This March break, 12 students and two faculty members are traveling to Panama to engage with the complexity of research, communities, and conservation in the unique ecosystems of Panama. Please enjoy the blog post below from Yewon ’28 & Nyeema ’27 where they share their experience of trekking to a bamboo plantation, learning sustainable harvesting techniques, hiking through the jungle to Jungle Woods Falls, and enjoying a refreshing swim and games on their final night at the center before heading back to Panama City.
After a long walk, we arrived at the bamboo plantation where we saw a plethora of bamboo trees. We received a tutorial on how to harvest the bamboo and then we split into group of three. Manually harvesting the bamboos was tiring, but I think it was a valuable lesson I learnt, and it was incredibly fun. It was very interesting to see how sustainable Panama really is; to the point where they manually harvest 25 bamboo trees per person every day. This showed me how to become a better global citizen and expanded my love and care for the environment. My group members and I harvested three bamboo trees, one for each member. Something interesting was that I was able to use a machete to cut down the bamboo using a specific technique. Speaking in my behalf, I think this experience helped me develop a stronger connection with the environment, and much more appreciation to sustainable countries like Panama.
Once we finished harvesting the bamboo plants, we started our walk to the Jungle Woods Falls. We traverse through a wild jungle where we saw many trees and plants that were very interesting and pretty. They trees towered us and acted as a nice shade. While we walked, we saw many ant colonies and a lot of other wildlife. When we got to the falls everyone loved what they saw and wanted to jump in right away. We all get in the pool and jump off ledges. Today was my very first time jumping off a ledge and it was very fun. Playing catch with football, playing many rounds of an interesting game with townspeople and werewolves. Everyone loved there time there and really enjoyed the water. Then, we all hiked back to the center and showered, then walked to the dining hall. For dinner we had butternut squash soup, salad, and plantains. To end the night, we all will play games, and have fun together as we spend our last night at the center before we head back to Panama City.
