Barro Colorado Island & the Panama Canal
We started the Panama Canal transit yesterday afternoon. We are the only ship that does not cross at once and is allowed to remain within the lake’s area. We split the crossing in two: we started last night through the Miraflores Locks and continued this evening, through the Gatun Locks, to complete the transit from the south (Pacific Ocean) to the north (Caribbean Sea) of Panama.
Our last tropical rainforest outing was on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), right in the middle of the Gatun Lake. This island has been a biological research station since 1923, just after the area was isolated from the mainland by the creation of Lake Gatun, At that time, there were a few very small farms around where the laboratories are now, and as a result of the continuing protection and biological interest, BCI has become one of the most studied sites in the Neotropics. The island became a subdivision of the Smithsonian Institute in 1946, and since then more than one hundred scientists visit the island each year. Names such as Alexander, Chapman, Skutch, Emerson, Fairchild, Standley, Zetek and others have provided a lot of the natural history and systematics’ knowledge for the ecological and behavioral research that has become the everyday information for naturalist guides.
We could roam the trails of this icon of tropical biology this morning. We split in three groups, some that wished to take the last longer walk, those that wished to still wander the forest, but for a shorter distance, and those who chose to take a Zodiac cruise along the edge of the forest. All of us came back with stories of spotting wildlife – we spotted sloths, monkeys and Geoffrey’s tamarins – and stories of hot and humid trails.
Our day went in crescendo as we finished our journey through the Panama Canal, onto the port of Cristobal. Immigration authorities came on board, we got our stamp of Panama, and thus ended our trip on the wild side of Costa Rica and Panama.
We started the Panama Canal transit yesterday afternoon. We are the only ship that does not cross at once and is allowed to remain within the lake’s area. We split the crossing in two: we started last night through the Miraflores Locks and continued this evening, through the Gatun Locks, to complete the transit from the south (Pacific Ocean) to the north (Caribbean Sea) of Panama.
Our last tropical rainforest outing was on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), right in the middle of the Gatun Lake. This island has been a biological research station since 1923, just after the area was isolated from the mainland by the creation of Lake Gatun, At that time, there were a few very small farms around where the laboratories are now, and as a result of the continuing protection and biological interest, BCI has become one of the most studied sites in the Neotropics. The island became a subdivision of the Smithsonian Institute in 1946, and since then more than one hundred scientists visit the island each year. Names such as Alexander, Chapman, Skutch, Emerson, Fairchild, Standley, Zetek and others have provided a lot of the natural history and systematics’ knowledge for the ecological and behavioral research that has become the everyday information for naturalist guides.
We could roam the trails of this icon of tropical biology this morning. We split in three groups, some that wished to take the last longer walk, those that wished to still wander the forest, but for a shorter distance, and those who chose to take a Zodiac cruise along the edge of the forest. All of us came back with stories of spotting wildlife – we spotted sloths, monkeys and Geoffrey’s tamarins – and stories of hot and humid trails.
Our day went in crescendo as we finished our journey through the Panama Canal, onto the port of Cristobal. Immigration authorities came on board, we got our stamp of Panama, and thus ended our trip on the wild side of Costa Rica and Panama.
