Barro Colorado Island, Panama Canal
This morning we had a chance to explore on the scientists’ playground and where we had the opportunity to make our way through a man-made island known as Barro Colorado Island. The island is in the middle of Lake Gatun created in 1914 for the purpose of making the waterway for the Panama Canal. This is probably one of the best-known places of tropical forest in the world and one of the places where a lot of the techniques used now days for research are still being developed. It became a biological reserve in 1923 and in 1943 the Smithsonian Institute became the administrator of the island making this place one of the most long-term studied pieces of tropical forest in the planet.
And today we had a chance to explore this mecca of tropical scientific knowledge on a various walks and Zodiac cruises, where we were not only able to learn about the various research taking place on it but also were able to see howler monkeys, coatis, white throated capuchin monkeys, slaty-tailed trogon and keel-billed toucans.
After our busy morning we were ready to continue our transit of the Panama Canal on our way to the three sets of locks that lower the ship 85 feet to the Pacific Ocean. Through the locks we were able to see how the canal continues operating as one of the engineering marbles of the twentieth century.
This morning we had a chance to explore on the scientists’ playground and where we had the opportunity to make our way through a man-made island known as Barro Colorado Island. The island is in the middle of Lake Gatun created in 1914 for the purpose of making the waterway for the Panama Canal. This is probably one of the best-known places of tropical forest in the world and one of the places where a lot of the techniques used now days for research are still being developed. It became a biological reserve in 1923 and in 1943 the Smithsonian Institute became the administrator of the island making this place one of the most long-term studied pieces of tropical forest in the planet.
And today we had a chance to explore this mecca of tropical scientific knowledge on a various walks and Zodiac cruises, where we were not only able to learn about the various research taking place on it but also were able to see howler monkeys, coatis, white throated capuchin monkeys, slaty-tailed trogon and keel-billed toucans.
After our busy morning we were ready to continue our transit of the Panama Canal on our way to the three sets of locks that lower the ship 85 feet to the Pacific Ocean. Through the locks we were able to see how the canal continues operating as one of the engineering marbles of the twentieth century.
