After spending two days crossing the Panama Canal, today we awoke to find ourselves anchored in a cluster of three small islands known as Otoque, Estiba and Bona, right at the beginning of the Gulf of Panama.

We are ready to start with the nature part of the trip, and the Gulf of Panama gives us a unique opportunity for it, because it is one of the few places in Central America that has what is known as a seasonal upwelling, which is beginning to happen as the dry season sets in.

The upwelling is triggered by the same northern trade winds that bring humidity and moisture to the Caribbean side of the country and created the tropical rain forest that these places are world famous for. These same winds become stronger at the beginning of November and are capable of blowing all the way across the continental divide, but by time they go across they have lost all their humidity and are now dry winds that remove the moisture from the Pacific side of the isthmus, causing the dry season for the Pacific side of Central America. In a few places on the isthmus where the mountain are not too high, such as this gulf, the wind gets to the Pacific waters with enough power left to blow the warm surface water off the gulf, which is replaced by cold nutrient-rich water from the bottom. This creates an explosion of plankton, which attracts small creatures that feed on the plankton, which in turn attracts small fish to feed on them, which attracts larger fish and so on and so on. This is upwelling!

The upwelling not only maintains marine life but also seabirds, so this morning we went on zodiac cruises around the small island to look at the seabird colonies. Not only did we see a large number of brown pelicans, brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, and magnificent frigatebirds, we also got some good looks at male frigatebirds with their red gular pouches inflated for courtship, and some brown booby chicks. 

The rest of the day we were cruising on the lookout for marine wildlife, and had sightings of pantropical spotted dolphins, green sea turtles and more seabirds.