The stolen computer

Other than the fact that the frogs were gone, the trip was going well. However, the first signs of something less than a smooth trip came up that night. I started getting sick with both a cold and a case of Montezuma’s revenge (or, as referred to in Panama, Noriega’s revenge). Matt got word from home that a large ice storm had taken the power out at his house.

His family was safe and they had a fireplace, but it was not enough to keep the over one hundred snakes, lizards, frogs, and tortoises warm. Matt had a large collection, and if the power was out for a sustained period of time many of these animals could be lost. Matt spent a lot of time on the phone with his wife planning how to protect the animals. The temperate ones would be ok if it did not freeze so they were moved into the basement. The tropical species could die if they even got cold, so they were moved as close to the fireplace as possible. Matt’s wife is a good sport, but she no doubt did not want to deal with being stuck at home in a massive ice storm with no power. Matt felt guilty and worried.

The next morning things got a bit better when Matt found out that power had been restored at home, and we once again went up to the stream to do research. We needed to collect our electronic sensor data. When Alex went to do that we found that the commands to start the electronics had been entered incorrectly and we had no data from the previous collection. Fortunately, we had several more days to collect data so we proceeded with experiments to find out how the invertebrate insect larvae, fish, and crabs would respond to the lack of tadpoles competing for the food that they also ate.

That evening we walked to a nice new restaurant nearby and had a fantastic dinner. While wandering home we got a bit lost. We were in a good mood when we got back to the hotel and planned to chat over drinks. Then Alex discovered that his laptop computer was not in his room, and suddenly things did not look so good. His first concern was not the value of the computer, but what data were on it that had not been backed up. Fortunately, all the data from Panama were backed up, and the rest of Alex’s possessions (particularly his passport) and our lab gear were still there.

Unfortunately, Alex had just returned from a winter sampling trip on the North Slope of Alaska near Prudhoe Bay, and all his photographs from that trip were lost. Photos from Rio Maria were also gone, but they could be re-taken.

The police were called and we ascertained that the thief had entered through a window. Edgardo suspected that someone from the hotel was responsible, but we were not so certain.

The only amusing moment of the night was when Matt went out and around to the window to see how easy it was to reach into where the laptop had been. He had his head and body in the window and was reaching down toward where the computer had been when the police, who had just arrived, walked into the room. Matt turned very red and the police eventually understood what was going on, but it looked a bit suspicious at first. We had returned at 10:00 and the police were there for 3 hours before they left.

The next morning we woke up and realized we needed to reassess our approach to security and decide if we wanted to stay in the hotel. We could not afford the time it would take to move, so decided to stay put. We fashioned bars to put in the windows and figured out hiding places for our valuables. Most valuables we either needed to take with us or leave somebody behind to guard the rooms. This was not too difficult that day because we had a number of samples that needed to be processed in our laboratory/ hotel rooms, so some of the group stayed. Alex went with Edgardo to the town an hour away where the police report needed to be filed with the detectives. We knew that this was a lost cause, but Edgardo wanted to document the string of problems that had occurred at the hotel.

The research project, at least, was only coming up against minor hitches and seemed to be going well. We returned from our field day and went to dinner as a group. While we were out we heard that police had shot a labor protester in Colon, the Panamanian city on the north (Caribbean) side of the Panama Canal. The riots from Colon had spread to Panama City. The police had arrested 500 people and Panama City was being shut down. Matt, Karen, Kathy and Emma needed to leave soon and we started feeling concerned about getting out smoothly and safely. El Valle was safe, but we needed to travel through Panama City to get home.