Bona Island
I feel a cool soft breeze as soon as I wake up. There is definitely something different about this new area, the Gulf of Panama. The wind blows from the northeast, the seas are a little choppy, and there is an agreeable wind that refreshes my face when I step outside while I watch sunrise.
These same winds push the surface water to the southwest, creating upwellings of cool, rich-in-nutrients water that fill in the empty space. With upwellings there are fish, and therefore there are sea birds. And hundreds of magnificent frigate birds flew around our heads as we explored the shoreline of Bona Island. We witnessed the whole life cycle of frigates, since the moment males start displaying gular pouches to get the attention of females, until chicks grow independent, healthy and huge. Together with frigates there were brown pelicans, brown boobies and blue footed boobies. Heaven for sea birds! And a magnificent experience for all of us, as we enjoyed a group of tropical dry forest islands with so many sea birds nesting and in flight.
This is Panama in the morning, only 24 nautical miles away from the Panama Canal. The engineering marvel of our time waits for us. In the evening we start going through; the canal is all lightened up, so we can clearly observe every feature.
It seems like long ago when we were having a bonfire and watching the stars at Corcovado National Park, or when we had cocktails at the sky deck to celebrate the arrival to Panama. But it’s been all in the same week, a week exploring Central America on board Sea Voyager, on a fantastic Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.
I feel a cool soft breeze as soon as I wake up. There is definitely something different about this new area, the Gulf of Panama. The wind blows from the northeast, the seas are a little choppy, and there is an agreeable wind that refreshes my face when I step outside while I watch sunrise.
These same winds push the surface water to the southwest, creating upwellings of cool, rich-in-nutrients water that fill in the empty space. With upwellings there are fish, and therefore there are sea birds. And hundreds of magnificent frigate birds flew around our heads as we explored the shoreline of Bona Island. We witnessed the whole life cycle of frigates, since the moment males start displaying gular pouches to get the attention of females, until chicks grow independent, healthy and huge. Together with frigates there were brown pelicans, brown boobies and blue footed boobies. Heaven for sea birds! And a magnificent experience for all of us, as we enjoyed a group of tropical dry forest islands with so many sea birds nesting and in flight.
This is Panama in the morning, only 24 nautical miles away from the Panama Canal. The engineering marvel of our time waits for us. In the evening we start going through; the canal is all lightened up, so we can clearly observe every feature.
It seems like long ago when we were having a bonfire and watching the stars at Corcovado National Park, or when we had cocktails at the sky deck to celebrate the arrival to Panama. But it’s been all in the same week, a week exploring Central America on board Sea Voyager, on a fantastic Lindblad-National Geographic expedition.
