Location: Panama City
The morning started off with what some of the crew called the most wholesome wake-up yet. I decided to wake the crew up to the song “Good Morning” from “Singing in the Rain. With a bit of a delay to breakfast (due to some fruit-cutting challenges), the crew slowly made their way on deck for some yummy blueberry muffins. After a quick cleanup, the crew headed to shore for a tour of the bio museum.
HI! Colbie again to write about the bio museum (Big Meg didn’t attend with us ),:). After approximately a forty-minute walk to the museum from our dock, we arrived at an insane looking building with roofs going in all directions. Big Rach and Doctor (soon to be) Captain Nacho got us all tickets while we listened to a brief introduction about the museum and its architect from one of the employees. After the intro, he walked us through the first portion of the museum, showing us the endangered species and the national bird of Panama, the Harpy Eagle. The next portion was a video about the animals and vast biodiversity of Panama, displayed on 6 screens across three walls, two screens on the ceiling, and another screen underneath the floor. Most of us chose to lie down while inside to enjoy the majority of the screens, although we probably missed some cool things happening underneath us. After the video, we walked into a room showing the old rocks and ancient creatures that inhabited Panama, including some sick fossils (part of my specialty in archaeology).
Once we got to that room it was free for all, but meet back up at the first location at 11:15 to walk back to Argo, so I proceeded to walk outside into the part of the museum displaying the arrival of humans into the Americas and the development of the different cultures and their cultural material, which is another part of my archaeology specialty, Mesoamerican culture. I was excited to learn more about the Panamanian’s from hundreds of years ago and get a glimpse into how they lived, what they ate, what they made, and generally who they were. After reading nearly every word on the 16 4-sided column-plaques, I ventured into the aquarium portion, which displayed a Caribbean-Atlantic aquarium and a Pacific aquarium, displaying the different biodiversity in each ocean. FUN FACT: These aquariums are the two largest aquariums in Central America. From there, you go up some stairs to the top half of the aquariums, and through a couple more doors, you enter the astronomy/space section. We got to learn very briefly about the involvement of Panama in the Apollo 11 and 12 missions, which I thought was pretty cool. I also learned that a native Panamanian taught the astronauts how to live and survive in the jungle should they have landed there when they returned to earth! Once I finished up in that room, I headed out to our meeting location, when I discovered there was mini gift shop and cafe, so I made a quick run in there, got a croissant for Ruby and I and headed back outside to begin our walk back with the group.
The walk back was relatively quick (or at least it felt that way), and when we arrived back at the dock, we had some time to hang out and grab some snacks before dinghy runs (Argo was being refuelled). While waiting for the runs, we were informed of more sloths, his time a baby and a mom, so I went over with Rachel to look at it. (Forgot to mention Rachel lost her AirPods, so we were waiting for my mom to come and drop them off. We ended up having to go back to Argo for a little while before going back out to pick Nick up, as he had finished his customs stuff. I got to say goodbye to my mom again, and Rachel got her AirPods, so it’s a win-win!
Now back to Big Meg:
Returning from the final time ashore for the next week, the crew was met with a hot soup for a hot day. Once fuelled up again, it was time to get Argo ready to depart. This passage prep was a bit more intense than usual, with the ‘Panama lines’ having to get stowed away back into the depths of Argo, never to emerge again until two years from now. The daring team of Ani, Katie, and Helena took on this feat. Meanwhile, Colbie, Grace, (little) Meg, Gavi, and Skylar all got to work taking off the sail covers and putting on halyards. Finally, with the sails ready to go, it was time to send Nick up the mast to check the rigging. This fell to the team of Cason, Avery, Jazmyn, Stella, and Emma. While most of the crew were on board prepping Argo, Mars, and I went on one final food run to try and find some extra rice and gluten-free bread (a very hard thing to come by out here). Once the deck was put together and ready to go, everyone went to tidy up their bunks and secure all their snacks so nothing flies out into the hallway and gets eaten by another crewmate. As the evening wraps up, we are raising anchor and setting off for the next destination: the Galapagos.
– Big Meg