Panama Update #21
August 4, 2008
Nikki returned from her long weekend in Bocas del Toro. It is on the Caribbean side of Panama and is 32 km from the Costa Rican border. When Christopher Columbus visited there in 1502, he was so taken by the beauty of the area that he named many sites after himself. In the 17th century it became a huge haven for pirates. They would repair their ships with the wood from the islands and eat the many sea turtles who nested on the beaches. Legend has it that they buried many treasures on the islands.
Bocas has become Panama's principal tourism spot, although because of the scientific connections Nikki had there, she got to experience the authentic side of it. She stayed in a simple wooden house which is used for research, and got to see the lifestyle of the people. There are no roads, so the people travel by boat everywhere. The boats are carved out of the tree trunks and are rounded at the bottom so they are very difficult to maneuver. The people there have no trouble with it, since they learn how to paddle from the time they are young children. She said even the kids paddle themselves in the boats to get to school every day, like the kids in the US would ride their bicycles. She collected rock samples by jumping off the boat and swimming to rocks near the shore that the boat can't get to. She brought her geology hammer and chipped off samples, put them in bags and made notes of them. She said she saw dolphins, tropical fish, dodo birds, and schools of anchovies and needle fish jumping out of the water.
