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!