While some students were apprehensive (and excited) about being in rainforest field station with no a generator for electricity (for part of the day) and no hot water, I think all really enjoyed being there. And, as we said, at the parent meeting, its a good site to start. We’re all together, students and leaders get to know each other and its a good environment for the group to bond and form an identity. Despite the somewhat compressed time, I was very pleased with the student projects. They were doing final edits today on there reports and I hope to share many of them at this website. There is another way you’ll get to chance to see the student projects, but I’ll leave that a mystery for now.
I’m in Panama City now, and away from the group as I’m putting my son Joey on a plane for Boston tomorrow, to go back to school. I’ll rejoin the group by dinner tomorrow by flying to David, the nearest airport to Cerro Punta, and getting transpiration up to where we’re staying. The journey for the group tomorrow is very interesting in that, after a 45 minute boat ride, the group will get on a bus in steamy Almirante, and over the course of 2 hours, or so, climb steadily to the continental divide. They will transition from a steamy lowland rainforest regime to a much cooler climate at the height of the divide that is 3,ooo to 4,000 feet (estimate). At the other side of the divide, the area is in dry season, and as they descend to Pacific plain it will get hotter, dryer and very brown compare to area around ITEC. In contrast to the Caribbean drainage, the land is dotted with with farms and ranches and most of the land is cleared. After shopping in David for food for breakfast an snacks, the group will get back in the bus and climb to the area of Cerro Punta and to one of the farthest towns in the area, Guadalupe. The town itself is over 6,000 feet, but we’ll be staying at an even higher altitude—between 6,500 to 7,000 feet. It can be quite cool there and it is often precipitating there, although often its a form of mist and not heavy rain. I’ll let the students describe there accommodations at a later point; they won’t be disappointed.
For program there, we start with orientation, comparative forest ecology, science and natural history. Dr. Peter Lahanas is with us for these first two days. There will also be time set aside for individual student initiatives. The last two full days will focus more on agriculture, land use, history and labor, but we will integrate all elements each day during our time at in the town of Guadalupe.
Internet has not been available at all in the past during our stay in the cabins. There may be a gap in ur updates. I’ll try to have more photos in future updates. Thank for your support.
Steve