We only have a few days left until we head back to the city. So far, living here in the rainforest has been quite an adjustment. The experience overall has been very nice, but there have been times where it gets hard. Panama is currently experiencing a drought that has been ongoing for 8 weeks. Pete, the guy in charge of the ITEC center here, says that this has been the worst he’s ever seen. We really have to conserve water here, which means no showers, no flushing the toilet except if you really need to, and very little water use. There is no air conditioning here, and the power only comes on for an hour in the morning or from 7-10 at night. It is an experience rushing to the power outlets at exactly 7 to try to charge our devices.

Everyone here, including me, gets eaten up by bugs and we are sweating constantly. There is a constant blanket of moisture on everything. If I’m being honest, I sometimes wonder why I chose to put myself through this. However, there goes by times were we actually go out and do things and experience nature, like snorkeling or going to the forest. One of my favorite excursions we went out to was the Cloud Forest in Boquette, where we stayed last weekend. It was actually cold up there in the mountains, which was a pleasant relief. We were able to go to a natural hot spring, hike up a mountain to a waterfall, explore the city, and I even jumped off a cliff into a river for the first time in my life.

Whenever we do labs here, I think it’s wild how we are actually interacting with animals, like frogs and sea creatures. I don’t know how labs would be conducted otherwise in an ecology course. We wake up to monkeys jumping from tree to tree outside of our windows, and we see sloths in trees above us. Even though the heat can sometimes be unbearable, I’ve learned to get used to it and find ways to deal with it, and it makes me respect all the people that live like this as an everyday lifestyle. I’ve been living off of baby wipes and baby powder, and taking showers in the ocean, rivers, or outside in the rainwater. It’s honestly been a very exciting and a new experience, and I can’t wait to see what these last few days have in store for me.