Last day on Barro Colorado island

This is last day on the island and I wish I could stay longer. I have one more broadcast at 12:30 to Hazal Elementary. Our boat leaves at 3:40 and we will go back to panama city. Tomorrow we are going to see ships go through the panama canal locks.

One of my mom's favorite sayings is that education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. All of the people here who have helped me learned so much really have the gift of lighting a fire in a kid. Those people are Jackie and Greg Willis, Katrina, Nancy, anna and Harry and I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank them for this awesome experience.

More from panama tomorrow.

The panama canal

The island that we are on is actually the top of a mountain that was flooded when lake gatun was created for the panama canal. The canal was built between 1904 and 1914 and it is 45 miles long. The canal lets ships pass from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. Before that, ships would have to travel an extra 8,000 miles and go around the bottom of South America. The canal has three locks and it takes about 15 hours to go thru the whole canal. From the Institute, we can see ships going towards the canal or away from the canal. I'm leaving right now to hike to the eastern edge of the island where you can see ships close up.

The rainforest is alive

One of the most awesome thingsbhere is that if you stay quiet and standstill for a couple of minutes, you begin to see all kinds of mammals, birds, insects and monkeys. I have gone on one or two long hikes thru the rainforest every day and have seen five different kinds of birds: toucans, parrots, fly catchers, guanos, and squirrel coo-coos. I've seen howler monkeys, capachin monkeys and yesterday I saw a spider monkey and her baby. There're lots of agouti around. An agouti is a rodent that is maybe 10 pounds. It's head looks like a like a squirrel except it has a longer snout and tiny ears. Really funny looking. They don't bother you if you don't bother them.

Bats

There are 72 species of bats on this island and they eat Mosquitos. The most awesome thing about bats is that they have built in sonar just like a submarine. The bats emit a sound thru their nose that is directed at a specific object like a tree. The sound bounces back to their ears which tells them where they are in relation to the object. This navigation system is how bats can detect bugs. But they also have an excellent nose and can smell mice, birds and reptiles. But bats also have a lot of enemies like owls, snakes, hawks, and eagles so it's a good thing they can fly so fast.

Vinny the Vine Snake

I've learned a lot about snakes around here. The only one that is deadly is called a ferdelance. Other snakes have venom, but not enough to hurt a human. Even though the mouth of a snake is very small, it has ligaments at the back of it's jaws and on the side that let the snake open it's mouth very wide and swallow small reptiles. We caught a small vine snake on Sunday and I have held him in all of the broadcasts to schools. I've named him Vinny. He is rare because he has a prehensile tail that let's him wrap around branches and vines so that his head can reach little lizards.

Predators

The mammals I have see so far are the tamandua which is an anteater that feeds on ants and termites.  The head, legs, and tail are grey, but the body is black which makes it look like it is wearing a vest.  I have also seen several agouti which is a large rodent maybe around 15 pounds with a big round belly, short ears and no tail.  And I saw a brocket deer for just a second before it got scared and ran away.  I haven't seen any big cats  like the ocelot and margay because they go out only at night.

TV broadcast day

Tuesday morning, some high school teachers and students from panama came to the island to be in a rainforest broadcast to some schools in new jersey. The students talked about the history of the island and all of the different animal and plant species here. I got to spend some time at lunch with Miquel who is in 9th grade. We are going to connect up again on psp2 when I get home. These teachers and students were so nice and very friendly. The Panamanian people treat you like you are family or old friends. I have a lot of photos that I will post later today.

Hiking in the Rainforest

On Monday morning Greg Willis took me for a 3 I'm hike thru the rainforest. You have to pull your socks over the bottom of long pants and then put on hiking boots. I sprayed deet all over my boots and socks to keep the ticks and chiggers off. All the hiking trails have one direction which is up. Greg showed me howler monkeys that look like they weigh 20 pounds, but sound like they are as big as gorillas. The rainforest is awesome and it is alive with all kinds of mammals and insects and plants and trees. One tree is called a ceiba and there are orange blossoms at the end of each branch. Usually around 5 pm, the capachin monkeys swing over to the ceiba trees and drink the nectar from the blooms.
When you walk thru the forest you have to keep your voice at a whisper so that you don't scare off the animals. I saw my second anteater which dropped from a tree about 5 feet from where I was standing.

First days in panama

We left New Jersey Saturday night and flew 2200 miles to Panama City where we spent our first night at a hotel on the outskirts of the city. The next morning, I had a wonderful panamanian breakfast of steak and onions covered by fried eggs. Our driver to the Gamboa boat dock was a man named Jose and he gave us an excellent explanation on how the panama canal locks work and we watched a container ship and oil tanker begin to move into the canal. We then boarded a high speed water taxi and took the 30 minute trip to Barro Colorado Island. When we arrived at the dock, we were greeted by many people including Greg Willis, who is Jackie willis' husband. The two of them have been conducting a mammal survey on this island for 19 years. Also at the dock were three NJ school teachers, Harry, Anna and Nancy. Greg and Harry took our luggage up to the dorm where we are staying and Nancy and Anna took us on a tour of some of the buildings like the Smithsonian Labs and the Dining hall. Back down at the docks we saw a hole dug by a crocodile to have a place to lay her eggs. But there was also an ignuana's tail in the hole. The crocodile is nesting in the same area that iguana's nest and they seem to be battling over the nesting hole. We could see the crocodile in the water. Very big. Very dangerous. Around 5pm, we went and saw capuchin monkeys and then an anteater on a tree. We watched the anteater for a long time and i got really close. Later that night Greg and I went out looking for turantulas and found a few burrowed into the side of the hill.