Locks (Las Esclusas)

Yesterday we saw Panama's most famous attraction: the Panama Canal! We saw a cruise ship go through, and as we stood among the crowds overlooking the locks taking photos, we saw that those aboard the cruise ship were reciprocating our enthusiasm. We waved and hollered and received waves and hollers several times. It took about 20-30 minutes for the cruise boat to enter the lock, for the water to lower, the doors to open, and the boat to advance. One of my favorite aspects is that the ships don't sail through the locks, they are pulled by 4-6 small locomotives that carefully guide them through the lock so they don't hit the sides. There's only about five feet of clearance on either side of the biggest ships. We also saw a sailboat pass through, which looked pretty cute because it was about 1/100th of the size of the other ships.

We learned about the history of the canal at the museum, too. Here are some of my favorite facts:

1. The narrowest part of the canal was basically built through solid rock. (That's probably why it's the narrowest part--it was so hard to drill through the rock that they only carved away what was entirely necessary.)
2. Enough dirt/soil/rock was removed as would have been removed if one had dug straight through the diameter of the Earth.
3. Each lock contains 100 million liters of water.
4. When the mosquitoes became a problem, spreading malaria and other diseases, a huge project was enacted that drained basically all the standing water in the city. 
5. Most ships are charged around $300,000 to pass through the canal.
6. Richard Haliburton swam the canal in 1948, and he was only charged 36 cents!

The Queen Elizabeth.

The Miraflores Locks (there are two here).

The lock doors weigh as much as 300 elephants. I assume they are well-fed, healthy elephants.

Me and Mallory. Notice, between our heads, the ship entering the lock.

Sailboat! It may have cost the owners of this boat several thousand dollars to pass through the canal.

Volleyball and Playa Gorgona

     Yesterday began the STRI volleyball tournament! Interns and employees on our floor at the Naos lab had been practicing together all week, with noticeable improvement. I was really excited for the actual game! We played on Friday evening, and while we weren't horrible, we lost by not a small margin to the other team. Though we lost, we had a lot of fun and since only two games were scheduled that evening, most of the time we were there was spent playing for fun and just passing the ball around.

     Today several of us from "la jaula" (what we call our apartment) went to Playa La Gorgona. It is a black sand beach. The sun was out (as usual), the water was warm, and we played more volleyball! It was much fun. I also swam a lot with my goggles, but the visibility was practically null. We met some Panamanian men (or at least we think they were Panamanian) who gave us a lot of free cheap beer and played volleyball with us for at least an hour or two. Then we wandered around looking for a restaurant and finally filled our starving bellies.

     Tomorrow I hope to go through the canal locks! Apparently this is one of the major attractions of Panama City, not surprisingly. I should remember my camera then so I can post real photos.

Hasta luego!

La Playa Gorgona. Add some trash and this is exactly what it looked like there today.

Fotos

No he hecho nada muy increible recientamente, I haven't done anything super incredible recently, just mostly lab work--growing algae, feeding snails, and taking pictures of snail larvae. Though today I also played volleyball. But for your enjoyment, I will post some pictures!

We cross the Bridge of the Americas each time we drive to a field site. This is the view from the bridge as we look northwest into the canal.

I'm looking for snail larvae. 

We keep the snails in cups for experiments.

My friend Allan is playing guitar at the top of Cerro Ancon (Ancon Hill) which is behind our apartment.

Here is Allan also checking for larvae.

Allan and I went down on the dock to collect some plankton.

Hacerse en una Científica

      A lot of important life-defining events are and will be occurring lately. I started this internship because I thought it would be fun and I wanted a good reason to travel. Now that I'm applying for graduate school, I'm finding I have to take these research experiences very seriously. I think I want to do research professionally and for the rest of my life. Now that I have applied for a PhD in marine ecology and I have some legitimate research experiences, I have things to talk about with other professional researchers and when I speak with them I feel like they actually care about my opinion. That has never happened to me before, and I'm not sure what to think. Am I seriously doing this? Do I want to devote my entire life to the study of the ocean? Am I no longer a kid, doing whatever I want because it's fun and I get to add it to my list of life experiences that build me personally?

