Panama

PANAMA CITY — BOCAS DEL TORO — BOQUETE — DAVID

Panama, where do I start?? I love Panama, it is a vibrant and exciting city with the famous Panama Canal and one of the fastest growing banking industries. The countryside and beaches are stunning, the wildlife is abundant and it reminds me of what Costa Rica was like before it became overrun with tourism.

Bocas Del Toro is an archipelago off the northeast shore of Panama near Costa Rica on the Caribbean.

Our beach is beautiful, I get to look at this every day, all day!

Our Coral Reef Ecology Class out on the reef.

Our Coral Reef instructor Al

Liz and I in the lab, there are old Apple IIe computers under those covers!

This is what happens when you put down your beer!

Poppy Romero’s house saw a few parties!

We are just laying in the shallow water talking.

View of our home

Some of the rustic cabins.

Fer de lance, or three step viper because you die three steps after being bitten. It’s considered one of the most dangerous snake in the Western Hemisphere!

One of my favorite places to sit and read in the late afternoon.

Our room with the big nets and our parrot friends.

The town of Bocas from the water.

Finally out after a week at the lab! Party time in Bocas town, there were lots of great little bars.

Back home and a party at Poppy Romeros.

Love the late afternoon sun while we waited for the dinner bell. I loved eating fish, rice and beans everyday.

I didn’t like when these guys would “click” into our room at night!

A weekend trip to Volcan Baru with a beautiful hike.

So many beautiful waterfalls, rivers, flowers and butterflies.

Great picture, we were in the cloud forest.

We loved the hot springs all over, felt great after all the hiking.

The stop sign looks different!

One of my favorite pictures! We were so excited to head to town for the weekend again!

Until the bus got stuck in the mud….

But we made it out and into Bocas town bars.

My girl Tiffany in the Primates Class.

Relaxing on our stoop.

Studying with my classmates.

Cool underwater pic.

Coming back from a hike…muddy hike to see the Howler Monkeys we hear all day.

The sunsets were crazy! Too beautiful for words.

The whole group, all the classes together for a farewell picture. What a great adventure and learning experience. Thank you ITEC-Institute for Tropical Ecology and Conservation, I learned so much from my few hours under water everyday, recaps after dinner, lectures, experiments, research and papers on Coral Reef Ecology course.