Barro Colorado Island and the Panama Canal
Our adventure began last night when we boarded National Geographic Sea Lion. As soon as we set foot on board, the first Panama Canal pilot came aboard to move us towards the first set of locks on the Caribbean Sea, which would lift us up about 85 feet into the Gatun Lake. We were overwhelmed – in a very good way – and delighted to be able to appreciate one of the manmade wonders of the modern world, a feat that is working today the same way it was working almost 100 years ago when it was built! Our photography experts Christopher Baker from National Geographic and Willy Alfaro from Lindblad Expeditions taught many of us how to take great photos using our cameras, adjusting them to the low light conditions of the crepuscular hours. We spend the rest of our evening anchored inside of the Gatun Lake, waiting for our second Canal pilot to take us to Barro Colorado Island, BCI.
Early today we were awaken by the coarse, loud calls of the howler monkeys, giving us a warm welcome to their home. Barro Colorado Island has been a biological reserve since 1923, right after the area was separated from the mainland by the creation of the Gatun Lake. Since that day, a new era of exploration and research began in the Neotropical regions. BCI has become one of the most studied sites in the new world tropics, since the island became a bureau of the Smithsonian Institute in 1946. The island has never since then stopped interesting scientists, and they come from all over the world to research their object of interest: bats, monkeys, wild cats, birds, rodents, plants, palms, epiphytes, soil, rainfall, humidity and much, much more.
We either walked the trails of the island or took a Zodiac cruise following its edges. Whatever it was we chose to do, we all returned with reports of wildlife sightings. American crocodiles, snail kites, toucans, agoutis, tamandua anteater, spider and white throated capuchin monkeys, and even a small boa constrictor made our day worthwhile. As if this was not enough we continued after our well-deserved lunch, towards the last part of our canal transit as we went through the Culebra Cut, under the Centennial bridge, into the Pedro Miguel Locks and the Miraflores Locks and finally under the bridge of the America’s, to finally enter the Pacific Ocean.