I do want to become a scientist, and here is why:

1. I love being around the ocean.
2. I love learning about the biology of the ocean.
3. I look up to and admire oceanic researchers.
4. I have lots of fun exploring ocean habitats.
5. I enjoy pursuing my curiosities. 
6. I enjoy independent work. 
7. I enjoy having an unpredictable and non-traditional work schedule. 
8. I enjoy working very hard to achieve large goals. 
9. I greatly enjoy the company of those who study the ocean, I have made some of my best friends while doing oceanic research, and I continue to meet amazing new people when I do research.
10. When I look at the lives of professional researchers and see what they are doing, I can see myself being happy living a similar lifestyle. 

Number ten there is probably the most important. Not only do I admire the work of researchers I know , but I admire their lives in general. None of them seem unhappy. They are people that have pursued what they love and are now doing it well.

Soon I will find out if I will in fact pursue this career/life path as graduate schools make admissions decisions. I will have a huge decision to make--where I will study, what I will study, and with whom. This decision will change my life forever! I am so glad to be making it.

Pura Vida!

Mucho

     I've been up to so much lately! This week has been really busy. To recap:

1. Sunday: Five of us from STRI (Smithonian Tropical Research Institute) walked up to the park at the top of the hill behind the apartments. 

Fig 1. The view at the top of Cerro Ancon (Ancon Hill) of Panama City.

2. Monday: Did field work in the sun at a sandy intertidal beach, collecting egg masses from moon snails (family Naticidae) and female C. marginalis, a small (~10 mm average) gastropod.

Fig 3. A transect to count moon snail egg masses.               Fig 4. A moon snail egg mass.

3. Tuesday: Did field work in the sun at a rocky intertidal beach, counting C. marginalis under wet rocks.

Fig 4. Counting C. marginalis in a 2 x 2 m transect.

4. Wednesday: Went to Panama International Jazz Festival in the evening to see Herbie Hancock play jazz piano. It was amazing.

5. Thursday: Made bean burgers for friends upstairs and chatted over other food items. Allan fried some plantains in vanilla extract and had a sour cream dipping sauce, and they were delicious.

6. Friday: On my birthday I got to explore the planktonic community of the Bay of Panama, eat lime coconut pie, then in the evening go to Panama's International Beer Festival and stay up late playing guitar on the stoop of our apartment.

Fig 5. Lime coconut pie made in Panama.

7. Saturday (today): Going running by the ocean at the entrance of the canal for a couple hours with a friend and then seeing more jazz music downtown.

Pura vida!

Música y Ciudad

     On Friday my coworker/neighbor/friend Allan from Costa Rica took me to the fruit market. This is where a lot of local farmers sell their food. One of the most noticeable aspects of this market are all the smells--not because people are cooking, but rather because there is a lot of garbage. I bought some vegetables and a mamey. I ate it with a spoon--it was pretty good.
     Later that night we hung out in his apartment and he has a guitar! I played it, of course, and we ended up playing together for several hours. He taught me a lot of Latino songs.
     On Saturday I explored some of the city on my own. My plan was to catch a "diablo rojo" and get a ride to the big mall so I could buy a cell phone. A diablo rojo is a popular form of transportation around here. It is cheap and ubiquitous. There's a fleet of retired school buses that people paint extremely elaborately and drive around, charging twenty-five cents per person. I wanted to find the plaza to catch one, but I only had a vague idea of where the plaza was, so, naturally, I just wandered around and hoped to find it, secretly hoping that I'd get hopelessly lost and confused and come home with an exciting story to tell. I ended up in the Avenida Central, central avenue, which is a long street closed to cars and contains a huge market. There were at least a dozen cell phone stores, so I just picked one and got a $20 phone. I proceeded to wander around for the next two to three hours. My favorite part was finding a coconut water vendor and drinking my favorite drink in the world! I then realized there were coconut water vendors all over the place, which made me happy. I found some produce markets and bought some more vegetables, looked for a few other groceries, and went home.
     Later that night I went to see a Japanese film with Allan and another coworker, Eva (from Panama). We took a bus that was supposed to take us right to the main mall downtown, but it instead took the most roundabout route possible and it took us about 40 minutes to get there. It was cool to see the city, though, so I didn't mind. It's a very busy place.
     The movie was really good! It was free, in Japanese with Spanish and English subtitles, which was perfect so I could practice reading Spanish and have a translation directly below it. It was about two sisters trying to get each other married. It reminded me of Shakespeare because of all the misunderstandings and scheming. After it was over we took a diablo rojo back home and Allan and I played more guitar for several hours, during which time I met his roommate and another person moved in with them. His roommate is latino (I forget where he is from) and his new roommate is from Wisconsin.
     Now I just finished reading several of Dr. Collin's papers and her grant proposal and am feeling good about myself, so as a reward I am going to take pictures of the natural preserve behind the apartment. Stay tuned!

