Barro Colorado Island & Panama Canal
Our first morning aboard the Sea Voyager was filled with fabulous sights and sounds.
Some early risers were on the sky deck stretching, as the sun rose over Gatun Lake and the moon could still be seen high in the sky. Yesterday, we left the port city of Colon, and went through our first set of locks, the Gatun Locks, raising us 26 meters above sea level.
After breakfast we took zodiacs to Barro Colorado, an island where the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is located. It is an incredible place for tropical biologists and students to study, due to the large variety of trees, plants, and animals found there. Walking through the dense rainforest and exploring by zodiac, we spotted playful spider monkeys, Howler monkeys, and white-faced capuchin monkeys. Crocodiles, spiders, tiny frogs, birds, ants, bats, and cicadas all call this island home.
As we headed south we passed through the Culebra Cut, the narrowest stretch in the Panama Canal. After passing through the 12.6 kilometer cut, we reached the canal’s second set of locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks. Approximately 197 million liters of fresh water are used for each lockage.
Our last sets of locks, the Miraflores locks, have the tallest and heaviest Canal miter gates, in order to handle the extreme tide fluctuations. The gates each weigh 730 tons and are 25 meters high! We were lowered the final 54 feet to the Pacific Ocean.
As we completed our 80 kilometer navigation through the Panama Canal, we felt fortunate to have experienced such an engineering marvel.
Our first morning aboard the Sea Voyager was filled with fabulous sights and sounds.
Some early risers were on the sky deck stretching, as the sun rose over Gatun Lake and the moon could still be seen high in the sky. Yesterday, we left the port city of Colon, and went through our first set of locks, the Gatun Locks, raising us 26 meters above sea level.
After breakfast we took zodiacs to Barro Colorado, an island where the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is located. It is an incredible place for tropical biologists and students to study, due to the large variety of trees, plants, and animals found there. Walking through the dense rainforest and exploring by zodiac, we spotted playful spider monkeys, Howler monkeys, and white-faced capuchin monkeys. Crocodiles, spiders, tiny frogs, birds, ants, bats, and cicadas all call this island home.
As we headed south we passed through the Culebra Cut, the narrowest stretch in the Panama Canal. After passing through the 12.6 kilometer cut, we reached the canal’s second set of locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks. Approximately 197 million liters of fresh water are used for each lockage.
Our last sets of locks, the Miraflores locks, have the tallest and heaviest Canal miter gates, in order to handle the extreme tide fluctuations. The gates each weigh 730 tons and are 25 meters high! We were lowered the final 54 feet to the Pacific Ocean.
As we completed our 80 kilometer navigation through the Panama Canal, we felt fortunate to have experienced such an engineering marvel.
