Ok, I suppose I should update everyone as it has been a few days. For that I apologize, but hey, I'm tryin' to work here!

So on Saturday, we decided that I need to shift roles. This Panama topic is going to persist as an option for schools to learn/teach for 2 more years. However we need "updates" for content over the next year and I'm here, I'm in charge of year two, so I've been sprung from my old job and now must go find scientists and see what they are up to.

But who takes my old job?

Turns out I have an intern in Boston who was just keeping the fires burning at the office. I called him at 3:30pm on Saturday and told him to come to Panama within 24 hours. Man, that was by far the coolest call I have ever made on the phone, I'm sure it was the coolest he ever received. So we set him in motion to jet down here ASAP and headed off to Gamboa Resort for the night.

Getting back to pseudo-5-star civilization was a bit of a shock. I really like things on BCI and the false "You are in a Rainforest!!!!" feel of the resort, well, sucks.

And then I saw my room.

It was a "villa" about a block away from the hotel in what looks like an old Key West style gated community. My "room" was basically an apartment the size of me and Erin's spot in Boston. I have never before taken a picture of my hotel room, but I did now (sorry, no time for images). Full living room, kitchen, big bedroom, A/C, swanky!

I didn't really care though. Who the hell needs that big a room without anyone to share it with? I missed Erin bad at that moment.

But there was a party to attend. As usual, Dr. Tucker sideswiped me and demanded to buy me a drink at the bar. As he is a cool guy and I will likely need an "update" from him, I went along. I ended up hold court with both him and Dr. Kaspari for a while, which was fun. But the pool party below beckoned.

It was a raucous affair for sure. Tons of young kids, smart daffy older folks, insane video production guys etc etc. Plus one certain world-famous ocean researcher might have been a little saucy, which made for great hijinx.

Things that set off the HHI meter: people getting thrown into a pool with clothes on, the aforementioned drunk famous person, a fisher bat flying laps over the pool while people were in it, having an extremely powerful (almost mafia) guy who works for us in Panama pull connections to get us anything, little Argos giving us beer koozies as goodbye gifts etc.

So it was good, I woke up around 10am and went off to the native village with the Argos.

This was an interesting experience. First it began with a 45 minute bus ride out to a lake-side boat launch point. One of these new Argos was sick with a stomach bug and tossed his cookies as we arrived. Poor kid, everyone was shunning him and he looked really green.

The "boat" we were to take down a lake was a big dugout canoe with an outboard on it. We sputtered along past amazing hills and mountains until we reached a national park at the end of the river/lake. Of course I had been sitting in the seat that was in prime spray position so I ended up covered in water.

We were greeted by the Embera indians of the Parara Puru tribe. The men were playing instruments and the girls were, well, topless. At first it was like "Oh God, this has got Orion-gets-real-awkward-real-quick written all over it." But it was not bad at all, when everyone has their shirt off, you don't really notice. Even the 14 year old boys with us were quite mature.

So we got a speech from the noko (chief) en esponol about his tribe etc etc. And went up into a cool big hut where they fed us fried fish and plantains. Then we went and looked at medicinal plants that "cured" cancer and malaria and snakebites. This whole time I was snapping photos like a pro, ending up with 120. Next we got to shop for their crafts. Apparently this is how they make their money and some things were nice, but most of it was made of things they bought in the city (plastic beads) and sewed together. They charged a pretty penny too.

Following this the Embera performed a few dances and then made us all dance in a circle with them. Each young topless woman grabbed a partner and walked together in a circle, doing little shimmies while the men sang and played. At first I thought "Oh no, I'm going to suck at this," but I mean I was with 14 year old boys, so they were far more petrified. In retrospect (and in comparison), I was pretty damn funky thank you.

Then we all went back on the boat, directly into the wind this time, and I'm still in that same damn seat. Now, I might have gotten wet before, but this time it was like having a bucket dumped over my head every 10 seconds. After a few minutes, I was powerless and just sucked it up. My clothes still aren't dry.

Perhaps I sound a little callous and dismissive of all this wonderful native traditional culture. Using lots of "quotes" and etcs. Don't get me wrong, it was a good time and the kids got a lot out of it. It's just that I felt pretty bad for the Embera. People pay $100 a head to come out there and get what we got. And those people are a lot less respectful. Just as we were getting ready to leave, a more "typical" canoe of tourists arrived: rich bitch wealthy South American women with huge Gucci sunglasses and husbands with gold chains and cologne and bratty rich kids. I mean, can you imagine being an Embera and having this stuff come through your village over and over every weekend? And then you have to dance for (and with) them and have their men oggle your women and bump into your roving toddlers?

Not only that but you depend on them to buy your little crafts to make a living and they have no respect for you and in the end you just end up being an idealized, prettied-up version of your tradition and loosing the "real"-ness behind it. I wondered if the younger Embera are basically growing up thinking it's tradition to feed white rich women food and sell them doodads and show off their hoohas etc etc. At least the Argos didn't pick up on this irony and we donated a bunch of paints for their schoolhouse which was nice. We were a good group I'm sure, I just hate that we were not the norm.

And so I returned to the resort sunburned, soaked top to bottom, and happy. I entered the bar at exactly 6:20 (kickoff) and announced "Let's Go Pats!" plenty loudly. "Whhoooo Ahh!" replied Dr. Ballard and the game was underway. At half-time I departed for the boat ride back to BCI with all the new Argos. Passing cargo ships under a waxing moon is pretty awe-inspiring. After bringing the still-sick Argo to his room with words of comfort, I caught the last quarter of the game in the student lounge. Although the english broadcast of the game was the one meant for foreign countries where no one knows football. This means that every play, the announcers were saying, "Well, what you saw there was a blitz, that means that one of the defensive backs comes up and tries to rush the quarterback." and "So now that it's 3rd down, Carolina only has one more chance to get to the yellow line."

Whatever, the Pats won. Good show, I'm happy, I can sleep at night.

My intern arrived this morning so the transition is underway. Hopefully I squeeze in a couple more updates before I must return home.

Oh, and now that I'm returning to this post several hours later, an update. First of all, while writing the last sentence, a bullet ant crawled over the computer right next to me, not 6 inches from my arm. I shot up like a rocket, grabbed a cup and trapped that sucker with the almighty force of God (aka, me piss-scared). So, now even my office isn't safe.

Secondly, I went out to the Big Tree this evening. It is unbelievably huge. Just sprawling root systems and a trunk about 30-40 feet across and branches bigger than most trees. I made the stupid mistake of leaving my intern and Bryson out there to climb some ropes Bryson strung up. I left because Guillermo said "Um, there are tons of snakes out here around now." And when they talk snakes here, they mean the one and only fer de lance which is about as deadly as anything. Needless to say, I encouraged Intern and Bryson to come back with me but they were heading up.

I went back to STRI, about a 30-40 minute grueling hike that leaves you covered with sweat. I also was carrying a bag with 12 bullet ants in it (Guillermo is a bullet ant researcher) and they're all ticked off and scurrying. Good times! I realized halfway back that Bryson had no cell phone so I ended up fretting for an hour with the image of Bryson dead from a snake bite and Intern left dangling. Luckily they returned, Intern had been up well over 150 feet and looked like he had seen God. Glad he got that experience.

So, onward and upward with me. I've got a lot to do. Only 4 days left and a ton of new coverage to get completed. Consider me flat out busy but consider me happy.

(NB: If there were any spelling/grammar errors in the above post, I'm sorry, but I hate reading my own words.)