This week has included Panama, Carnaval, a chocolate factory, and a lot of traveling. We left Las Cruces (the biological station) on Tuesday morning and headed for Panama. We crossed the border near the Panamanian town of David, which is in the northwest corner of Panama. We got to the border and had no trouble getting our “you’re-leaving-Costa-Rica” stamp, but we needed to wait four hours to get the “ok-show-us-your-credit-card-welcome-to-Panama” stamp. It was a long wait that was not made any more fun by the perpetual smell of urine, the immense numbers of people and the heat. We finally got to our hotel in David and I ate my weight in arroz con pollo, while my considerably larger professor managed to eat just half of his serving. It was an important moment because I proved that there is almost no limit to how much I can eat when I’m hungry.
The next morning, we drove all the way across Panama, from West to East, to visit the Naso Territory. The Naso are an indigenous people who have, unlike indigenous groups in Costa Rica, never been displaced and still live in their traditional lands. Also unlike groups in Costa Rica, Panama has not recognized the Naso and their land is not considered an indigenous territory. A huge hydroelectric dam is planned for their river and we were there to live in the community and hear about the problems faced by indigenous populations in Panama, which are quite different from those in Costa Rica. We arrived in a tiny town and climbed down a cliff where our dugout canoes were waiting. These canoes fit about six people and had outboard motors in the back and a guy with a bamboo pole in the front for the areas that were too shallow for the motor’s rudder. The hour-long ride up the river was really incredible; it was so nice to be on the water and the few sections of rapids and the times I got to help bail out the back of the canoe were memorable to say the least.
We spent two days living with the Naso in a re-appropriated army camp. Panama used to have an elite jungle force that trained in the Naso territory, but they abolished their army and the land was turned back over to the Naso, so they use the barracks to house guests like us. We took “showers” in the river, being careful not to let our shampoo bottles float away and we took a boat trip each day to visit and learn about a different part of the community.
On Saturday, we left the Naso, again by boat but this time with the current, and drove to Bocas del Toro. Bocas is a very touristy archipelago in the northeast corner of Panama and we were headed there for a day and a half of R and R. We arrived in a tiny, run-down town and got on (another) boat, this time a slightly more modern marine taxi and took at twenty minute, high speed ride to the main island where we stayed. We spent that night enjoying the sights, sounds and tastes of Carnaval, the Latin American version of Mardi Gras. All the students and I, plus our TA took a bus to one of the more remote beaches on Sunday. Starfish beach was a half-hour bus ride and a twenty minute walk from the main street, but the water was crystal clear, the starfish were huge and we even got to see two wild(?) pigs emerge from the forest. That morning, my friend Allison and I made two loaves of bread’s worth of PB&J, so I ate four and a half sandwiches, played in the water and got bitten by ants. It was a nice day that ended with dinner and a bar with our professors. Monday morning began with yet another boat ride back to the mainland and a bus ride to the border. This time it took us less than fifteen minutes to leave Panama, cross a bridge and enter Costa Rica. We were shocked and very pleased and continued on our way to visit the Bribri indigenous community in the southeast corner of Costa Rica. We arrived, realized that the lowlands of the Caribbean are a zillion times more humid than the Pacific mountains we’re used to, and got acclimated to our fifth “home” in seven days. We spent the afternoon visiting an indigenous cacao farm and a factory run by a group of women to produce and sell chocolate. We all saw the whole process, from tree (cacao fruit is really sweet and delicious and nothing like chocolate at all) to bean to chocolate. It was, as you can imagine, really dark chocolate so I was sneezing my fool head off, but I tried it anyway. It was really interesting to learn about a very matriarchal society and the ways in which women there have taken the lead and created a stable economy from the cacao production.
Today we had a visit to a Bribri ceremonial center in the morning (in boats again), then one last four hour bus ride to La Selva, the other, larger biological station I have not yet seen. We’ll be at La Selva until Saturday and we’ll write a huge paper and take midterms there, in addition to some jungle exploring. Then back to San Jose on Saturday to kill a couple days with my host family and Cartegena with Gabe on Tuesday! These few weeks are certainly busy and so exciting! I'll post photos soon, but it's just too overwhelming right now. Talk to you all soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment