Otoque & Bona Archipelago, Bay of Panama and the Pacific Locks of the Panama Canal
Contrast is the word for this trip. Our first days we walked, kayaked and Zodiac rode through the lushness of the rainforest in Costa Rica, and then it was time for Panama to amaze us by opening our eyes to another world: an underwater garden of colors. Today was no different, after navigating for 190 nautical miles, the bright tropical sun lead us to an idyllic archipelago made of three volcanic islands. One of the islands is inhabited by humans and the other two have been completely overtaken by seabirds.
This archipelago has one of the many seabird colonies found within the Bay of Panama. Why? Well, Central Panama lacks high mountain ranges allowing the northeasterly trade winds to blow from the Caribbean all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The power of these winds moves the warm ocean water on the surface, which is poor in nutrients, and lets the cold nutritious water from the bottom rise to the top. This phenomenon is called an upwelling. The zooplankton madly feed on these nutrients, in turn they will be eaten by smaller fish, which later will be eaten by medium size fish, which then will be caught by bigger fish like mackerels… and so the food chain goes on and on. Therefore, the waters surrounding these islands are as delicious, at least for marine animals, as a seafood restaurant opened 24/7. As a result, we were able to see brown boobies, blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans and even the mating display of the frigatebirds with their red balloon-like gular pouch.
Yet, what does this upwelling have to do with the countless number of seabirds we saw during our Zodiac rides? First, seabirds spend most of their lives at sea, landing just to nest. Pelicans and frigates build their nest up in trees, and boobies make theirs on rocky ledges, therefore they all live in areas with little or no predators, which are normally isolated small rocky islands. Second, the rich food waters allow large numbers of brown pelicans to plunge dive for fish, the boobies to dart as deep as 45 feet to catch food and the frigatebirds to snatch jellyfish from the water’s surface.
After lunch, we left behind these bird islands and made our way to another wonder of the world, though this one made by man: the Panama Canal. With the sunset on our backs and Panama City as a frame, the National Geographic Sea Lion began its transit through the Pacific Locks of the Canal. The first two steps are the Miraflores Locks and the third step is Pedro Miguel Locks, all three together raised us 85 feet from sea level. With a beautiful moon as our witness, we kept on our transit through the narrowest part of the canal the Culebra Cut, to drop anchor finally in the manmade Gatun Lake, starting point for tomorrow’s adventure.
