Barro Colorado Island & Gatun Locks, Panama

This morning we had a visit from a real tropical rain forest scientist; that one you picture just in the movies, a very low profile person but as soon as he started talking you acknowledge how brilliant he is. He has been on the island for close to 40 years, he has done a lot of research and written many books. His name is Egbert Leigh, and he came to give us a quick introduction to the forest we were just about to explore. He talked about it like he was talking about his backyard, and actually it is.

Barro Colorado Island (BCI) has been administrated by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute since the 1940’s and until the moment is the most studied, mapped and controlled rain forest in the world. This is a unique stop on our trip; because no other ship is allowed to cut its Panama Canal transit in half in order to visit the island.

A group of guests decided to walk the rainforest for the last time on the trip. They were rewarded by amazing sights of howler monkeys, which were as loud as they could be, and a troop of very hurried white-faced monkeys that swung above our heads like they were going late to work. Then to top that, a species of monkey that is quite hard to spot because of its small size and habit of moving high up in the canopy, the red-naped tamarind. For the birdwatchers we had lucky sights of crested guans, bat falcons and a silent, but impressive, white hawk, rarely seen inside the forest.

But not all the good news came from the forest walks, the rest of the guests that took the Zodiac rides came back with great stories of crocodiles, toucans, sloths and wild troops of monkeys that made the end of their visit to the rainforest just memorable.

We spent the morning in Mother Nature’s creation, and the afternoon crossing a humankind wonder, the Panama Canal Caribbean locks, Gatun Locks. The container carrier Mekong accompanied us in order to save water in our transit. Smoothly, we were downloaded the same 82 feet that we were raised yesterday afternoon. And so, we came to the end of our crossing and to the end of our trip. Many new things we have learned along the way, some new friends we have added to our life, and countless experiences we will treasure in our hearts.