Finally adjusted!

Two and a half months. That's how long it takes, apparently, to finally settle into the rhythm of things down here in Panama. Each day this week has felt completely ordinary and I've had a sense of "business as usual" to such an extent that it's felt like there's nothing even to write about. And it's been really, really nice! Of course it's tons of fun to always be doing new things and taking in new experiences, but it's also really tiring. Having a regular schedule as well as a sense of experience and know-how make each day run much smoother and helps the time pass more quickly, which is absolutely crucial now that we're moving into the wet season and each day is getting stickier and stickier. Without a doubt, we're still making cool finds, like a partial frog skull and a turtle pelvis, but nothing so spectacular that there's much more to say about it than simply what it is. I think in terms of the big-picture, evolutionary and migratory stuff we've found some rather interesting specimens, but lacking the biological background and having only a loose understanding of this region's history (I'm trying to catch up, but there's just so little time!), the wonder of such findings is lost on me. Nonetheless, it hasn't ceased being an exciting little kick whenever I pull something complete and identifiable out of the ground.

The one big piece of news (which I don't think I've mentioned yet) is that Aaron has returned to the University of Florida to carry out his research there and another post-doc, Jorge, has been sent in to replace him. This rotation is pretty ordinary, apparently, so that no one is required to move their entire life to Panama. Aaron will be coming back just a few weeks before the next round of interns begins. Although Aaron and Jorge are two very different people, the switch hasn't markedly changed anything, and so again is something that nearly slipped my mind to write about. For the most part, the only difference has been that Jorge's a bit more in the background than Aaron was, mostly because he's not yet familiar with the canal sites and so follows our lead instead of leading us. But even in just the five days that we've now all worked together, I can see the shift happening and it's obvious that he's quickly developing a sense for how everything fits together and where the most productive beds are.

There are only a handful of sites in the Canal Expansion Zone that consistently produce well-preserved fossils, so for the rest of my time here we'll basically just keep cycling through them, hoping that a good rain here or there might expose something new for us. On occasion we'll do something different, like spend a few days in Pina or survey and describe new localities as requested by the ACP (Autoridad de Canal Panama) geologists, but those tasks have now gone from being the norm to being the exception.