Otoque and Bona Islands and the Panama Canal, 3/10/2016, National Geographic Sea Lion

Today we started a lovely day with a warm cup of coffee and a breathtaking sunrise! We have been cruising over 190 nautical miles in the Gulf of Panama as we made our way into the one of the main activities of our trip: the Panama Canal to ocean transit. 

Thanks to a smooth and pleasant ride we gained the opportunity to first visit a very important group of islands called Otoque and Bona on our way to the canal.  These islands are of vital importance for nesting birds, especially due to its inaccessible grounds and to its privileged location in the gulf. The water of the Gulf of Panama received an important impact from the trade winds during the dry season months, this triggers an upwelling in the area that supports large communities of fish, and birds. So we got in our expedition landing crafts at mid-morning and had the opportunity to observe large flocks of brown pelican, blue-footed and brown bobbies and large flocks of magnificent frigatebirds. They were all very active, many of them fishing, sunbathing, or performing breeding courtships.

It was a great morning with lots of sea birds. Later, we returned to the ship and started cruising for another 3 hours to drop anchor and positions ourselves for the much waited canal transit. A great view of the city of Panama was reveled as we got closer to then canal entrance and we saw many ships of all kinds waiting to go through the waterway. 

In the early evening we saw the arrival of the Panama Canal pilot and soon after we started the transit. We had unique views of the Bridge of the Americas as we got under it and also views of the new access into the canal (still under construction). Then we saw the first set of the Miraflores Locks where our ship was raised about 50 feet above sea level. We continued through Miraflores Lake and Pedro Miguel Locks, to finally reach the highest elevation in the canal. The beautiful Centennial Bridge marked the entrance of Gaillard Cut (narrowest location of the Canal) and as we cruised through it we saw some of the never ending work of dredging the cut.