Island Adventures

Traveling to Panama was a little crazy. When we got to the boarder we had to all get off the bus and stand in line for customs and then walk across this old train bridge that had open gaps. Then we had to stand and wait on the otherside for the bus. Officials got on and looked around our bus. Finally we got back on and then had to drive to the little port where packed all our backpacks on a boat at night and got in a different boat to drive to the island. We arrived late at night and ate an immediate dinner.

We stayed on the island Boca del Drago in Panama in several houses. At the end of the island by us there was a fancy house that was owned by a banana plantation owner. The food was really good. I remember fresh fish, coconut rice, fried bread fruit, which kind of tasted like french fries. While in Panama we learned about some island species but did a lot of snorkeling. It was AMAZING. We went to a bird island too. An island where a lot of different sea birds go to nest. That same day we went to a beach that had hundreds of star fish. it was incredible. You looked out of the boat and the water was crystal clear and there's star fish everywhere. It took me a while to feel confident snorkeling and learn to dive down because I've never been a confident swimmer, but it's so different in salt water you float so much easier along the top i could skim over the tops of the reef at close proximity. Of course you never wanted to touch it because that can and will kill the coral.

Something else remarkable but sad that we saw is coral bleaching. It's when the coral turns white because it is dead. Coral are very fragile. they need a certain temperature range to survive. and while they can live through some temperature flux, extended periods of too-warm water temperatures can kill the coral and the coral turns white, coral bleaching. The higher than normal water temperatures are believe to be evidence of climate change and it's impacts. Some of it is quite rapid. The very corals we looked at were fine when the teachers were last there so it happened in less than a year. We saw so many fish and sea creatures, dolphins, some people saw a nurse shark, only with biologists someone yells "SHARK" and everyone swims toward the person/shark! :)

I also trashed one of my cameras in Panama. I changed out the battery and didn't realize I caught the cord in the battery compartment. I dove in, started taking pictures and it stopped working! (it was a waterproof camera) I hopped out to discover my mistake. It's not water proof if the battery compartment is open, and salt water is corrosive. Boo. Luckily the water didn't damage the memory card so I was still able to have all the pictures I'd taken up to that point. We went into town one day in Panama where we got to eat lunch, and I bought some jewelry. Panama was gorgeous and relaxing and amazing.