BOCAS del TORO

Bocas del Toro is a small island on the Caribbean side of Panama near the border of Costa Rica. It's known for surfing, snorkeling and diving. The Smithsonian has a station there and I went on a short weekend visit last month. Juan had to be there to teach a group of environmental and biology undergraduates that had been traveling throughout Panama for 3 1/2 months. They each spent time with a homestay family and traveled from location to location, working with a scientist for 10 days at each location. Their last stop was Bocas del Toro and Juan was the scientist. He taught them about the marine life there. It was a lot of fun sitting in on the lectures and joining the group on some adventures.

The easiest and fastest way to get there is by plane. Lucky for me, I live within a 10 minute walk of the domestic airport in Albrook. There are only two airlines. I flew Air Panama. :)

VIEWS FROM THE PLANE

I was greeted by this sneaking caimen as I walked over a bridge to the Smithsonian Labs. Apparently there are 7 total caimans in the pond. Along with this guy were brilliantly colored birds, butterflies and fish. It really was a small tropical paradise. I even saw a three-toed pygmy sloth endemic to Bocas. I didn't have my camera at the time, but I swear I saw one. :)

Below is a nest that I liked.


This is Juan Mate. I love this picture of him in a full suit. The weather was really crummy when we were there. Lots of rain and lots of wind. This made the water much colder than usual (75 degrees F) and I guess when you're accustomed to the warm tropical water, a slight shift in temperature merits protective gear. :) The rest of us were in bathing suits.

The first day that I arrived, I got to go snorkeling with the group. With all the wind and rain, the visibility was poor, but it was just so much fun to get in the water and look around anyway. I wish I had a waterproof camera.

This is a really gross picture, but I find gross things awesome especially when it involves picking and peeling. This is a picture of one of the students helping along the shedding process of skin after a sunburn. :) I love that you can see the holes from the hair follicles in the skin! EEW!

The purpose of snorkeling was to collect samples of coral. 3 buckets were collected and brought back to the lab to dissect. There were so many living things inside!

In addition to the urchins and brittle stars, they also found a pipefish, worms, crabs, large starfish and much more. After they counted and sorted all the specimens, they got tossed back into the water. That made me happy.

The STRI dorms each have about 6 bunk beds. It was pretty empty and I ended up sharing with only one other girl. She ended up also working at Naos and was in Bocas temporarily. Her name is Anabell and I was so thrilled to meet her. Anabell conducts a pretty neat experiment involving tiny itty bitty adult shrimp and shrimp larvae.

First, she looks at the shrimp that's been place on a mesh disc through a microscope. She counts the squares on the mesh to measure the size of the shrimp.

Then using super glue, she attaches a mono filament to the shrimp as well as to the larvae. It is really tedious work and it's amazing to watch how quickly she can do this.

She does this for 12 adults and 12 larvae.


Then we go to the dock with a bunch of other equipment.

The brick weights are set up in equal intervals around the entire dock.

The shrimp and shrimp larvae then get attached to these acrylic rods. Each rod is then placed in the brick weights. They alternate between adult shrimp and shrimp larvae.

Each rod is submerged for 30 minutes. Then they are pulled out to see if the shrimp were eaten or are still on the line. Other factors are then measured...

This is a mesh bag used for collecting plankton. The bag gets pulled through the water along the dock to see how much plankton is in the water.

This white thing is used to measure the depth of the water. Temperature is also recorded. This experiment is conducted every day during low tides. That means that sometimes she is doing this experiment more than once a day and at horrible hours like 3 or 4am. Yikes!

Later that afternoon, we went out to the main city. I loved it! It has a beach town, bustling feel to it. Not to mention, I ate one of my most favorite typical dishes there. It was a hole in the wall restaurant called Don Chi Cho. It's probably the only remaining place in Bocas that serves typical fare for typical prices - cheap. Everything else in Bocas has become pretty expensive because it is now a huge tourist attraction. That whole plate of food below cost me $3.50. Pretty ridiculous.

When you walk in, it doesn't look like they have much. It's kind of like getting food at a cafeteria, but I love that you can just ask for as much or as little as you want on your plate. I ordered a piece of bass, lentils, rice and two different preparations of plantains. One is called patacones and the other tajadas. Patacones are the flat disc things. They flatten, deep fried pieces of unripe plantain. The other are sliced pieces of mature plaintains that have been sauteed. Patacones are savory while the tajadas are sweet. Oi! Both are soooo good. The table had the flag of Panama under the glass. It was a picture perfect opportunity that I'm happy to say, didn't go to waste.

Below are a couple more pictures of the town.