Choices, choices. Is not that what defines being alive. I just did not know what to choose on our "out" day here in Panama during the NetHope conference. There was an all day trip to the Chagas National Park. I am still operating in that pardigm of assuming long distances over horrible roads while in developing nations. I am being continually surprised by Panama. I have yet to hit a gravel road and the potholes are not noteworthy. Disappointed? No.
I chose the 1/2 day trip to the village of San Antonio hosted by the NGO WinRock. In about forty minutes by tour bus from our hotel on the Pacific Ocean terminus of the Canal, we exited from a well-paved highway for maybe ten minutes and parked at the entrance to a reserve. This was jungle like I had not seen before. My forays to Latin American countries that should have had tropical rain forests had all been deforested long ago. How could those people in non-Panamanian countries do such such a thing to the environment, disdaining good environmental stewardship? Oops, I have retreated to my North Ageneralized viewpoint once more. Oh yes, those de-foresters were merely trying to survive....
After disembarking, we soon saw two motorized boats coming towards us across a wide expanse of vegetation-choked shallow waters. Entering these water craft carefully ("stay low"), we arrived within 7 minutes to the dock of a small village called San Antonio, which consisted of maybe a 1/2 dozen thatched dwellings and 2-3 small concrete buildings. The purpose of the tour was to see an internet kiosk developed in partnership with Intel and Winrock to provide internet connectivity to this community of 30 persons. As I have seen all over the world, a more lasting solution to poverty is education. If your school age children lack access to the internet, you are at a disadvantage with your academic peers (e.g. research, etc.). We had the opportunity also to purchase handcrafted items constructed from articles from the surrounding forest.
We afterwards took a short hike into the jungle. I was thrilled to have my sharp-eyed friend Mark from Family Health International spot a sloth up in a tree. I also saw a couple of anteaters. The latter were drawn to the trails of leaf-cutter ants carrying their fungal incubator stock over their heads along the jungle floor. The village is apparently on an island about 2/3 of the way from the Pacific towards the Caribbean side of the Canal. I noted the increased heat and humidity that we lacked on the Pacific side.
On our return to the tour bus across the protective moat, we quickly caught up to the first boat tranversing the lagoon, since we had to take two separate boats for our group. They had snagged a submerged log on their exit. I shouted out a un-thoughful comment of, we'll send food back!. I once again have spoken without thinking, but my comment of dispair was based on the influemce of my recent completion of an account of Theodore Roosevelts' (he is much on my mind this trip - I own, and have read repeatedly, a first edition of his African Game Trails.) ill-fated trip down an Amazon river where this stout heart despaired of such jungle conditions that he contemplated taking his own life to avert negative affect on his fellow travelers.
We all arrived safely, with myself confident of long-term survival in case of mishap due to my obvious well-fed nature (the caimans would head for me first!). Nearby, we stopped at the Gamboa resort hotel who generously provides the wireless internet connection to San antonio. What a place! I need to return here with my wife for an extended stay.
