April 8: On the road!

Hi everyone!

It's Mary and Nolan.

Our day started early today as we pulled out of La Hotel Mejorana, in Guarrare. We had gotten into a routine of waking up, grabbing breakfast, heading to our daily activity, and then getting dinner in Las Tablas. Each day was amazing and unique but we were excited to stay in the mountains and learn about the beautiful complex ecosystems. We stopped for a bathroom break, breakfast, and lunch. Each time after getting out of the air-conditioned bus the air felt different due to the elevation. We drove on the Pan-American Highway (The longest highway in the world that spans from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Northern Alaska with a brief 50 mile gap in the unpassable jungle of Panama’s Darien province), and our elevation increased as we left the beautiful Los Santos province that we had been calling home. Looking out of the window we saw the dry savanna turn into the beautiful mountains of Roger’s home province, Chiriquí. The browns and yellows turned into lush green and the dried-up bushes were replaced by beautiful flowers of every color of the rainbow. The temperature dropped by about 30 degrees and for the first time in the past week in a half we turned off the AC and rolled down the windows. It was the most lush forest either of us had ever seen.

When we got to The Los Quetzales Ecolodge we checked into our cabins and unloaded the bus. We were amazed by the natural beauty of the area and by our cabins. We had a couple of hours to spare before dinner so some people explored the beautiful property, unpacked, or worked on some Science/Spanish homework. After our delicious dinner, we played some games like ping pong and foosball while some others watched movies by the fire. Overall it was a long and tiring day but, we are all so excited to see what Cerro Punta has to offer us.

See you guys later!

Mary ‘25 and Nolan ‘25