Yesterday seems like a long time ago! We were so full of activities and excitement that it actually feels more like many days packed into one. After leaving the modern city of Panama, with all of its new skyscrapers on the Pacific coast, and traveling by bus across the narrow isthmus of Panama through lush-green vegetation, we arrived to the port of Colon on the Caribbean coast where National Geographic Sea Lion awaited for us. Then, once onboard our home for the next days, as we went through all of the mandatory introductions with crew, staff and the ship itself, we started to sail to the entrance of the Gatun Locks of the Panama Canal. We had a delicious dinner while we waited for another small ship to catch up with us before entering the first set of locks with it.
Inside the canal it was impressive to see, under bright lights, a well-practiced coordinated operation. Locomotives moving back and forth, giant doors opening and closing, in front and back of even bigger ships loaded with containers, and many men and women moving and passing cables. All under the sound of constant radio communication, ringing bells and horns blowing.
After all this activity in crescendo, we finally spent the rest of the night, quietly anchored 85 feet above sea sea-level in the man-made Gatun Lake.
Early in the morning we woke to have breakfast by the famous Island of Barro Colorado, our destination for today. Once the top of a hill before the construction of the canal, it is hard to conceive the foresight of the people of that time to preserve this area for study and research. Run by the Smithsonian institute, today a good portion of the knowledge about the tropical rainforest has and is still gathered here. indeed, inch by inch this is one of the most intensely studied places on the surface of the planet.
We feel honored to walk the trails of Barro Colorado Island. During our walks and expedition landing craft cruises this morning we saw several bird, mammal, and reptile species. Worth mentioning were the attentive and immobile crocodiles at the water’s edge, loud howler monkeys on the treetops, and hyperactive agoutis, running around the forest floor and laboratory gardens.
The rest of the evening we spent sailing across the rest of the Panama Canal, and through the other set of locks on the Pacific side, Pedro Miguel and Miraflores.
We finally arrived full circle back to the Pacific coast in front of the Panama City skyline to spend our second night onboard National Geographic Sea Lion.
