Panama Update #44
September 8, 2008
Over the weekend, with Nikki still out on the research vessle, I wanted to do a few activities, rather than spend too much time in our little dorm apartment. Friday I went shopping and bought groceries for the week and also bought a few things to send to Nikki on the boat. At lunch on Thursday I had met a woman who would be going to Nikki's research vessel for 3 days and she offered to take some things to her. She works in the communications department here and was going to take some pictures and do a story on their trip, since they are visiting an area (Kuna Yala or San Blas) that hasn't been researched in this way before. I sent some fig bars, canned pineapples, and snack mix, things I thought she would not have on the boat. When she comes back on Thursday (Sept. 11), she can restock before she leaves again on the 14th for another week.
On Saturday I went to out to the vegetarian restaurant that we had gone to before with 3 others from the dormitory. One was a scientist from Quito, Ecuador who studies how natural parks are managed. Quito has about 1.5 million people and is the capital of Ecuador. At about 3000 meters (10,000 ft.), Quito is the second highest elevaton for a capital city in the world, after La Paz, Bolivia. Another woman who went is a Ph.D student from the Univeristy of Florida, and Yasmin also went since David is on the boat with Nikki and she also wanted to get out and do some activities. The dorm has a total of 8 rooms and can house 24 if every bed was filled. Some apartments hold 2 people and some hold 4 people. Some people come for a week or two and some stay for several months. After being there for 2 months, I think we are the senior people in the dorm, so we have seen a lot of people come and go. Scientists from all over the world come here and stay in the dorm, studying many different areas of the land and sea. For example, yesterday a scientist arrived from Finland and her specialty is ferns. She is doing some kind of survey of ferns in the canal area since it is so diverse. Others specialize in fish, insects, marine biology, and much more.
Sunday morning I showed 2 others the large fruit and vegetable market that is within walking distance of the dorm. On Sunday night, the same group of us that went to lunch on Saturday went to see a movie. The four of us got a taxi to the theatre. Because it was Sunday and also raining, it took a while to catch the taxi, but they only charged about 3 dollars for all of us to go downtown, which is pretty cheap. It was a free independent film festival and we saw a 90 minute movie from Mexico called El Violin. There were only about a dozen people in the audience. It had a gentle pace for the most part with some violence sprinkled in. It was about the struggle of a revolutionary group fighting against the government's army. The main character was an old man who played the violin on the streets for money. One day he met up with the leader of the government army squad and was forced to play violin for him everyday. He started sneaking out little bits of ammunition in his violin case to give to the rebel forces. It was seemingly going well for a while, but he did not realize he was being followed and in the end gave away the hiding place of the rebels. The movie was in Spanish, but I could understand enough of it to get the plot.
