Just your typical business trip...

Hi!  I just got back from Panama, and I had a fantastic time.  I'd had about a week's notice before I left - one of our partner organizations invited Audubon Alaska at the last minute (and offered to pay), for a marine Important Bird Area workshop involving representatives of a half-dozen Central and South American countries, plus Alaska and Fiji.  So, I flew down there, attended the workshop - which was conducted entirely in Spanish - and gave a presentation on Audubon Alaska's IBA program (also in Spanish).  In between workshop sessions, I also got to explore two beautiful national parks, swim in a waterfall, see lots of monkeys, birds, and capybara, and sip a few daiquiris by the pool.  Then the day after returning, I turned around and flew to Juneau for a workshop there. Panama's was nicer.  I posted some photos online at  https://picasaweb.google.com/n.james.walker/Panama?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmzjpWi-u6L_AE.  For those of you who aren't interested in birds, I apologize for all the bird photos - I gave a slideshow to my coworkers when I returned, and needed to make sure I had lots of material.

I hope all of you are enjoying your winters.  It's been a while since I've done much skiing or snowshoeing, because of all my trips, added to the hassles of moving to a new apartment and starting another online class, but I'm hoping to do some more while the snow lasts.

Best wishes,

Nathan