BAMBI and Canopy Tower

On Thursday, I went back to Barro Colorado Island--the pristine tropical forest in the man-made Lake Gatun in the Panama Canal. There is a weekly seminar named BAMBI where visiting scientists give an hour presentation on their research. This time I went to hear about some amazing field experiments being done on corals in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The link there is a BBC special that includes about 20 mins of coverage of this experiment. The general question being asked is: Will low pH oceans destroy corals? The short answer is yes. And the pH of our ocean is definitely decreasing.

We climbed a big tower before the talk, depicted in the following pictures.

The ascent.

Alternate view during the ascent. The tower is about 50 m up. 

Me at the top.

On Friday there was a big, free salsa concert starring Gilberto Santa Rosa. It was really great music and I danced until the skin on my feet was peeling! I basically repeated this dancing madness on Saturday night when I went downtown and danced salsa for about another three hours.

Then today I went to Gamboa with friends to climb a tall canopy tower. There was an excellent view of the canal at the top. It was really relaxing and fun. I really love being here and am so blessed to have met extremely considerate, intelligent, passionate people who love to share time with each other.

The path to the canopy tower.

View from the top of the canopy tower in Gamboa.

The view from the other side of the top of the canopy tower, showing the canal.