Marvelwood's Annual Panama Trip

On Sunday, we left the City of Knowledge and set off for the town of Margarita, where we had an unbelievably delicious lunch at an outdoor restaurant, Tio Yiyo, along the Mamoni River, which also runs through the Cocobolo Nature Reserve.

At the restaurant, we posed for a group shot and piled into two trucks,
which took us up and over a mountain, through a few rivers,
past many cows and through a few villages;
finally, two hours later, we arrived at Cocobola.

We learned how things work at Cocobolo and how to be safe
and enjoy being in the rain forest.

Here, our boots are on the steps of Base Camp,
where we gathered to eat, work and relax.

Miss Lynch took a lot of pictures

We were treated to wonderful food, cooked by Eunice
in a very efficient kitchen with minimal electricity.

One of our favorite meals was tamale stuffed with ground corn and chicken.

On Monday, we started three days of bird banding.

Alice is working with Dr. Michael Roy, a conservation geneticist,

who started CREA- Conservation through Research, Education and Action,

and is the owner of Cocobolo Nature Reserve.

At night, the frogs came out. Plate-sized frogs were found under our sleeping tents.

Everyone learned how to take birds out of the nets to collect the data at base camp.

No one can argue: Miss Doss loves her work!

Everyone worked together to get all the bird data collected.

The group before embarking on a frogging hike with Sabina,

who comes from Germany and has volunteered at Cocobolo for many years.

They were looking for the endangered atelopus frog,

but found other species instead.

No one can catch reptiles like Andrew

We saw unusual vegetation, including the Strangler Fig,

which, over many years, grows up a tree and then back down,

slowly straggling and eventually killing it.

There are over 1000 varieties of fig in Central and South America,

none of which are edible.

Joel (‘Joe-elle’) is our hero (here with Sabina and a Caiman he caught in the Mamoni River);

Joel lives with his family on a 200-acre cattle farm near Cocobolo

and helps with lots of projects on the reserve.

Vicky’s first bird capture was a crimson back Tanager

Will releases a bay Wren after collecting its data

We collected reptiles and amphibians,

and used the white pop up box for taking pictures of them.

Some of them were swabbed to check for the chytrid fungus.

Emilio (chatting on the steps of Base Camp with Joel, Will Connor and Abe)

works for CREA and was our coordinator and companion throughout the trip.

When he was a teenager, he started an organization called Panama Verde,

which helps other teenagers develop and manage conservation projects in their communities.

Joel and Sabina brought a green vine snake back to base camp for us to inspect.

The journey to the waterfall and Embera community.

The river was low this trip which meant we had a 20 minute hike to the waterfall !

The "Will's" enjoying the scenic views.

Vicky and Alice negotiating a steep area along the trail.

Will "Peanut" hiking to the waterfall.

We can conquer anything!

Ms. Doss is one crazy woman!

Alice getting ready to make her way to the waterfall.

Ready for prime time! The Sport's Illustrated Panama 2012 Swimsuit Edition!

I made it!

Alice's journey to the waterfall with a little help from her new Embera friends.

Vicky and Alice relaxing in the waterfall pool.

Wow...look what the Panama water did to my hair!

Colt's cool lizard sighting along the way to the waterfall!

Okay...so Colt and Ms. Doss got a little distracted by the plethora of frogs the found on the way back to the waterfall causing a slight delay in our journey to the Embera community!