biodiversity and a bike-ride

On Sunday we headed down to the causeway to have a look at the Biodiversity Fair.  The fair was hosted by the Biomuseo.  The Biomuseo is not opened yet, so the fair took place beside the construction site at the old officer's club (this building houses maquettes and information about the museum).  The theme of the fair was "soil is life."  There was an organic market, our friends from Culantro Rojo were there with lots of lovely produce.  There were some interesting small organic projects with soap and traditional medicines.  There was information on worm composting--the kids got to hold worms and dig around in the compost.  The Smithsonian had a presentation on leaf-cutter ants, complete with a queen ant on display (the queen ant can live as long as fifteen years and the male ants only live for one day).  There is probably not as much interest in biodiversity, organics and composting here in Panama as there is in Canada, so it was very heartening to see so many people at the fair.  It was nice to see people so interested  and engaged at this fair.

  After the fair we took a look at the museum.  It is always interesting to have a look at this weird construction site and it really seems to be coming along.

No causeway adventure would be complete without renting an enormous six-person bike.

If some of the six people on the six-person bike are children who want to peddle, the one or two adults who are actually peddling will do all the work.   The kids laughed so much, it was totally worth it (pain and sweat included).