Snakes and Lanterns

Had dinner with Chip and his wife, my former classmate Marie and her fiance Steven, and Gail up at New World Bistro in Albany followed by hockey at RPI. Nice night and good chance to talk to Chip about the trip and the plans going forward. Both of us have been heavily involved in most of the development aspects of the project, but there was one place in which we diverged a bit. As a newcomer to this type of thing I am a bit compulsive about doing everything according to the book. As a veteran, Chip is able to be a little less rigid than I. In reviewing the 525 document prior to it's submission I read every word of every page. OK, not such a big deal, 65 pages more or less. Executive summary of the project to date, rationale for expansion of water treatment, plans for implementation, design drawings, reams of calculations, budget for trip, so on and so forth. Not exactly Hemingway but, if it's in that document and I sign off on, it's the same as if I wrote it. Except one little hitch: The 525 itself does not include the HASP. Yes, the HASP,  the "Health And Safety Plan" document. This one is 92 or so pages. It includes the designation of a H & S officer, the location of the nearest hospital from the Island (as well as the length of time it would take to get there), an inventory of any dangerous equipment or materials to be used, necessary protective equipment ("PPE's" or "PeePees" as I was taught), the suggested vaccines we should get (most of which I disagreed with) and other things relevant to our safety. All of this jazz occupied 30 or so pages. The other 60 pages was a compendium of the venomous reptiles, insect and fish that have ever been found in, or around, Panama. Each page had a color photo of the offending creature, its habits, its habitats, the type of venom it inflicts, and how gruesome one's death will be after the bite or sting. It reminded me of two things. The first were those really neat, old-fashioned books about exotic animals in faraway places I used to read as a kid, the ones where the photographs were pretty scarce and were referred to as "Color Plates". Remember those? Cobras, Coral Snakes, Banded Kraits (rhymes with 'kites'), Pacific Sea Snakes and of course Fer-De-Lances.

The second is the old joke about the cowboy who gets bit on a certain part of his anatomy by a rattlesnake. The punchline is "Tex, yer gonna die". I told it to the students on the island last year. Figure it out for yourself. Anyway, Panama sure seems loaded with poisonous creatures.

On a different note, one of the big draws about a trip like this is that it is a wonderful excuse to buy a few new pieces of travel gear. This sort of a camping trip on steroids (and snake venom). This years new gadget is the "Lighthouse 250" solar charged lantern put out by GoalZero, the folks who make the portable solar panel and storage battery that I use.

The lantern is a pair of independently controlled LEDs, one in front, one in back with variable brightness. Charging time by solar is 7-10 hours; lighting time is 2.5 - 48 hours depending on level of brightness. It can also be used to charge small devices such as cell phones via USB, and can, itself, be charged from a USB source. Lastly, it has a hand crank, so if all else fails, just turn that crank for a bit.

It is quite compact, as you can see, quite lightweight, and has these nifty fold out legs so you can set it up on a table or night stand. There is also a top handle so it can be hung from overhead if needed. Now, this may strike some as silly or overkill, but I will remind you that there is NO electricity there and we will be there in January. One of the little details of life at lower latitudes is that the sun goes down directly over the horizon with very little twilight time. The sun sets right around 6pm and it is dark fast. This is right around the time we take our dinner and eating by light of a small headlamp (tough to use a knife and a fork while holding a flashlight)  is not as charming as one might expect. It also may help me avoid some of those venomous snakes mentioned in the HASP on the path to the latrine at night. I am really stoked to use this baby!

Admit it...you want one.