Otoque & Bona, Panamá Bay
Today was our second day in Panama and it turned out to be a beautiful one! We started our morning anchoring at the Gulf of Panama, right in from of a group of islands known as Otoque & Bona.
Here we had a morning full of options; one of them was to take a zodiac cruise looking at sea birds and marine life; some of the birds are in the middle of their nesting time and were found in great numbers. We had great sightings of brown boobies, brown pelicans, neotropical cormorants, blue footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds, which by the way, there were some the males with the bright red gular pouch inflated, due courtship time.
The large numbers in sea birds has a good reason, and it is due a seasonal up welling that takes place in the Gulf of Panama and in some other places in Central America at this time of the year. This is caused by the strong trade winds that come to Central America from the east, bringing a large concentration of humidity to the Caribbean coast from the Atlantic Ocean.
As the winds get stronger during this time of the year, they are capable of crossing the Central America’s mountains. This action causes the humidity of the pacific side of the isthmus to be blow away, creating the dry season. Some places with low mountains, as it is the case in the Gulf of Panama, the winds get so strong that causes frequent up wellings. As the warm surface waters are removed, this gets replaced instead by cold, nutritious water coming from the bottom, triggering a blooming of life that goes from plankton to larger fish.
Observing sea birds wildlife was not the only highlight of the morning, as part of our guests had the opportunity to explore one of the fishing towns near by. The island of Otoque holds two towns, both of them dedicated primarily on fishing. We had this morning the opportunity to admire the colorful houses in town and to enjoy the simplest life of a fishing village with no contamination whatsoever from the outside world.
The rest of the afternoon and night we enjoyed the crossing of the first tree set of locks of the Panama Canal in the pacific side, one of the wonders of the modern world!
Today was our second day in Panama and it turned out to be a beautiful one! We started our morning anchoring at the Gulf of Panama, right in from of a group of islands known as Otoque & Bona.
Here we had a morning full of options; one of them was to take a zodiac cruise looking at sea birds and marine life; some of the birds are in the middle of their nesting time and were found in great numbers. We had great sightings of brown boobies, brown pelicans, neotropical cormorants, blue footed boobies and magnificent frigatebirds, which by the way, there were some the males with the bright red gular pouch inflated, due courtship time.
The large numbers in sea birds has a good reason, and it is due a seasonal up welling that takes place in the Gulf of Panama and in some other places in Central America at this time of the year. This is caused by the strong trade winds that come to Central America from the east, bringing a large concentration of humidity to the Caribbean coast from the Atlantic Ocean.
As the winds get stronger during this time of the year, they are capable of crossing the Central America’s mountains. This action causes the humidity of the pacific side of the isthmus to be blow away, creating the dry season. Some places with low mountains, as it is the case in the Gulf of Panama, the winds get so strong that causes frequent up wellings. As the warm surface waters are removed, this gets replaced instead by cold, nutritious water coming from the bottom, triggering a blooming of life that goes from plankton to larger fish.
Observing sea birds wildlife was not the only highlight of the morning, as part of our guests had the opportunity to explore one of the fishing towns near by. The island of Otoque holds two towns, both of them dedicated primarily on fishing. We had this morning the opportunity to admire the colorful houses in town and to enjoy the simplest life of a fishing village with no contamination whatsoever from the outside world.
The rest of the afternoon and night we enjoyed the crossing of the first tree set of locks of the Panama Canal in the pacific side, one of the wonders of the modern world!
