Lauren + Palm = Bad Lab Report

In January we took a field trip to Isla Barro Colorado, which is a famous island created when the canal area was flooded. I mentioned it in the first update I sent out. I'm told it was the first tropical nature reserve ever created. Our lab exercise was less than glamorous since it involved crawling on the rainforest floor to collect seeds from palm trees and avoid ticks. The most impressive thing on the island were probably the howler monkeys. When you first hear them, you're convinced that a really gruesome murder is taking place very close to you. Then, when you find out they're just monkeys you're convinced that they must be enormous, when they're really only small and cute. It does take some time to get used to the idea that something so small can make that much noise. They're kind of like small children that way. This is also where I went kayaking around with crocodiles. To be fair, I tried to use the canoe, which would have been safer, but after Rachel and I finally dragged it into the water (it was old and really really heavy), we found out it had a hole and then had to drag an even heavier canoe (now full of water) out of the lake. I'm pretty sure I took a couple of years off the life of my back. It was also a painful (literally) reminder that I have no upper body strength. I will stop abusing parentheses now and put captions on my pictures.

Note: My camera battery died on the boat ride to the island so I don't really have any pictures. To simulate being on the island imagine a tropical forest. Since that is pretty much all it was, this will suffice.

Bottom: Sunrise on the canal. We got on a bus at 5:00am to get to this place
Top: Crocodile!

Sloth: I iz not a sin

Parque Nacional Soberania is a national park about a 15min drive from my house. While it is a perfectly beautiful park, we have a complicated history since it is the site I did my individual project for my biology class. I based my project on plant identification not realizing that there are thousands of different plants present on the grounds. This fact, coupled with my lack of plant knowledge made this project long, arduous and completely inaccurate. On the positive side, I saw a really cool sloth and coaties there.

Top left: This is a crappy picture of the sloth I saw. It's at the bottom center of the picture and is upside down. Look hard. You'll see it.

Top right: Random lizard that was nice enough to pose for me

Bottom: Leaf cutter ants. They form these highways of leaf bits they carry on their backs.

My house...

This is a post dedicated to my house and where I live...

So, I live in Panama City on the outskirts in a place called Ciudad del Saber (that translates to city of knowledge). It's a nice place to live because it's safe, but kind of creepy because it is full of rich, white scientists and other professionals. I discovered the bakery awhile ago and now realize that it will be my financial downfall. Between the passion fruit juice and quesitos I don't even know how much money I've dropped there. It's also expensive. But delicious. Anyway, I live with 5 other roomates. Four are from McGill and one is Panamanian. The four girls from McGill are in this picture.

Some of the awesome things about my house include:

1. We have 6 giant chef knives and only one cutlery knive

2. We get FM Corazon on the radio

3. Our garlic press looks like it was made in the 1930s

4. I live within a 5 min walk of the bakery, school and my internship office

5. I am able to make biology jokes with my roomates (Ex. trying to find out if Louis Philipe is a niche, or guessing the trophic level of decomposing animals)

6. We live close to this awesome looking tree that must be hundreds of years old.

This is a picture of my house.

This is a picture of my room that I share with Nina.

An update?

So... I'm trying to become a better traveller and actually let people know what I am up to, as well as post pictures. I'm pretty late getting started, but hopefully within about a week I'll have posted all the places I've been to add some pictures. Wish me luck!