Back to Bocas

After a week in Coiba (and an overnight in Cerro Punta, up in the mountains--a nice relief from tropical heat) we're back in Bocas for the second half of our coral reef field work. There's a relatively extensive STRI compound here where we have dorms, a dining room/living area with panaromic screen windows, and access to an air conditioned teaching lab where we can use our laptops. We've been advised against using our laptops in the humidity...apparently students' laptops in past years have died gruesome deaths.

The general schedule of our course both in Coiba is as follows (though often changed to accommodate the tides):

7:00 - Breakfast
8:00 - Lecture
9:00 - Departure by boat to field site.
12:00 (ish) - Return for lunch.
1:30 - Departure by boat to another field site.
4:00 (ish) - Return.
Before dinner - hang out on the beach/swim/read/shower, etc.
6:00 - Dinner.
Evening - work on projects/identify fish/play games/read/go to sleep early from exhaustion.  (Snorkeling for 5+ hours a day is tiring! And coming home in Coiba involved 120 steep steps up the side of the island...)

There will probably be more project work and less game playing as this week progresses and we work on our final projects as opposed to our preliminary Coiba projects.

Anyway, I have internet access again if any of you wish to talk to me, and I'll be posting pictures from the last two weeks soon.