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:


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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