ITEC Final Day
We’re safely in Panama City. We arrived at our hotel (Selina Casco Viejo) around 8 pm. we split into groups to eat dinner. Before boarding our plane for Panama City we spent the part of the afternoon in the town Bocas, an old banana industry town much changed by tourism. It was a sharp contrast to our away-from-everything experience at ITEC. It would be an understatement to say our Internet was feeble and intermittent (and that was confined to times when the generator was
Air Panama at Bocas Airport
on). That said, the ITEC field station was great place for us to really immerse our ourselves in the natural surroundings.
Soropta Canal
Ben leading the charge
Yesterday we went on a boat ride up the Soropta Canal, a canal built by the Snyder brothers tin the early 1900’s to transport bananas. Their efforts led them to found the somewhat infamous United Fruit Company (now Chiquita Banana). This narrow canal is in disuse now and now part of the large San San Pondsak National Preserve. We saw many birds, lizards and got out at point to walk the ocean. In the evening a visiting scientist showed us bat mist netting. While the mosquitoes were a challenge she did catch four different bat species. Earlier in the we had a guest talk by Clara Rowe on her work on palm oil production and sustainability in term of preserving forest as well as providing income and quality of life for those who live in the area where palm oil is produced. Another night a PhD student, who is staying at ITEC, shared her work on impact of tourism and development on the communities on in the Boca del Drago area of Ísla Cólon.
Students presented their projects this morning, and I am impressed by their commitment to their projects, their follow-through through formal written reports and presentations and by the overall quality of their work. I will making final edits before sharing projects on the website. You may not see them until after the we return home.
3 Amigas
Tomorrow we’ll do some debriefing and sharing but we really do want the students to have the opportunity to explore this section of Panama City and to enjoy themselves. While students have had many free moments, they haven’t had a free day since we left for Panama in February. I haven’t heard any complaints though. They’ll be seeing you all very soon.
–Steve