Pues, es Jueves, 18 de Febrero y estoy en un cafe internet para el primero vez en Penonomé, Panamá...
¿En íngles, por favor? It is Thursday, February 18th, and I am at my first internet cafe in Penonome, Panama. YES! I finally made it! (To Panama, of course, not just the internet cafe.) It is unbelievably exciting here. We arrived on Tuesday morning after a very swift connection in Miami (similar to a scene from Home Alone 1). Everything since has been very different, but enjoyable. Our home base is out of the "ecological station" La MICA (www.lamica.org) just outside of El Copé. A van picked all 25 of us up from the airport and drove us about three hours west to El Copé. From there we had about a 15-20 minute hike to our compound. Our station consists of a large cabin for the 23 students, a deck underneath for eating, classes, and lounging, a separate cabin for our 2 professors, and 2 showers and 2 "toilets" in bamboo huts. (I will put up pictures later.) It is incredibly secluded, beautiful, and relaxing. There is even a river about two minutes down the mountain.
Our first day at La MICA we just got situated in our cabin, picked out our bunk, and ate a very delicious chicken and spaghetti dinner. The next morning after a 7 am breakfast we hiked out of la MICA and toured El Copé. While the locals seem to have limited contact with gringos, everyone was very friendly. I think I said "Buenos" and "Buenas" (good day, short for buenos días y buenos tardes) roughly 50 times throughout our walk. After the tour (which took about 15 minutes to see almost the main part of town) we ate lunch at Julie´s house (the researcher for La MICA). The lunch consisted of white rice with stewed beef, carrots, yucca, onions and beans, and fresh pineapple, watermelon, and plantains. ¡Delicioso! Next we rode in the back of a truck (chiva) to Omar Torrijos National Park, one of the places our group will be conducting a lot of field research. The park is a tropical forest (bosque tropical) at 800 metros in a cloud forest (bosque nube). The flora and fauna is incredible, and we spent a few hours hiking and learning about the ecosystem. Very soon my biology class will do some labs there, and the biology major students are conducting their semester projects there. What a beautiful but challenging hike (¡Más bonito pero muy dificil!) While the temperature was warm, it was incredibly humid and poured down on us toward the end of our adventure. Luckily, the 40 minute drive in the back of the chiva helped to dry us off. :) The rest of the day back at la MICA was relaxing, just showering, dinner, and journal time for me, with a very early bed time.
Today I was the last one to wake up (somehow my body doesn´t comprehend "early to bed, early to rise") at 7:30. After breakfast we headed out at 8:30 to a chiva, which took us to a bus, which took us to Penononmé. Here we toured a museum, stood in the geographical center of Panamá, spent about an hour shopping in local markets attempting to purchase things with limited Spanish knowledge, and then ate lunch. I had rice, soup, a plantain, and tea (arroz, sopa, platano y té). ¡Muy delicioso! We have a few more hours here in Penonomé, and then we head back to camp.
I have had a wonderful time here so far, and it´s only been three days! Tomorrow Hanna, Jackie, Joy, Nancy, and I will head to the archaeological site at El Caño to see where Hanna and I will be working for the next few weeks. I have been doing a lot of research about the Coclé culture and our museum tour today included information about the nearby sites as well. Hopefully we have a splendid time!
¡Hasta luego!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment