Barro Del Colorado Island, Panama Canal
Today was our first official day of our voyage between Panama and Costa Rica and it was a great beginning experience, exploring two great wonders of this part of the world: the tropical rain forest and the famous Panama Canal.
But in reality our excitement began yesterday right after we boarded the Sea Voyager and got on our way to cross the first three sets of locks of the Panama Canal on the Caribbean side, known as the Gatun locks. Under the command of the Panama Canal pilot we had a beautifully smooth crossing with the great luck of being the only ship on our way up to the Gatun Lake; having the locks just for ourselves, we saw all the different aspects of the canal, what a nice evening that was.
This morning we awoke anchored halfway through the canal right in front of the largest island created; when the construction of the canal was ready the U.S. flooded the area to become the Gatun Lake and the Panama Canal.
This is not just any tropical island, this is Barro Del Colorado Island (better known as BCI), which has been managed by the Smithsonian Institute since 1946. One of the most studied and researched tropical rain forests in the world, it is literally a Mecca for tropical scientists.
This was our first encounter with tropical forest! Not bad I’d say. Right after breakfast we went on different hikes and Zodiac cruises to explore this playground of science and learn about some of the research taking place here as well seen some of the wild life living in this tropical forest. And our experience was full of sightings: howler monkeys, spider monkeys, white throated capuchin monkeys, coatis, agouties, toucans and even American crocodiles.
The rest of our day we made our way through the last leg the Panama Canal, crossing Culebra Cut and the last three sets of locks to be lowered about 85 feet to the level of the Pacific Ocean. This is truly one of the modern wonders of the twentieth century.
Today was our first official day of our voyage between Panama and Costa Rica and it was a great beginning experience, exploring two great wonders of this part of the world: the tropical rain forest and the famous Panama Canal.
But in reality our excitement began yesterday right after we boarded the Sea Voyager and got on our way to cross the first three sets of locks of the Panama Canal on the Caribbean side, known as the Gatun locks. Under the command of the Panama Canal pilot we had a beautifully smooth crossing with the great luck of being the only ship on our way up to the Gatun Lake; having the locks just for ourselves, we saw all the different aspects of the canal, what a nice evening that was.
This morning we awoke anchored halfway through the canal right in front of the largest island created; when the construction of the canal was ready the U.S. flooded the area to become the Gatun Lake and the Panama Canal.
This is not just any tropical island, this is Barro Del Colorado Island (better known as BCI), which has been managed by the Smithsonian Institute since 1946. One of the most studied and researched tropical rain forests in the world, it is literally a Mecca for tropical scientists.
This was our first encounter with tropical forest! Not bad I’d say. Right after breakfast we went on different hikes and Zodiac cruises to explore this playground of science and learn about some of the research taking place here as well seen some of the wild life living in this tropical forest. And our experience was full of sightings: howler monkeys, spider monkeys, white throated capuchin monkeys, coatis, agouties, toucans and even American crocodiles.
The rest of our day we made our way through the last leg the Panama Canal, crossing Culebra Cut and the last three sets of locks to be lowered about 85 feet to the level of the Pacific Ocean. This is truly one of the modern wonders of the twentieth century.
