Corpus Christi and offered me a spot in this research project. Everyone else introduced themselves with friendly smiles and seemed just excited as I was to see where we would be doing field work together for the next month and a half. We had to abandon some equipment because it was “flammable,” (as flammable as paper, if we’re being honest) and set off on a quick hour-long flight to Bocas del Toro.
Plane shot of Bastimentos (another island in Bocas del Toro)!
We met up with Matt, who is the post-doc and lead scientist of the project, and made our way to the Smithsonian facility. It feels *so official* to be working at a real marine station, with real labs and real boats and real marine biologists who couldn’t care less about formalities. Also our research dorms are so nice!
Our (already messy) dorm room.
After settling in that night, we were immediately tasked to familiarize ourselves with the local mangrove ecosystems. For the rest of the week, we spent long days in the field climbing through the fringes of mangrove forests to find their biomass by measuring their diameter and height. The long and entangled roots of red mangroves made it incredibly tricky to maneuver through them, and we all got scraped up, bruised, and bitten by small swampy sand flies and mosquitoes. One site had some of the most polluted water in the entire area due to the waste water from the local community that gets dumped into the bay. Inside the mangroves, we found an old computer, washing machine, bike, and more. We tried to avoid spending too much time in the water, knowing that it was probably full of fecal matter from the local residents.
Mangroves host a huge amount of biodiversity on their roots! Here is a good example of the sponge diversity you can find on them.
Mangroves are also important as fish nurseries!
More mangrove roots!
Unfortunately, a lot of trash can get caught on the mangrove roots and stay there.
I also forgot an important piece of field equipment in Houston, which has led to a stressful past 48 hours. I think it is resolved now, but a huge shout out to the people at Rice (and NOT FedEx) for helping me out!
Today we have a rare day off and we plan on doing laundry, grocery shopping, and hitting up Playa Bluff. This week has definitely been a lot of getting used to life in the field, but I look forward to working more in these ecosystems!
Update: Playa Bluff pretty much looked like a desktop wallpaper.
**Also quickly. I would not be here if it wasn’t for a lot of people who helped me fall in love with Panama last fall when I studied abroad here. I was flooded with so many memories of my panas (friends) and I laughing, exploring, and learning together the second I landed. To my parents, advisors, and friends who have believed in me – I have so much to thank you for. Expect random teary-eyed Snapchats/texts over the course of this summer. So much love for you all!