Barro Colorado Island & Panama Canal, Gatun Locks
Why does time goes so fast when we are having a good time? Today was our last full day from a week of adventures, a great combination of Mother Nature and human nature engineering.
We started the day by visiting Barro Colorado Island, one of the most studied tropical ecosystems since the 1940’s. The red-dirt hill became an island when the Chagres River was dammed to created the Gatun Lake, the principal source of fresh water for the operation of the Panama Canal.
The island is administrated by the Smithsonian Institute and therefore has been a major source of information and an open laboratory for the most world recognize tropical biologists.
For today’s exploration into the wild, we had two options; one of them was to take a Zodiac cruise, around the edges of the island, which actually gives more chances to spot wildlife due to the open view. Our experienced guides spotted several toucans, howler and spider monkeys.
The other option was walking through the heart and soul of this ecosystem. Tropical rain forests are more complex than their temperate counterparts, allowing many more different species to thrive in the same area. Towering trees, entangled liana vines, hundreds of flowers, plants living on top of others and leaves in hundreds of different shapes are just a few of the factors that increase the resources from which animals can be specialized; as long as each species stably exploits a resource without competing with other one, the biodiversity will increase. A good example is the two species of monkeys we saw today, both live in the canopy, both are diurnal, both lives in the same forest but the howler feeds on leaves while the spider prefers fruits, and therefore they can live in the same habitat.
After our last close up and personal experience with the forest, we proceeded with the other half of our transit through one the wonders of the world, the Panama Canal. Around noon we all were back on board, as well as our new Panama Canal Pilot who took us to the next set of locks, three steps down, 85 feet lower and the Caribbean Sea on the horizon. Seven days went by… embroidered with amazing memories, new friendships and hundreds of stories to tell and to remember.
Why does time goes so fast when we are having a good time? Today was our last full day from a week of adventures, a great combination of Mother Nature and human nature engineering.
We started the day by visiting Barro Colorado Island, one of the most studied tropical ecosystems since the 1940’s. The red-dirt hill became an island when the Chagres River was dammed to created the Gatun Lake, the principal source of fresh water for the operation of the Panama Canal.
The island is administrated by the Smithsonian Institute and therefore has been a major source of information and an open laboratory for the most world recognize tropical biologists.
For today’s exploration into the wild, we had two options; one of them was to take a Zodiac cruise, around the edges of the island, which actually gives more chances to spot wildlife due to the open view. Our experienced guides spotted several toucans, howler and spider monkeys.
The other option was walking through the heart and soul of this ecosystem. Tropical rain forests are more complex than their temperate counterparts, allowing many more different species to thrive in the same area. Towering trees, entangled liana vines, hundreds of flowers, plants living on top of others and leaves in hundreds of different shapes are just a few of the factors that increase the resources from which animals can be specialized; as long as each species stably exploits a resource without competing with other one, the biodiversity will increase. A good example is the two species of monkeys we saw today, both live in the canopy, both are diurnal, both lives in the same forest but the howler feeds on leaves while the spider prefers fruits, and therefore they can live in the same habitat.
After our last close up and personal experience with the forest, we proceeded with the other half of our transit through one the wonders of the world, the Panama Canal. Around noon we all were back on board, as well as our new Panama Canal Pilot who took us to the next set of locks, three steps down, 85 feet lower and the Caribbean Sea on the horizon. Seven days went by… embroidered with amazing memories, new friendships and hundreds of stories to tell and to remember.
