Day 1 - 2017-09-02
Arrival, Conch Sampling Day 1, Sweet Bocas
This post is going to be all about my week in Bocas del Toro (BDT). BDT Tip #1: Travel light! You literally have to if you're flying up from Panama City because there is a 14kg weight limit per passenger. Another tip for those who fly: be patient. As quoted from a member of Team Bocas [see end of post], Air Panama tends to run more like a bus station than an airport. |
Once we'd unloaded all of our gear, we went on a brief tour of the BDT STRI research station (see photos above) and had a general safety meeting. We then piled into the truck to head into Bocas town (right) for breakfast and lunch grocery shopping. I stuck with granola, bread, peanut butter, jelly, cheese, and milk. I figured I'd make up any missing calories when we went out for dinner each night haha. | |
After depositing our groceries back at the station, we grabbed our gear and went for a snorkel to try and find some conch! This was my first time snorkeling and it was absolutely fantastic! So much to see darting in and out of the mangroves, and we were very successful in our hunt for conch :D
| Afterwards Aaron took us to a spot called Sweet Bocas where he'd excavated a really old (5-7,000 years old to be precise) coral site. The site was filled in a few years ago to create a man-made private lake, but lots of the corals were still visible in the footpaths and sidewalks throughout the compound. We also sampled some pipas, super tasty young green coconuts. |
Once we'd finished touring Sweet Bocas, Aaron took us to a lovely little spot to do some sunset snorkeling. I was overwhelmed by the success of our very first day, so I stayed on the boat and took some pictures (above).
Day 2 - 2017-09-03
Isla Popa Fossil Hunting &
Conch Sampling Day 2 (Cayo Agua)
We had two objectives for Day 2: visit Isla Popa and look for fossils and collect some more conch, living and dead (explained in photos below). We achieved both of those goals in some truly gorgeous weather, and celebrated the success of the day by stopping at the Hotel Maccabite for some drinks and some water sliding.
DAY 3-4 - 2017-09-03-04
Sitio Drago & Conch Sampling Day 3 (Boca del Drago)
Day 3 was all about Boca del Drago, the most northern spur of Isla Colon. Tom has years of experience working in this area, called Sitio Drago, and we got to tour the sites where he's hosted field schools and archaeological digs to learn more about this area. After our surverying in the forest, and an amazing lunch at the local restaurant, we snorkeled for more living Strombus pugilis at a nearby beach.
We also took a little detour between the Sitio Drago archaeological site and snorkeling for more conch to visit Isla Pajaros/Swan Cay. This little island at the mouth of the archipelago and hosts both native and migratory birds. It felt so Jurassic Park-y, and only two of us braved the choppy waters to go have a look around on land. I've left the pictures of Swan Cay below without captions - they are just too pretty to have anything obscuring them.
Day 4 for me was all about sampling Tom's archaeological materials that were housed back at the station (see below). While Aaron and I stayed behind, the rest of the group took a tour of Cerro Brujo, another of Tom's sites. Unfortunately, they strayed on an unfamiliar path and couldn't find the site, but still had a lovely day of hiking in the rainforest. Those boots gave some nasty blisters, but lots of snorkeling in salt water helped get them healing pretty quickly. |
DAY 5 - 2017-09-05
SHARK TOOTH DAY
I think everyone in Team Bocas 2017 agreed that Shark Tooth Day was the most epic day of the entire trip. Aaron is working on a project that requires some fossil shark teeth, so off to find some we went! We traveled to the southern-most area of Bocas del Toro, sort of in between Cayo Agua and that little spur of mainland Panama that juts out into Laguna de Chiriqui. There we jumped onto a little pile of dirt that Aaron nicknamed Finger Island (apparently it used to look more like an appendage). We dug around here for shark teeth before adventuring onto the tiny lush nearby islands, and here we hunted some more for those illusive little pointy bits left behind by sharks hundreds of thousands of years ago. We also did quite a bit of quality snorkeling, and even relaxed by some neat little tide pools filled with sergeant majors, gobies, and blennies. What a way to end the trip for Team Bocas :D
DAY 6-7 - 2017-09-06-07
At the Station
Sadly, most of the group had to return to Panama City on September 7th. I stuck around the station till September 9th to sample the live conch tissue and make sure everything was neatly organized packed for export. HUGE shoutout to Matt Leray for helping me figure out how to relax my snails before cutting off some of their tissue. Even if they don't have a central nervous system, you should be kind to your study species :)
I'll end this blog post by acknowledging all of the awesome members of Team Bocas 2017. It was such a treat to work alongside these kind, funny, and brilliant scientists, and I genuinely hope we'll continue working together in our future endeavors. Thank you all for your time sampling with me and Aaron in BDT, and for your pictures as well :) Cheers everyone, hopefully I'll see you all again sometime soon!
Team Bocas 2017
Aaron O'Dea - STRI Staff Scientist
Thomas Wake - UCLA Director of Zooarchaeology Lab
Ashley Sharpe - STRI Staff Scientist
Nicole Smith-Guzman - STRI Post-doc
Suzette Flantua - STRI Short-term Fellow
Jarrod Scott - Bigelow Lab Post-doc
Matthieu Leray - STRI Post-doc
Wilmer Elvir - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras
Brigida de Gracia - STRI O'Dea Lab Research Technician
Thomas Wake - UCLA Director of Zooarchaeology Lab
Ashley Sharpe - STRI Staff Scientist
Nicole Smith-Guzman - STRI Post-doc
Suzette Flantua - STRI Short-term Fellow
Jarrod Scott - Bigelow Lab Post-doc
Matthieu Leray - STRI Post-doc
Wilmer Elvir - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras
Brigida de Gracia - STRI O'Dea Lab Research Technician