Panama Canal & Barro Colorado Island
Our Neotropical adventure began yesterday as we arrived at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City. True to its name, the tropical rainforest welcomed us with one of its infamous showers. Central America is now going through the transitional period between the wet and the dry seasons and both sun and rain are unpredictable.
We started very early this morning our transit of the Panama Canal, one of mankind’s greatest engineering feats. But how did the “canal question” come about? In 1848 gold was discovered near San Francisco, and over the next two years around 40,000 people rushed to California to “strike it rich”. There were three routes to get there: across the continent, around Cape Horn, or over the Isthmus of Panama. The growing numbers of people trying to cross the North American region created a pressure for the building of a railroad that would take them to the west coast, and eventually this created a need to find a maritime route connecting both sides. Around 1870 the first thorough survey of the region was carried out by the US Navy, and two routes were chosen, one across the Panamanian Isthmus, supported by the French, and one through Nicaragua, supported by the American delegation.
Yet the Congress voted for the sea level canal in Panama, and led by Ferdinand de Lesseps, its construction began in the latter part of the 19th century. Yellow fever, malaria, the heat, and extreme physical weakness got the best of them and by 1894 it had been declared an absolute failure. It was not until 1904 when the project was retaken by the American government and was completed by August 15 of 1914. Since then, it has been running almost non-stop and we had the unique opportunity, which few people in the world have, to cross it.
Not only did we get the chance to cross the Canal, but to put the cherry on the icing, we could get off and walk the trails of BCI, Barro Colorado Island; a tropical research center ran by the Smithsonian Institute. This is one of the most productive tropical research centers in the Americas and one that has ongoing investigations since 1923 when it was created, after the Gatun Lake was formed. Our morning through BCI was rewarded by sightings of capuchin monkeys, mantled howler monkeys, leaf cutter ants, army and Aztec ants, trees, toucans, lianas and selaginellas on the forest floor.
From the Caribbean Sea, through the Gatun locks and lake, onto Barro Colorado Island, through the Culebra Cut and the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks into the Bay of Panama we enjoyed a very full first day in Panama.
