We went to Selvatura which is an adventure park in Monteverde.  It was one of the coolest things I ever done in my life.  The zip line tour was composed of 18 different zip lines and a Tarzan swing.  I have videos of both of them.  The last zip line was 1 km long!  It was amazing.  I don’t even think the videos do it justice.  This is just something that you have to experience yourself.

I still need to upload videos to YouTube, so I will continue to submit posts.  I will also submit a long text post with some follow up thoughts about the study abroad trip.

-Ryan

Hello Everyone.  It has been a while since I have been able to update you.  We have been at the Soltis Center in Costa Rica which is a 15 minute drive into the rain forest.  I have not had internet so it has been almost impossible to update the blog and to update you on what has been going on.  In order to access the internet we must go to an internet cafe or something.  The closest one is an hour long hike away from the Soltis Center.  But trust me, I have still been busy.  The rain forest has been awesome.  We have gone to the “Texas A&M Waterfall” three times as a group and each time it has gotten better and better.  The last time we went a couple of us guys went farther down the river and explored off of the trail.  There are so many amazing animals to see here.  198 birds have been documented here at the Soltis Center.  One of the workers here at the Soltis Center named Albert has found many different snakes and shown them to us.  The actual center is amazing.  We have nice warm showers and we are literally right in the middle of the rain forest.  We get three meals cooked for us a day and the classroom setup is very nice also.  This weekend we will be going to the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve.  We will get the opportunity to zip line, go on a tour of the canopy by walking on hanging bridges, and many other cool things.  We will get to see a whole bunch of cool wildlife.

I was planning to upload a youtube video but I did not have enough time.  I will try to upload it later.  Hopefully we will get internet soon.

We did a partial transit of the Panama Canal about two weeks ago.  It was really cool.  We got to go on a boat that actually took us halfway through the canal.  We started at about 60 ft above the sea level and went through 3 different sets of locks.  I have a lot of video from this.  I have included three different sets of them.

Partial Transit of the Canal Pt. 1.1

Partial Transit of the Canal Pt. 1.2

Partial Transit of the Canal Pt. 2

Hope you enjoy

-Ryan

Well, my time is almost finished here in Panama.  We leave this Saturday morning for Costa Rica.  So far Panama has been a blast.  I have learned a lot in the classroom and even more outside of the classroom.  Recently, I have gotten bitten by the soccer bug.  We have played as a group three out of the last four days.  It is so fun and we have gotten to play some real legit soccer with some of the locals.  There are good, but we were able to hold our own.  It is so fun being able to play soccer with palm trees all around you and beautiful sunsets peaking through the clouds.  It feels like paradise.

Last saturday, we had the great opportunity to go to an Indian Village.  It took us about 1.5 hours to drive to the pick up location, and from their we had to be taken to their village by boat because it was such a remote location.  The indians first took us on a walk through the jungle to a nice little waterfall oasis where you can swim and chill by the waterfall.  It was beautiful.  After that, they took us farther upstream to their village.  They performed song and dance and showed us some of the crafts that the men and women do in the village.  I thought the men of the village looked pretty cool, so I decided to dress up like them.  It was quite an experience to say the least.  It was by far my favorite thing that I have done here in Panama so far.  I also got a temporary tattoo which comes from some sort of ink that they place on you and it just sinks into your skin.  It lasts about two weeks.  I got a cool indian design on my forearm.

Tomorrow, I believe that we are going to the jungle and going on a hike.  And in the afternoon, we will probably go to a local bar and watch the USA vs. Costa Rica World Cup Qualifier.  Like a said, I got bit by the soccer bug.  It is pretty contagious down here.

The attached video is from the Indian Village.  I should have a couple more made later on.

We had the privilege of having a snake interrupt our class.  The video explains it all.  

Ok.  I finally have video of the time when we were at the Panama Canal Observation Point.  This event happened last Wednesday.  Our guide talks about the different tasks that must be done for the Panama Canal expansion.

