El Valle

Here are a few pictures from a recent overnight stay in El Valle, where we stayed at Los Capitanes. It's definitely nice to have a car and be able to go to different places on the weekends.

G-rated bath shot - the tub was about 5 feet diameter and Connor had a great time crawling around.

Connor has 8 teeth to brush - as long as I do mine first he seems to enjoy it. I'm in charge of the bedtime routine, which goes, bath (loves it!), put on new diaper and sleeper (not a big fan), nurse, brush teeth, read 2-3 stories (usually loves it), say goodnight to mommy, turn out lights and sing songs (variable), go to sleep. From bath to sleep is about an hour.

We decided the suspension bridge was enough excitement and passed on the zipline canopy adventure. At $50 it is a little too expensive for me anyway. We have definitely noticed increased hotel prices, at least for tourist-oriented places. There are also many new beach developments and gringo retirement developments all over the country - including one called Altos del Maria near my PC site. The 'Bejuco-Sora' road mentioned on the web site is the one I took to get to my town. These properties go for $200K and up. Some of my friends in Bajo del Rio got construction jobs there so I have mixed feelings about the whole phenomenon.

In El Valle we met a couple that we looking for retirement property. They had a typical story - retired on a military pension, worried that their property taxes will go higher than they can afford. Of course they also complained about Mexican immigrants (they live near El Paso) which seemed a bit hypocritical, since they were considering becoming immigrants themselves...

Bon Voyage!

Kirsten & Connor are accompanying Tina (r) and Carwyn (l) to Isla de Coiba this weekend. It's a National Park and Tina and Carwyn will be diving while K is just going to enjoy the surroundings (and hopefully sneak in some snorkeling or even a dive or two while the aunties take Connor). I will miss my wife and son terribly of course.

Random Thought: don't drive like this guy:

STRI truck (barely) on Gamboa bridge

Isla Cañas

Here’s a belated account of our trip back to Kirsten’s Peace Corps site, Isla Cañas. Because of the sea turtles that arrive in mass arribadas, Isla Cañas has its own section in Panama travel guides now. But we’ll always know it as ‘la isla.’ Where is this island, you say? Well thanks to the web (and the smart people at Google), it’s easy to show you:


View Larger Map

Arrival is by boat, going through the mangroves, so we got Connor decked out in a new (thanks Jim & Ilse!) infant vest – we tried it out in the resort pool beforehand, and it actually does a good job of keeping his face out of the water. And no, testing it did NOT include tossing him into the deep end.

arriving at the island

Due to Kirsten’s service on the island we were ‘honored guests’ and were allowed to stay in the ANAM cabin, which has indoor plumbing and an air-conditioned bedroom (!). Quite a step up from Kirsten’s lodging as a PCV.

our ANAM digs

There’s a volunteer on the island now – they’ve had a couple come and leave, but Stacey seems to love the island as much as it deserves, and the people speak highly of her. She gets quite an earful of stories about their beloved ‘Kiri’ but seems to handle it well.

Kirsten, Connor & Stacey

We took along Karina, who was just a little girl when Kirsten lived there but now has her own baby, Dario. Karina grew up on the island but lives in another town with her dad and stepmom now. Her mom died a few years ago when a hantavirus plague spread through that part of the country.

Karina holding Connor

So basically we did lots of visiting and made a couple trips to the beach. Connor got lots of attention, and we had lots of people willing to hold the babies. Unfortunately the island is about a 7-hour drive (not including pit stops) so we haven’t been back yet. But it will definitely be a possible destination with visitors!

Connor's friends on the island

Santa Clara

Here's the beach we went to a few weeks ago at Santa Clara. As I mentioned we stayed at a place called Las Sirenas for a night and spent the day at the beach. Although in this shot the beach looks fairly undeveloped, in the other direction there are lots of beach houses - some more like mansions - that wealthy Panamanians use on the weekends and/or during verano.

We've been trying to keep Connor from getting sunburned which means sitting in the shade. He didn't seem to mind too much. It does mean taking turns going into the water for the most part.

