Advertisement
Published: March 13th 2010
Edit Blog Post
Hola todos!
I wish it hadn't been so long since I've written- it seems like January went by so fast and now it's already past the halfway mark of the McGill field study program! I guess time really flies when you're having no fun at all. We're all beginning to wish this were a year-long program, we're having too much fun to think about it ending in 6 weeks. We're really moving along in our work though and we've just finished our second class.
I s'pose the last time I wrote I had just finished touring Veraguas with my internship supervisor and we were all getting pumped for Carnaval week- and dios mio, what a week it was! Caranaval 2010: nearly the death of Lachlan Crawford & co. We started by spending 4 of the longest days in Las Tablas in the Azuero peninsula. The party would start in the morning in the streets absoltely rammed full of people dancing, partying, drinking, and massive floats of costumed people, brass bands and water trucks hosing down the crowds and it would continue on until the next dawn. We slept on the floor of the house we rented, we survived on fried plantains
and yucca and drank seco & beer that was cheaper than water. When we left the city we were really happy to be heading to a small, quiet surf town to relax our systems and learn to surf! We were in Santa Catalina on the western coast of the azuero peninsula, spending 2 nights in really cute hostels, surfing from morning until we couldn't stand the sun any longer. Surfing was a hoot, we all took to it pretty quickly and got to stand up on our boards! I got beat up by my board a little bit but it's kind of rad to have massive bruises from being tossed around in the waves. After our 2 days of rest we were off to the town of Boquete to climb Volcan Baru, the highest point in Panama. Boquete is a tiny town in the mountains about 100km from the Costa Rican border on the side of the volcano, which summits at 3500m in the sky. We hiked up 7 hours one day and camped at the summit, watched the sunset and sunrise then hiked down the next day. It was really neat feeling the temp change as we hiked- we
started in shorts ans tanks and ended up in layers and layers of sweaters with gloves, hats and wool socks. I got some great shots so I hope they can do it some justice. After Caraval week the group was pretty wiped so getting back to class was rough. But we had some really amazing trips towards the end of the course. We spent 5 days in the comarca San Blas (also called Kuna Yala), which is like a huge land reserve for an indigenous group except they have political autonomy within their lands. We stayed on a densely populated island called Ukupseni (also called Playon chico) in the bamboo huts of families. Not everyone spoke spanish so we were taught the Kuna language while we were there too. We put on a show on the last night in the town square to thank them for hosting us and it was a blast. We danced, sang, played the guitar, and after each of our acts the Kuna also had dances and acts to put on. Their whole philosophy and pride in their culture was incredible to see in their mini-plays and traditional dances. During the days we had presentations from
officials of the comarca and learned about the history and culture of the Kuna. We also did a marine biology course for a few days and snorkeled in corals and seagrass taking down data and setting up permanent monitoring plots. The group was allowed to have one official camera while we were there yet I can't publish any pictures so there's no photos from the trip.To say the least it was a pretty overwhelming experience and I think the things we learned as a group and individuals are still kind of sinkning in.
To celebrate the olympics we had our own olympic games between teams from each house that chose to represent a country. It started with an opening ceremony with each team signing a song and a massive potluck where the houses brought food from their country. Our house was switzerland so we had a good time cooking up fondues for everyone. Then we had a field day of competitions in the park with games like 3-legged race, wheel barrow, musical chairs, etc. We were pretty ridiculous for the whole day, shouting and cheering in absurd uniforms but in the end Switzerland brought home the SILVER, coming in second
overall to Sweden. We're a pretty creative bunch to have taken it so seriously but that's what made it fun.
On one of our nights on the town we met a group of local friends who own a beach house at a beach about an hour from the city so this weekend we're going to surf all day and barbeque and stay over then do it all again on sunday. Free surf lessons and spanish lessons, score!
Que mas? We start a new class on Monday that's going to take us to Bocas del Toro soon. That's where I'll be doing my project this summer so I'm excited to get out there and see it. Next week for a few days I'm off on an adventure with my internship again interviewing women on farms one-on-one this time. I'm looking forward to seeing how the changes I made to my approach will affect the conversations they'll be willing to have about Geophagy.
I'd love to hear news from everybody's lives wherever you are in the world so don't be shy with messages or emails.
Amor y paz mis queridos,
Lach
(scroll down for more photos)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.109s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0825s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb