Barro Colorado Island and the Panama Canal, Panama
Today was a day of contrasts! Early in the morning we walked or ventured through the rainforest, and during the afternoon, we moved on to our second half of one of the modern world’s wonders: the Panama Canal!
Our adventure today began on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a 1500ha island isolated from the surrounding mainland between 1910 and 1914, when the Rio Chagres was dammed to form the central part of the Panama Canal. BCI was declared a reserve in 1923. When the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was established in 1965, BCI became one of their research sites. This island has been attracting biologists since 1916, and since the 1950’s, it has been rendered readily accessible from the city, and the pace of study here has accelerated remarkably. Nowadays it is one of the best studied tracts of topical forest in the world. The island is completely forested except for a few small man-made clearings, of which the largest is the laboratory clearing. We disembarked onto the station’s dock to meet our guides and gathered at an auditorium for a quick introduction to the island, after which we split into the groups that would walk the trails and those of us who would take the Zodiac cruises around the lake. To our surprise, we spotted a US Naval Ship called the Watson, and its escort boat approached our Zodiac and made us stop right in the middle of the lake until the Naval vessel passed us. We wondered if seven days in the tropics made us look liks a possible threat to a one million ton ship…?
The Panama Canal is a lock-type canal, approximately 53 miles long, that unites the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean at one of the narrowest points of both the Isthums of Panama and the American Continent. Last night, we crossed the two sets of locks on the Pacific side: the Miraflores and the Pedro Miguel locks, and today, off we went towards the Caribbean side to the port of Cristobal. The Canal operates as water lifts to elevate ships 26 meters above sea level to the level of Gatun Lake, and then lowers them back to sea level on the opposite side of the Isthmus. True to its reputation, the Caribbean slope welcomed us with a heavy rain shower, maybe to wash away our last-day-of-the-trip blues…
Today was a day of contrasts! Early in the morning we walked or ventured through the rainforest, and during the afternoon, we moved on to our second half of one of the modern world’s wonders: the Panama Canal!
Our adventure today began on Barro Colorado Island (BCI), a 1500ha island isolated from the surrounding mainland between 1910 and 1914, when the Rio Chagres was dammed to form the central part of the Panama Canal. BCI was declared a reserve in 1923. When the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was established in 1965, BCI became one of their research sites. This island has been attracting biologists since 1916, and since the 1950’s, it has been rendered readily accessible from the city, and the pace of study here has accelerated remarkably. Nowadays it is one of the best studied tracts of topical forest in the world. The island is completely forested except for a few small man-made clearings, of which the largest is the laboratory clearing. We disembarked onto the station’s dock to meet our guides and gathered at an auditorium for a quick introduction to the island, after which we split into the groups that would walk the trails and those of us who would take the Zodiac cruises around the lake. To our surprise, we spotted a US Naval Ship called the Watson, and its escort boat approached our Zodiac and made us stop right in the middle of the lake until the Naval vessel passed us. We wondered if seven days in the tropics made us look liks a possible threat to a one million ton ship…?
The Panama Canal is a lock-type canal, approximately 53 miles long, that unites the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean at one of the narrowest points of both the Isthums of Panama and the American Continent. Last night, we crossed the two sets of locks on the Pacific side: the Miraflores and the Pedro Miguel locks, and today, off we went towards the Caribbean side to the port of Cristobal. The Canal operates as water lifts to elevate ships 26 meters above sea level to the level of Gatun Lake, and then lowers them back to sea level on the opposite side of the Isthmus. True to its reputation, the Caribbean slope welcomed us with a heavy rain shower, maybe to wash away our last-day-of-the-trip blues…