Hasta pronto,
Gina

Bienvenida al Laboratorio

Meet my advisor!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gruRMsJ338U  

This is the sign for the group of labs where I work. 

     Today I registered with the Smithsonian and was shown the lab in which I will be working! The people in this lab, the Collin lab (named after my advisor, Rachel Collin), study marine gastropods (snails), with specific interests in mating and larval development. These snails are calyptraeid gastropods in genera like Crepidula, Calyptraea, and Crucibulum. I was shown two projects that are ongoing in the lab: (1) a multiple mating experiment where females are allowed to mate with multiple males. The number and size of eggs will be recorded to see if mating with multiple partners affects these traits. (2) A seasonality study. A lot is known about the size of snail offspring in the wet season when waters are cooler, but not a lot is known about the offspring during the dry season (now). Someone needs to collect larvae and eggs during the dry season and rear them, checking for size and other qualities. So far it's hard to say, but I think I will be doing research based on the latter topic because there is already a year's worth of data and I can easily collect gastropods in the field now.

     I was also told that I have a responsibility I was not expecting. I have to make a video about anything I want in the lab so it can be posted on the lab YouTube channel. I can make a "how to culture green algae" video (they grow algae in the lab to feed the snails), a welcome video for new interns, a Spanglish rap about snail sex, a funny documentary about the cab driver who sells us lunch each afternoon... anything! I don't know where to begin. But I'm glad to have this project because it will be fun to make and will be a great way to remember my studies here.

    This weekend I thought I was going to work in the field since apparently there will be the lowest tides of the whole year. But plans got changed and we are not doing that, so either I will have to go out and have some fun by myself (which is hard because there are no good beaches around here, so I'd have to take a cab somewhere and I'm too cheap to do that) or I will go site-seeing in the city! I have seen many double-decker touring buses and I might have to hop on one just to familiarize myself with the area. As much as I hate being a tourist, it's good to know about where I am. Other than that I plan to buy fruit at the nearby fruit market, find a cheap bike, Skype another potential graduate advisor, and run up Cerro Ancon at least twice in a row, read Rachel's papers on snails and maybe a bit about Life, the Universe, and Everything.

Hasta pronto!

Travel and Arrival

I love keeping travel journals! Since I spend so much time on my computer, keeping a blog seemed like the way to go this time.

Today I arrived in Panama! But before that, I spent about ten hours travelling, met an interesting American fellow who lives in Panama for three months at a time because he returns to the US for internet at this interval (seem inefficient),read about how to hitchhike in the galaxy, met my research advisor, had a nice chat with my cab driver in Spanish (cab drivers are great for practicing Spanish because they are accustomed to dealing with tourists), plopped down in my apartment, met my roommate (Claudia, from Colombia), took a cold shower (which is the only kind of shower I imagine I will be taking for the next several months), and went online to deal with my life as if I had not just moved 3,581 miles away.

Tomorrow I will get to see everything in the sunlight! I have no expectations other than expecting everything to be like it was last time I was here two years ago. Haha. Overall I am very happy and excited.

Hasta manaña! <3