We introduced Connor to the Pacific Ocean - he wasn't too sure about it at first but seemed to have a good time.
We had some ceviche in a nearby restaurant and met three current Peace Corps volunteers - two were leaving within a few weeks, one coincidentally going back home to Seattle. Just to show how time flies (and/or how long I was in grad school), she started college while I was a graduate student, graduated, worked for a year, and did half her Peace Corps service, all before I finished.

It was fun to hear a little bit about their experiences. We invited the volunteer that's still in-country to stay with us in Gamboa if she has to come in to the Peace Corps office. When we were volunteers we had several people with whom we could stay, so it would be nice to fulfill the same function now that we have the extra bedroom.

Hello again

If anyone out there has been looking for new posts, sorry to disappoint. I keep meaning to download more pictures to my laptop to upload here, but I decided to break the logjam by just saying hello. I've been busy doing field work (getting up at 5:15 a.m., capturing birds in the forest and radiotracking them) most days, while Kirsten and Connor are at home. But we've made a couple of trips this month which we'll tell you more about soon. One was to Playa Santa Clara, a beach about 90 minutes from Panama City, where we stayed one night at Las Sirenas. The other was to Kirsten's Peace Corps site.

Here's a picture just to keep everyone interested - hope everyone's having a good summer (if you're in the temperate zone).


-John

Driving Lessons

We bought a used car on Monday, so far so good. It's a 2002 Nissan Sentra, I don't have a picture yet but just your basic silver sedan.

I'm in the process of getting it insured, and on Tuesday took a new route away from the Smithsonian to try to get our rent paid at a bank nearby. I turned onto an empty street and ran into the very beginning of a student protest.

LESSON NUMBER ONE: it's probably best to just stop and turn around if you see a group of 20+ muchachos covering their faces with rags and holding rocks.

LA PRENSA/Ana Rentería

Anyway, I got close enough for them to surround the car, sit on the hood, and open the doors. LESSON NUMBER TWO: if you have forgotten LESSON NUMBER ONE (see above), you could try to lock your doors. At that point I looked around and realized my wallet and cell phone were sitting on the passenger seat, so I stuffed them between my legs and put the car in reverse. All I remember were the boys saying ¿Qué pasó, qué pasó? (what's up?). Then one of them on the driver's side started saying 'cierre la puerta, cierre la puerta' (close the door), perhaps realizing that I had no idea what the heck was going on. I also speculate that they hadn't gotten rev'd up yet (it was about 3:00 p.m.) or it might have looked like this:

LA PRENSA

But they didn't throw rocks, or taking anything from the car (my backpack was sitting in the back seat), so I will just count my blessings and consider them lessons learned.

how Panama has changed, part 2...

Ultimate Frisbee in Panama!

Bill Laurance (with disc). La Prensa.

Here's an article (in Spanish) about people playing ultimate frisbee - and the photo they published with it happened to feature Bill Laurance, my advisor at STRI. We played with this group at Clayton for the first time on Sunday 5/27. Kirsten and I take turns playing and staying on the sidelines with Connor. It's a great game.

Life in Gamboa

We like Gamboa and are hoping to move into a furnished house here this week. In the meantime, here are some scenes from the neighborhood:

Afternoon walk in Gamboa

I'm usually home by 5:30 and we often take Connor out for a walk together, or Kirsten goes for a run while I stay with the bebe. There are many other STRI-affiliated families here with kids - for now Connor is the youngest, but there are a few babies under 1, a few toddlers, and several other children under 10. The house in the background is fairly typical for Gamboa.

view of forested ridge overlooking Gamboa

The buildings in the background are actually a STRI plant physiology field station - they put in a bunch of greenhouses to grow seedlings and do experiments. Many of the STRI people that live in Gamboa do their research on Barro Colorado Island, or on Pipeline Road.

entrance to Pipeline Road (camino oleoducto)

This road follows a former gas pipeline that crossed the Isthmus - it's now part of Soberania National Park and provides access to rainforest habitat.