Thursday, we got out of class at around 2pm and headed straight for the Allbrook Mall.  We were told by a group of Florida State students that buses come all the way up to the City of Knowledge and can take you to the Allbrook Mall for 25 cents each way.  This is a great deal compared to the taxi service rates which can run each person up to 3-4 dollars per person.  Our plan was to get groceries because we were running low.  So we took our empty backpacks down to the main street which is maybe a .25 mile walk.  We had to wait maybe 15 minutes before the first bus came.  Each bus has a distinct color or design on it based on the type of route they run.  They are all the old type of yellow school buses that you see in the states.  Another thing about the buses is that they drive crazy.  That is why they are called “Diablos Rollos” or “Red Devils.”  These buses don’t move for anyone.  If you are in the way, you better watch out.  They merge through traffic without any regard for other cars.  Probably 20% of the vehicles on the Panamanian streets are composed of “Diablos Rollos.”  It is a pretty interesting sight to see.  The particular bus we were looking for is called “Coop Saca.”  I don’t know why it is called that, but that is the name.  So we finally got on the bus and rode over the the Allbrook Mall.  The Allbrook Mall is HUGE.  I would say that in terms of square footage it rivals the Galleria Mall in Dallas.  It took us forever to walk from one side of the mall to the other.  I don’t think we even made it to the other side.  We ate some pizza and got our groceries.  They had a grocery store in the mall.  So that was nice.  After that we got back on the “Coop Saca” bus and headed home.

The Causeway was made from all of the extra dirt from the Canal.  It connects three different islands.  It juts out into the Pacific Ocean and has a nice view of Panama City from across the bay.  It is a tourist attraction and there are many great places to eat and hang out.  A lot of locals use the Causeway as a place to run or ride their bike.  It has a nice running/biking trail.

Here is video from my first day while being in Panama.  More videos will be posted soon.

Today we got the pleasure of seeing the Panama Canal up close.  We woke up early and left around 7:30am to head over to the work site.  When we got there we got to meet our tour guide Edgar and we followed him up to the observation point which gives you a nice view of the entire Panama Canal.  Currently, the Panama Canal is being expanded so that it can accommodate larger boats.  From the observation point we were able to see a whole bunch of dirt work being done.  The dump trucks look like ants when you compare it to the entire work site.  One phase of the expansion project includes a complete demolition and removal of a huge hill.  When they were talking about the earthwork being done, I am pretty sure that the total amount of cubic yards being dug out comes out to be around 100 million cubic yards.  That is probably an underestimate.  There is just so much earthwork that is required to dig a canal.  They will also be dredging the Pacific and Atlantic side of the canal so that larger tankers will be able to enter.  Dredging is the process of digging out dirt that is submerged under water.  I believe that their goal is to have a passage way that is 60 feet deep.  After our observation tour was complete, we went back to the other side of the canal and went to a restaurant/museum.  Before we went to either one of those places, we got to see a powerpoint presentation that went into depth about the hydrology surrounding the Panama Canal.  It is amazing to think about the required amount of water needed to support the canal system.  Each boat requires 26 million gallons of water on the way in and 26 million gallons on the way out.  This means that the watershed that goes into the Panama Canal must produce and support these types of water demands.  Everything had to line up for the engineers when building the canal.  There had to be a lot of water.  There had to be a thin isthmus so that it would not require a lot of earthwork to connect the two bodies of water.  There had to be a small change in elevation between the two bodies of water.  Between the lake and the ocean there is only an elevation change of 56 feet.  We also got to talk with the administrator of the whole Panama Canal.  It was a really cool experience because he is a very influential man within Panama.  Plus he went to A&M.  He was class of 73′.  Alberto Zubierta is his name.  He had a lot of wisdom with regards to the building of the Panama Canal.  Finally, we got to eat at a nice buffet restaurant that overlooked the locks and we had a chance to learn about the Panama Canal through a museum exhibit.  By the end, I felt much more knowledgeable about the Panama Canal.  Plus, we will get to go on a partial transit of the canal on Saturday.  So we will still get a chance to see more.