2025 PIIP

 The long-awaited beach day! It was a blast and then some. To be honest with you I was worried about being too afraid to dive into the ocean or even being stung or bitten by the marine life. I am glad nothing life threatening happened, but I hope those who needed medical attention are well.  Everything about today was really exciting and reinforced the "once in a lifetime" vibe I get from being part of this project and cohort. It lives up to past stories I got to hear from students who took part in PIIP last year. I was surprised the beach was as fun as it was since generally, I am not a very outgoing person but, I did get to express the more athletic side of myself through swimming and that more or less set the tone for my time at the beach.  We ended our beach adventure with a speedy boat ride back to Batipa, having to cross through a rainstorm! I was stunned by the sheer force of the wind and waves, even at this small sample size. It makes me grateful we rarely have to...

  During day seven we had to grind and get through our soil samples. It was fun but tiring, looking for Testate Amoeba is a difficult task since my eyes are not inclined to see the many different species. I have little to no experience doing anything that has to do with microscopes. It is good to gain this skill since Biology for me is right around the corner in terms of my degree plan.  When we finished the night was pretty relaxing. I got to go fish with Jari and an electrician that I have not met yet, but I'll see soon enough. I caught a Snapper Fish! It was my first catch in the Pacific Ocean, it was cool. I wanted some Salmon- jk. 

Today was the best day so far. Kind of improves each morning. I like it since today we started out with kayaking. It felt great to get out and do some rowing. Sandy and I flipped over on accident. We were rocking back and forth, and we went under! It was scary at first, it made me jump but the water was much cooler than I thought it would be. I was wondering if it was going to be warm similar to a bath, I guess.  It was a good swim, cooling down was very much appreciated. We ended up jumping off the pier making it even cooler. In the end a couple of us had to race up to finish our microscope work looking for Testate Amoeba (TA).  No kidding, 5-minutes later we were submerged, and Sandy lost a nice water bottle.  This is a sample photo of a TA called Cyclopyxis. It is noticeable due to the circle in the center almost forming a donut shape, making it more recognizable to me.  

Today was interesting and super tiring. Our group got to see Edmundos (Batipa Director) on the tour of the lands. It was super informal! It kind of ignites a fire in my mind where I would attempt to replicate this model of innovation and research with hopes of providing a similar experience to this trip. The research here is very cool, and I really appreciate how Edmundo is crazy about his work and the goals, the people, and this place. We got to tour their cattle, some fields for their crops, and the lumber mill where they briefly described their business. This is all super interesting to me since the work here can make a real difference in different ways. I also love the Ngobe Bugle guides! Victoria helped us swiftly move through the forest. It was harder today since our hike was extended but not by much. We made it up about 50% of the conservation area. Collecting our samples was sweaty work! Very annoying but we get to do it, you know? I’m grateful for the opportunity. Back to Vi...

    Today was crazy since we got lost… Day one doing field work and we got cooked by the forest. If you haven’t heard of it already then, Dimaris, Virginia, and I were saved by Destry, Roberto, and Daisy of the Ngobe Bugle tribes. They were able to find us from the footprints, and they followed them until they finally ran into us, at that point the trio of us on standby at the conservation site were talking about anything and everything nature. Lowkey was free therapy since we share a similar type of connection to our respected home environments. Since we had to wait some time for our saviors, I got to learn how to use one of the tools to record some of the data we needed.  It was even hotter this afternoon compared to any time before. The best thing I saw today on our hikes was the tiny plants under a handheld microscope. It was very similar to being in the plane and flying over the different houses and farmlands. I want to get some more images since this was to me s...

 One the second day in Panama I dealt with the tail end of my jetlag. I was coming out of a brief cold as my body was catching up with me. Which is fine since a small group of us got to spend some time walking around Panama. It was actually really cool considering it was my first time seeing and feeling how different Panama is from the US- namely the traffic!  The traffic is crazy, the weather is crazy, and the food is crazy. Everything about Panama on day two was good. It was really humid walking around Casco Viejo which saw me burn through a t-shirt and sweat a ton. It took a minute to get used to, but it was nice being out in the sun. Remember the crazy weather? Yeah, it rained like crazy making it super aesthetically pleasing if you're into that image. Otherwise, being drenched kind of causes problems. Luckily, we had one more night and I could hang dry some of my clothes.  Finishing day two, I took my math 96 final exam and hopefully nailed it! Nothing too crazy to s...