Today was our first full day of expedition on board National Geographic Sea Lion between Panama and Costa Rica; however, to be honest the trip started last night right as we got on board, we entered the Panama Canal by the Caribbean through the first set of locks known as Gatun. In Gatun we were raised 85 feet above sea level to Gatun Lake which happens to be the constant level of the Panama Canal.
So today we awoke in the middle of the Panama Canal, in front of what is called BCI which means Barro Colorado Island, or Red Clay Island. BCI happens to be the biggest island created when they flooded the land to create the Panama Canal.
BCI is not only important for being the biggest land mass standing out of the waters of the canal but on top of that is provably on of the most well studied tropical rain forest of the world, the place has been study even before becoming an island and when it became an island was declared a biological preserve site. Later, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute started to administrate, so this is one of the few places of earth that has been studied for over 100 years, making it a researcher’s dream, a scientist playground.
National Geographic Sea Lion is the only vessel allowed to stop the regular transit of the Panama Canal to explore BCI. We took advantage of the opportunity, and attended an introduction of the place by one of their researchers. Afterwards, we went into the trails or around the island with our expedition landing crafts looking for wild life and learning about their different projects.
Once we had our first taste of tropical rain forest we were back on board ready to continue on our transit across the Panama Canal making our way to the Pacific Ocean.
