Otoque, Bona & Taboga Islands, Panamá
Today we awoke cruising our way across the Gulf of Panama on our way to the Panama Canal. This gulf in not only a big one, but is as well one of the places on the pacific coast of Central America where you can see what is called a seasonal upwelling. This is triggered by the trade winds that are blowing across the Atlantic ocean harvesting humidity and bringing it to the east coast of the Isthmus to create the green lush tropical rain forest that is in that side of the country.
During the wintertime of the northern hemisphere, these winds get much stronger and are capable of blowing all the way across the Isthmus. By the time they go across the mountain range and reach the Pacific side, they have left all the humidity in the Atlantic, thus becoming dry strong winds that blow away all the clouds and humidity that otherwise would be coming into the Pacific by pacific winds; thus they give the rise to the dry season of Central America. Now, in some low gaps of the mountain range (like you have in the Gulf of Panama), the winds get to the coast with enough power to blow away all the warm sterile water of the surface and let it be replaced by cold nutrient-rich water from the bottom, creating an explosion of plankton. This brings small fish that, as well, will attract other fish and so on, creating this upwelling.
Today we took advantage of this and went on Zodiac cruises to explore these waters and the sea bird communities that they support where we got great looks of brown pelicans, brown boobies, cormorants, some blue footed boobies, and magnificent frigatebirds, with the males in full courtship with their red gular pouch inflated to attract a mate.
After our lunch, we had a unique opportunity to do one more excursion before getting into the business of Canal crossing, and made a landing on Taboga Island. This was one of the many islands used and attacked by pirates and buccaneers and is now used as a recreational place for weekends where you can get away from the city and enjoy its picturesque town and nice waters.
And that is exactly what we did, with the special aid and warm invitation of our Hotel Manager, Erasmo Estripeaut, who has his mother and life in the island. They were extremely kind opening their house to us for a nice afternoon with ice cream.
After all this, we were ready to put a nice fine ending to our day by beginning of the first part of our transit of the Panama Canal.
Today we awoke cruising our way across the Gulf of Panama on our way to the Panama Canal. This gulf in not only a big one, but is as well one of the places on the pacific coast of Central America where you can see what is called a seasonal upwelling. This is triggered by the trade winds that are blowing across the Atlantic ocean harvesting humidity and bringing it to the east coast of the Isthmus to create the green lush tropical rain forest that is in that side of the country.
During the wintertime of the northern hemisphere, these winds get much stronger and are capable of blowing all the way across the Isthmus. By the time they go across the mountain range and reach the Pacific side, they have left all the humidity in the Atlantic, thus becoming dry strong winds that blow away all the clouds and humidity that otherwise would be coming into the Pacific by pacific winds; thus they give the rise to the dry season of Central America. Now, in some low gaps of the mountain range (like you have in the Gulf of Panama), the winds get to the coast with enough power to blow away all the warm sterile water of the surface and let it be replaced by cold nutrient-rich water from the bottom, creating an explosion of plankton. This brings small fish that, as well, will attract other fish and so on, creating this upwelling.
Today we took advantage of this and went on Zodiac cruises to explore these waters and the sea bird communities that they support where we got great looks of brown pelicans, brown boobies, cormorants, some blue footed boobies, and magnificent frigatebirds, with the males in full courtship with their red gular pouch inflated to attract a mate.
After our lunch, we had a unique opportunity to do one more excursion before getting into the business of Canal crossing, and made a landing on Taboga Island. This was one of the many islands used and attacked by pirates and buccaneers and is now used as a recreational place for weekends where you can get away from the city and enjoy its picturesque town and nice waters.
And that is exactly what we did, with the special aid and warm invitation of our Hotel Manager, Erasmo Estripeaut, who has his mother and life in the island. They were extremely kind opening their house to us for a nice afternoon with ice cream.
After all this, we were ready to put a nice fine ending to our day by beginning of the first part of our transit of the Panama Canal.
