Panama Canal & Barro Colorado Island, Panama
This week’s adventure began last night, when most of us arrived at Tocumen airport in Panama City and took our transfer into Colon, the northern side of the Panama Isthmus. Our ship was waiting for us, as was the first part of our transit through one of the wonders of the modern world: The Panama Canal. As soon as our pilot arrived, Capt. Chen, we lifted anchor and headed to the first set of locks, the Gatun Locks.
After spending the night in the middle of manmade Gatun Lake, we moved towards our morning destination, one of the world’s most productive tropical biology research stations: Barro Colorado Island or BCI. This island was “formed” when the rising waters of the Gatun Lake isolated it from mainland following the achievement of the Canal in 1914. We had the chance – which not many people have by the way – to walk the trails within the island. Every year, many scientists come to BCI (last year the number skyrocketed to 1100 of them!!) to acquire new information on tropical forest ecology, dynamics, population density, etc. As we split our group into smaller subgroups for our different options this morning, we couldn’t help but wonder what the first explorers of in this area felt. Walking into what is unknown to most of us is both frightening and exciting, as most things that are worth experiencing are.
The rest of our afternoon involved waiting for the Panama Canal Pilot to arrive to lead us through the second half of our crossing, crossing under the Centennial Bridge, through the Gaillard or Culebra Cut, going through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks, going under the Bridge of the Americas, and entering the Pacific Ocean… Wow! Not at all bad for our first full day!
This week’s adventure began last night, when most of us arrived at Tocumen airport in Panama City and took our transfer into Colon, the northern side of the Panama Isthmus. Our ship was waiting for us, as was the first part of our transit through one of the wonders of the modern world: The Panama Canal. As soon as our pilot arrived, Capt. Chen, we lifted anchor and headed to the first set of locks, the Gatun Locks.
After spending the night in the middle of manmade Gatun Lake, we moved towards our morning destination, one of the world’s most productive tropical biology research stations: Barro Colorado Island or BCI. This island was “formed” when the rising waters of the Gatun Lake isolated it from mainland following the achievement of the Canal in 1914. We had the chance – which not many people have by the way – to walk the trails within the island. Every year, many scientists come to BCI (last year the number skyrocketed to 1100 of them!!) to acquire new information on tropical forest ecology, dynamics, population density, etc. As we split our group into smaller subgroups for our different options this morning, we couldn’t help but wonder what the first explorers of in this area felt. Walking into what is unknown to most of us is both frightening and exciting, as most things that are worth experiencing are.
The rest of our afternoon involved waiting for the Panama Canal Pilot to arrive to lead us through the second half of our crossing, crossing under the Centennial Bridge, through the Gaillard or Culebra Cut, going through the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores Locks, going under the Bridge of the Americas, and entering the Pacific Ocean… Wow! Not at all bad for our first full day!
