Panama Canal and Barro Colorado Reserve
After crossing the Gatun Locks in the Panama Canal the previous night, the Sea Voyager sailed through the night and anchored off the shore of Barro Colorado Island; this was our first destination on our first full day of the expedition.
Barro Colorado is a former mountain top that became an island once the Chagres River was dammed and the area was flooded to create Gatun Lake in the middle of the Panama Canal. Barro Colorado is administered by the Smithsonian Institute and is the site of major scientific research. More than 300 publications are published a year, and it is virtually impossible to study tropical rainforest without reading about some research done on the island.
Our first day of rainforest exploration was full of wildlife. On our arrival to the island the naturalist spotted a troop of howler monkeys and a three-toed sloth right at the shore. And later, as our exploration on the island continued, other wildlife was added to the list such as keel-billed toucans, white-faced monkeys, an American crocodile and some of the little but still amazing members of the rainforest such as army ants and leaf-cutter ants.
After a well deserved lunch to recover the energy we spent in the morning, our vessel continued its transit of the Panama Canal, making the crossing of the Miraflores Locks and our entrance into the Pacific Ocean. In times of computers and high tech some times the simple way is the best way. Today, the Panama Canal still uses a row boat to transfer the lines that hold the ship through the transit between the ships and the mules. Our day began with the admiration of nature’s engineering in the rainforest and it ended with admiration of the incredible human engineering it took to build a shortcut between two oceans; the Panama Canal.
After crossing the Gatun Locks in the Panama Canal the previous night, the Sea Voyager sailed through the night and anchored off the shore of Barro Colorado Island; this was our first destination on our first full day of the expedition.
Barro Colorado is a former mountain top that became an island once the Chagres River was dammed and the area was flooded to create Gatun Lake in the middle of the Panama Canal. Barro Colorado is administered by the Smithsonian Institute and is the site of major scientific research. More than 300 publications are published a year, and it is virtually impossible to study tropical rainforest without reading about some research done on the island.
Our first day of rainforest exploration was full of wildlife. On our arrival to the island the naturalist spotted a troop of howler monkeys and a three-toed sloth right at the shore. And later, as our exploration on the island continued, other wildlife was added to the list such as keel-billed toucans, white-faced monkeys, an American crocodile and some of the little but still amazing members of the rainforest such as army ants and leaf-cutter ants.
After a well deserved lunch to recover the energy we spent in the morning, our vessel continued its transit of the Panama Canal, making the crossing of the Miraflores Locks and our entrance into the Pacific Ocean. In times of computers and high tech some times the simple way is the best way. Today, the Panama Canal still uses a row boat to transfer the lines that hold the ship through the transit between the ships and the mules. Our day began with the admiration of nature’s engineering in the rainforest and it ended with admiration of the incredible human engineering it took to build a shortcut between two oceans; the Panama Canal.
