Isla Bona, Otoque and the Panama Canal
The Gulf of Panama is a unique place in Central America. The continental divide is low enough for the Atlantic trade winds to blow all the way across. Thus, the winds reach the Pacific Ocean with enough power to blow away the sterile surface water and let it be replaced by cold water from the bottom, with more oxygen and nutrients to trigger upwelling.
This means that thanks to the trade winds there is an explosion of life created by a chain of events. First, the phytoplankton takes advantage of the supply of nutrients and goes in to a demography explosion which in turn triggers a demography explosion of the zoo plankton that feeds on them. Eventually, other organisms participate to become food for other larger creatures and so on, creating a large food chain all over the Gulf of Panama.
At the peak of this upwelling, the waters are a great way to see marine life and great communities of seabirds besides sponsoring an emerging fishing industry.
With this in mind, we boarded our Zodiacs early morning, right after breakfast, to explore the seabirds nesting on the islands of Bona and Estiva. What a show we had! Not only did we experience great seabird sightings like brown pelicans, brown boobies and magnificent frigate birds, but also got to see some of the mating displays of the frigates males courting the females. In addition to this, some adorable white little booby chicks and some blue-footed boobies were spotted as well.
The rest of our day we were busy making our approach and preparing for the first part of our crossing through the Panama Canal on our way over to the Caribbean.
In the late afternoon our ship was raised 85 feet (28 meters) through a system of locks that work as a giant water elevator. The vessels eventually reach the level of the Gatun Lake so they can travel the Isthmus of Panama.
This is without a doubt one of the greatest marvels of the modern era.
