Costa Rica & Panama Primate Studies
PS21 Update - Saturday, July 30, 2011
Life's a BEACH
Our first full day in Panama was out of this world! We are all in LOVE with our secluded beach hotel, Casa Cayuco. We woke up to a delicious pancake breakfast. Shortly after that, we headed out on our first field exercise in Panama, which involved taking data about the diversity of the trees in the rainforest and along the beach. We came back for a scrumptious Middle Eastern lunch, consisting of falafel and hummus; my personal high of the day. After lunch, we all jumped into some kayaks with our snorkel gear and kayaked to a coral reef right off the coast of Casa Cayuco. We saw a lobster, a purple sand dollar, hundreds of colorful fish, and some of the largest coral I’ve ever seen in my life.
Once we had our fill of snorkeling, we headed back to the shore and played some games as a team, including jousting with our fingers. We had some time to relax at the beach after that, so we swam, tanned, and went for walks along the beach, where we found beautiful shells and coral, crabs, and even a baby sea turtle! There are some sea turtle nests right near our beach, which is very exciting. Then we had a lesson about the importance of conserving the rainforests and the species that live in them, accompanied by homemade chips ands salsa. Dinner was two types of pasta and cheese quesadillas, which made us all very happy. The food is DEFINITELY one of the best things about Panama.
After dinner, we did our daily ritual of the Leader of the Day’s debrief, followed by a juicy round of Fifteen Minutes of Fame, where anyone could ask me any APPROPRIATE questions they want for fifteen minutes, as I was Leader of the Day today. Then we all worked on our field exercise write-up and hung out before going to bed. It was definitely a successful day in Panamanian paradise! Only one downside: we didn’t see a single monkey :( But other than that, we all had a great day!
Hasta la vista!
Beanie
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