Barro Colorado Island and the Gatun Locks, Panama Canal
As if we were transported to another world, the National Geographic Sea Lion changed the movement of the Pacific Ocean with the calm waters of the Gatun Lake. We had an eternal view of the horizon by the lush rainforest of the Canal, and an amazing sunrise instead of a sunset, like all our previous days.
The last day of our expedition could not have been better, monkeys swinging, crocodiles basking, turtles swimming, anteaters hunting and gorgeous toucan singing. It truly felt like we were part of a nature show. In just an hour, tropical diversity strolled in front of our eyes.
The place where all these great sightings happened was BCI, which stands for Barro Colorado Island, run by the world renowned Smithsonian Research Institute since the 1940’s. The chance we had to visit this island was pretty unique. First we are the only vessel allowed to interrupt its transit through the Panama Canal. We extend our transfer by two days. Second, BCI as a research institute it is not open to any traveler or the public, so for that matter, we were very spoiled to have the chance to walk the same trails that hundreds of the most well renowned tropical biologists and nature scientists have studied inch per inch.
If all that had not been enough, the guests that took their last walk through the wonders of a tropical rainforest were awarded by the fairly uncommon sight of an anteater. It crossed the trail in front of us in order to climb a tree and go after its meal of ants. It was a medium size anteater found in the Americas, and its name Tamandua means ant trap by the Tipi Natives from South America. These anteaters have adapted perfectly to climb trees. They are well equipped with large claws and a long tail for balance, because most of their food, such as ants and termintes, live high up in the canopy. Its eyes are placed far behind its snout in order to diminish the attack of the soldier- termites; they will spray themwith acetic acid.
We really did not want to finish the walk because the sightings were just getting better and better, the same happened to the ones that chose to Zodiac-ride around the island, they spotted sloths, crocodiles, turtles, monkeys and birds.
Around noon we had our pilot on board continue our transit toward Gatun Locks. The Gatun Locks have three steps which lower us the same 85 feet that we went up last night; we shared the transit with a gigantic car carrier that made us feel like a little paper boat. All the canal operations went perfectly and the National Geographic Sea Lion kissed the Caribbean waters as the afternoon was smoothly colored by a tropical sunset.
