We have been seeing and learning so much here in Panama. Yesterday we went to Barro Colorado Island and went on a 3-hour hike in the rainforest. I finally got to see monkeys! We saw white-faced capuchins (well really just saw them running and playing high in the canopy) and heard mantled howler monkeys! They were so funny!

I’m still in such awe of the diversity of all the flora! I mean I’ve read about the rainforest and seen plenty of pictures and videos but nothing can compare to the REAL thing!

Today, we went on a butterfly hike with post-doc Krys Kozak. He’s studying gene wing patterns in Heliconius butterflies. Today was a pretty wet cloudy day. We only caught one butterfly but saw so many beautiful flowering plants and again those howler monkeys were out and about playing.

And on our walk back to the apartment we saw our first toucan, a keel-billed toucan!