Barro Colorado Island & Gatun Locks, Panama
Today is the last day from this wonderful trip that started back in Costa Rica almost a week ago. We have been exploring the lush rainforest, kayaking through mangrove ecosystems, and snorkeling along stunning colorful reefs with spectacular fishes. We have been navigating along the pacific coast of these “geologically speaking” young countries, which as they rose from the ocean’s bottom separated sea waters but united two continents, in a massive interexchange of flora and fauna.
Our outing of today is very exclusive as the NG Sea Lion is the only vessel allowed to cut its Canal Transit in two in order to visit this island. Barro Colorado Island (BCI) became a protected area around the 1920’s right after the Chagres river was dammed in order to hold water for the Panama Canal operations. Around the 1940’s it was taken under the administration of the Smithsonian Institute, and since then has become the most famous tropical rainforest research area in the world.
The rainforest in the tropics is much more complex that its counterpart in temperate areas. There are more bird species just in Panama than in the whole USA and Canada together. The climate remains steady year-round, but with very capricious daily weather; therefore animals do not have to migrate and plants must not go dormant. Light is the major concern for the plant life, and to answer that, trees tend to grow over 120 ft. and then they will be used by hundreds of other plants as ladders in their quest to the canopy. Reaching the canopy or near it, is a sort of living in a penthouse or a house with an ocean view for us. But many plants remains hanging in the understory creating a thick lush habitat, which makes us feel in the heart of the jungle.
In order to explore the forest, the guest divided into two options: a Zodiac ride along the perimeters of the island, where they had great sightings of crocodiles, monkeys and toucans, or a walk through the woods, where we had amazing views of a troop of spider monkeys, with a couple of mothers carrying their young as they made their way through the tops of the trees.
Among all this great experiences, we still had the rest of the day to enjoy the second half of our transit through the Panama Canal. The weather could not have been better, a nice breeze and blue skies framed the passage of the NG Sea Lion to the Caribbean shore of Panama.
We started the trip with great expectations and we ended it with even better memoires.
