I am sitting in the cozy lounge and library on National Geographic Quest, adding to the list of wildlife we’ve seen on our journey through Panama and Colombia: three-toed sloths, seven howler monkeys, a family of capybaras, five white-faced capuchin monkeys, three Geoffrey tamarins, one agouti, four snail kites, hundreds of migrating vultures, a limpkin, two red-capped manakin, one crocodile, one turtle, a harem of bats…
The list is extensive and remarkable, especially considering that today was the first full day of our journey together. It was only yesterday afternoon that we boarded our expedition style ship and only last night when we started our journey together in a rather unique way. We gathered on the ship’s sundeck to watch sunset as we began to cross the Panama Canal. Electric locomotives guided our ship through the narrow locks, and we all looked on with amazement. We had special permission to overnight in Panama Canal’s vast Gatun Lake, which allowed us to start our morning on Barro Colorado Island, a 38,000-acre island that is home to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and a lush rainforest teeming with diverse wildlife.
We hiked through the jungle and took Zodiacs across the vast lake to explore the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center. After a morning of adventure, we returned to the ship for a beautiful lunch. Afterward, we had a presentation from our photography team and learned how to use our phones to take more compelling and meaningful images. As if this day wasn’t great enough, we then hopped on traditional boats and went on a naturalist-led tour of the area. The day wound down with sunset cocktails on the sundeck followed by a beautiful dinner buffet. It was truly a dream first day.
