After a peaceful night of sleep anchored in Gatun Lake, the morning began with a gentle yoga class on the sundeck. This is always a nice way to start your morning.
The sound of the anchor being dropped announced that we had arrived at our destination, Barro Colorado Island (BCI). Shortly after breakfast, Dr. Egbert Leigh, a well-known scientist here, came aboard National Geographic Sea Lion for a presentation on BCI and what kind of research is done here on the island. He has spent about 45 years learning about the wonders of this tropical rain forest.
Barro Colorado Island is one of the most important research facilities run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. Here, local naturalists who are trained by Smithsonian Tropical Institute led us on a long morning hike over trails in the tropical dense rain forest. It was beautiful. The loud buzzing of the cicadas never let up, and the deep howl of the howler monkey beaming through the rain forest was amazing. The island used to be a hill and with the creation of Gatun Lake, it became an island. Many species of animals were trapped on this island. We saw some of them, like the Central American agouties, slaty-tailed trogons, black and green dart frogs, and much more.
After our morning expedition we headed back to our vessel for lunch and waited for our third pilot to come aboard so we could continue our way through the Panama Canal. As soon as he arrived, we weighed anchor and started navigating toward the last set of locks on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal - Gatun Locks. As we cruised, we had the opportunity to see the big extension of the lake with part of the hill tops that became little islands.
We soon arrived at Gatun Locks and a water taxi approached us, bringing the line handlers to assist us through the locks. As our ship was attached to the four locomotives, we started our last transit through Gatun Locks. We enjoyed watching the gates close behind us and the transferring of water that lowered us down to sea level.
We were coming to the end of our voyage, heading into the Caribbean Sea. We have seen so much in the past week, and created great memories.