Part of Gamboa is known as 'Santa Cruz' - it's the area closer to the canal where the "silver workers" (meaning working class) lived in smaller houses, as opposed to the "gold workers" who lived up on the ridge in larger houses (with a nice breeze). This historical segregation is reflected by more Panamanians living today in Santa Cruz, compared to more gringos and middle-class Panamanians living in the larger houses in Gamboa.

Santa Cruz has the town's main tienda and two fondas (small restaurants).

Fonda in Santa Cruz

We had a comida del dia here with a can of Coke for $2.60 each.

Connor's doing well and seems to enjoy life most of the time - here's a parting happy baby shot:

how Panama has changed, part 1...

Sushi!

This little restaurant was in Albrook, formerly Albrook AFB in the Canal Zone. And one of the featured ingredients is (thinly sliced) platano. It was pretty good. Connor appeared to be nonplussed:

Connor's Turn

C: even though I'm pre-verbal, my dad thought he could channel some of my impressions into this blog. We've been in Panama for 2 1/2 weeks and I like it so far. It definitely gets hot and I've been known to zone out in the middle of the afternoon...

... but my mom cools me off with wet washcloths and keeps me out of the sun. Probably the biggest change from my life in Seattle is my dad leaving during the day, and not having my grandmas and grandpas and friends over to help take care of me. But we've met lots of other kids here in Gamboa, mostly older, but then it's hard to be younger than me.

My mom took some pictures so you can see my new home:

living room, with kitchen to left of entry

the thing on the floor is where I get tummy time

my bassinet (thanks Dee!) next to mom & dad's bed


bath time in the kitchen sink

I definitely get WAY more baths here, sometimes twice a day. I like them except for when mom tries to get the folds under my chin clean (she calls it 'checking for bugs').

Our biggest outing so far was going to Bajo del Rio, the town my dad lived in for two years. I was hungry when we got out of the car but everyone wanted to see me and touch me and hold me - it was a little scary but I let them know about it so they gave me back to mommy. Later we visited the maestra that my dad worked with and they said she was my 'abuela Dilsa'. She knew how to hold me.

I heard my mom & dad talking about visiting another place, Isla de Cañas, that's a long car drive and a boat ride away. I think we're going to wait to go there until it's not quite as hot.


I rolled over for the first time when my grandpa Mike was taking care of me here - I did it again this week a couple of times. I also like looking out of the window at the trees and bugs and birds. My dad calls it 'baby TV'. Hope to see you down here sometime so you can hold me and make me laugh!

Work at STRI

J: So the reason we're back in Panama is - well first, we've always thought it would be nice to spend some more time here if we had the chance. We were in Seattle for 9 years and ready for a little adventure. So I applied for a National Science Foundation postdoc to do research here, and they gave me enough money for at least a year.

My host instution is the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. STRI (rhymes with 'high') scientists have been working in Panama and other tropical countries for over 80 years, with offices in Panama City and labs and field stations up and down the Canal.

Tupper Administration Building, Ancon, Panama (Marcos Guerra)

Just so you know I'm not making this all up - their newsletter of a couple weeks ago noted my arrival :) In a little more detail, I'm going to study how certain species of tropical forest songbirds use the non-forested habitats (for example tree plantations, human settlements, pasture) that are located adjacent to forested areas. I'm trying to select my specific study sites this week and next, and should have some pictures of the birds soon.

We live in a STRI apartment in Gamboa, a town that is just about as far up the canal as you can drive on public roads. My field work will be between Gamboa and Panama City. We can stay in this place only until the end of May, so we're looking for another house or apartment (with an extra bedroom for visitors), in Gamboa or possibly closer to Panama City.

Opening blog

J:Welcome to our Panama blog - a way for us to update family and friends with our goings-on. And yes, of course we will post pictures of Connor. Here's one of our first days in Panama, relaxing poolside at the Gamboa rainforest resort where my dad and brother Cameron were staying.






So far we're all doing ok with the heat. Our apartment is fairly nice and we're getting things moved in. We did take time for a gondola ride through the rainforest canopy, and the guides found Connor more interesting than the native fauna!