The Community Outreach internship with Kalu Yala has me working in San Miguel, a town in rural Panama. I teach English at the school, lead an after school Science club once a week, and study the water of Panama, specifically the Pacora River watershed. The Pacora River flows south to the Pacific Ocean from where I live in San Miguel. The river runs along the road at the Casa Llena house and down past the tavern, concha, and school before meandering its way south to the Pacific. It’s source is arriba, or uphill, in the mountaintops to the northwest of San Miguel at Tres Brazos. Tres Brazos means three arms and this is where the smaller Iguana River joins the Pacora at the headwaters of the watershed. This is the location of Kalu Yala base camp, some interns live here in tents, and the site of the proposed land development project in the valley. Kalu Yala is planning a 7,000 acre development project in the valley at Tres Brazos.
My friend and fellow Kalu Yala intern, Shannon, points to San Miguel on the map of Panama. These photos were taken at the Instituto Geographica National Tommy Guardia during an excursion on one of my research days in Panama City.
A closer up view of San Miguel on the map. If you look closely you can see the headwaters of the Pacora River to the northwest. Look for the word Jefe on the map, the river starts here. This area, Tres Brazos, or "the valley", is the site of the Kalu Yala base camp for the internship program and the proposed development project.
I spent 3 nights in the valley this past week sleeping outside on the wooden cabana instead of my top bunk bed at the Casa Llena house in San Miguel. The interns who live in the valley have tents but it is primitive. Water is collected from the Pacora River near camp with large plastic bottles and poured through a filter for potable use. During my short valley stint, normal stint for valley interns is 10 days, I had an opportunity to hike and explore. I saw the proposed site for the Kalu Yala water pump and water tower project on the Iguana River. I have been talking with some of the other interns and the plan is to draw the water from this tributary and bring it down to base camp through PVC pipe.
View of the Kalu Yala valley base camp from high on a mountaintop.
A view of the Iguana River as it winds its way through the valley to meet the Pacora.
A beautiful view of the scenery I took on my hike out of the valley up over the ridge and back to San Miguel.
It is the halfway point of my 10 week internship. In the past 5 weeks I have acclimated myself to this amazing country and investigated questions I had pertaining to water in the region. My Spanish is getting better. I visited the Controlleria Central in Panama City, Panama, to obtain maps of the entire Pacora watershed area, visited the water treatment plant in La Mesa, and diligently pursued definitive information about the source of the water at the Casa Llena house in San Miguel. Nobody who works for Kalu Yala could tell me where the water in the tap comes from so I had to figure it out. And the directors told us it was OK to drink the tap water and a bunch of us got sick, not good. One intern had an amoeba. Turns out the water is drawn from up the mountain and stored in a concrete tank and then piped down the hill for use by the people of San Miguel. I met a man named Andres who says he knows where the tank is and will take me there, even though he seems confused as to why I care about such things, so stay tuned for more details about that adventure.
This is a photo of me taken the first time I hiked to the valley from San Miguel. You cross the Pacora River, seen behind me, walk up a slight hill and you are at Kalu Yala base camp.
These first weeks have provided much insight into the water issues in Panama. I have met many amazing people and made new lifelong friends. One of these people is Miriam, the librarian at the school in San Miguel. I will build her a rainwater collection system at her house in Juan Gil, another rural town near San Miguel. You will hear more about the evolution of this project in future blogs. I have a date with Miriam this week to discuss the final details for the project. I plan to spend the rest of the day today running around the city pricing gutters and PVC pipe for the project. Then 2 bus rides each about an hour long, from Panama City to 24 de Deciembre and another from 24 de Deciembre to San Miguel, before arriving back at the yellow house along the river where I stay with the rest of the Community Outreach and Anthropology interns.