Panama Update #1
July 11, 2008
I arrived with all my luggage in Panama on time at about 11:00 PM after the flight was delayed at the start for one hour from Minneapolis because of a severe thunderstorm. Panama is in the same time zone as Minneapolis. In the airport in Panama City it cost 5 dollars to get a temporary tourist visa and customs went quickly. Carts for the luggage were hard to find and I found out later that the porters purposely withhold the carts so they can ask you for a dollar for helping you carry the suitcases. Nikki had arranged for a taxi and rode with the taxi driver so she was waiting for me in the airport. It reminded me of when she met me in Ethiopia last fall with the taxi driver.
When I stepped outside of the terminal I immediately was hit with the high humidity. The temperature stays about about 80% humidity and 80 degrees for most of the 24 hours during the rainy season. There are two seasons in Panama- rainy and dry. The rainy season is from May to November. It has been very overcast and there is usually a rain late in the afternoon, though the duration and heaviness varies from day to day. AC is necessary and it is quite cool inside of the apartment and office buildings.
Nikki is allowed to stay in an 8 unit studio apartment run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute for the first few months until we find a bigger apartment. It is inexpensive (about $350 a month) and only a 5 minute walk to her office and is located in the middle of the rain forest, outside of the downtown area. There are all sorts of strange sounds from the birds and animals at night. There are also strange little animals running around in the forest like squirrels but they look like giant rats. I am sure we will see many more types of birds and animals. The apartment is simple and small with a kitchen and bathroom and a tiled concrete floor. It reminds me of the Ashram in India. They have very high security at the Smithsonian so our apartment building is heavily fenced in and guarded and called La Howla (the jail). There is a fruit and vegetable market within walking distance and it has everything from papayas, pineapples, bananas, and mangos to onions, hot peppers, carrots, brocolli and much more.
The daylight hours are from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM here year-round. They seem short coming from the long daylight in the Minnesota summer now but will be nice in the winter.
On my first day, yesterday, we got a lot done. Nikki introduced me to the librarian at the Smithsonian who wants to organize some Yoga classes which would start next week. He said there is a big group interested, so we will see what happens.
She then took me to a shopping mall which is in the downtown, more well-to-do area. The streets are kind of littered as you drive around the city and the diesel fumes from the heavy traffic can be irritating. There are older, rundown buildings but also many new buildings. There are many new, huge condominium skyscrapers downtown fueled by all the retirees from Europe and the US, but it feels like they are overbuilding and the market bubble could burst at any time. The mall is pretty similar to a shopping mall in the US, with restaurants, stores, and movie theaters. There is a kosher grocery store in the mall which has a nice restaurant where you can get falafel sandwiches, hummus, and Israeli salad. We got some money from a cash machine there and it easily accepts our debit cards for up to $500 a time.
We also went to a bank and got many one dollar bills since they are used to pay the taxi drivers. You can go almost anywhere in the city for $2, although like most places, they try to get more money from you. The best thing is just to give them $2 and get out, without asking or saying anything.
Today we went to see what they call the Casco Viejo or Old City. It is on the water and has a beautiful view of the downtown skyline, and you can see all the ships lined up to go through the canal.
Nikki goes out to the canal for field work about 3-4 days a week. Because it is so warm they start at 6:00 AM and gets back to the office in the late afternoon. She will talk more about her work in future emails. Nikki says that the Panama Canal is amazing and so is the geology. Two of the questions that her research group is working on are: Are macroevolutionary patterns of tropical forests correlated to climatic perturbations and how did different scales of space and time affect those patterns and their underlying processes?
