Gulf of Panama, Bona & Otoque Islands & the Panama Canal
After a very calm cruising from our Coiba Island exploration site, we entered the Gulf of Panama early this morning. Today we are just a few hours away from one of the definite highlights of this trip, the Panama Canal. However, while we make our way towards it, we have the wonderful opportunity of visiting three small islands just 22 miles off Panama City and the entrance to the Panama Canal.
Our ship anchored just a few meters off the edge of Bona Island, one of the three that form this miniature archipelago, and set out in our Zodiacs to birdwatch. Here we saw what we have not seen before, large numbers of marine birds that include brown pelicans, blue-footed and brown boobies, magnificent frigatebirds, a few yellow-crowned night herons and great egrets. Our immediate inquiry is, why are they here and not somewhere else?
The Panama mountain ranges take a break right in this area, and they leave a gap through which strong trade winds from the northeast gush. As these winds move in, they remove the warmer waters of the surface away, and as that empty space has to be replaced by something, the much colder waters of the bottom come up. These waters are not only cold, but also rich with nutrients that have accumulated underneath. As the waters come up, they create a circular movement known as an upwelling; they are then nutritious enough to support large quantities of life... in the case of the Panama Gulf, life in the form of fish that support large quantities of marine bird life in return. We were pleasantly surprised by the islands as we could see unusual numbers of blue-footed boobies and brown booby and magnificent frigatebird’s nestlings.
All of these birds are adapted for their way of life. They all can swim, fly, dive, and fish above the water surface looking for their food, all except the frigatebirds. These birds have sacrificed all of this for maneuverability in the air; they are as airborne as no other animal is. Today we were witnesses of that; a white headed juvenile did what experience tells older individuals not to do: miscalculate. This animal somehow got trapped in the water, as they are incapable of lifting flight once they get waterlogged, it was pretty much doomed. One of our Zodiac groups was there in time and rescued it from its inescapable fate. Wet, exhausted, scared and disoriented, it was brought on board and left to dry and rest on the bridge deck. Less than two hours later, it took off onto the rocky edge of the nearest island. Hopefully it learned an important lesson as it had been given a second chance.
As we all saw the bird go back to its home, we also saw our ship approach our anchorage spot at Flamenco, the entrance to the Panama Canal. Today is a great example of the old saying “Hurry up and wait.” We need to be on time to our appointment by the Canal’s entrance. We can not make the Panama Canal Authorities wait, but they sure can make us wait. It is, in a way, good as this gives us time to take a well-deserved nap after a very busy week to recharge batteries for a long afternoon and evening going through the longer of our two Canal crossing segments.
Today we will go under the official first part of the Canal crossing: the Bridge of the Americas, then through the Miraflores Locks into the Miraflores Lake, through the Pedro Miguel Locks, the infamous Culebra or Gaillard Cut and into the Gatun Lake. We can hardly wait to begin our transit through the most famous of all the canals in the western world.
