Barro Colorado Natural Monument and Panama Canal, Panama
After having crossed half of the Panama Canal the previous night and anchored in Gatun Lake, we woke up this morning by Barro Colorado Natural Monument (BCNM). This natural preserve is a biological station which the Panamanians have allowed the Smithsonian Institution to administer and use since 1923. BCNM consists of four peninsulas and an island covering some 3,865 acres which were formed when Gatun Lake, one of the largest manmade lakes in the world, came into existence as a conclusion of the construction of the Panama Canal. Since its creation, researchers from all over the world have been working at BCNM studying tropical biology and most of our knowledge on the ecology of the neotropics is owed to their work.
This morning we visited the preserve; some groups went to the main island of Barro Colorado while others hiked through the peninsulas or took a Zodiac cruise accompanied by the BCNM guides. When visiting a tropical forest one never knows what one might encounter. Some walkers saw howler monkeys, coatis, agoutis, peccaries and several bird species. In my case, I led the Zodiac cruise from which we saw some fifteen keel-billed toucans, a crested guan, howler monkeys and two snakes (a boa constrictor and a vine snake) swimming across the lake: not a bad start in our adventure through this spectacular region!
After lunch while waiting for the pilot to come we watched the David McCullough documentary entitled with the long palindrome: “A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama” which tells the story of the construction of the canal. Around five o’clock we proceeded to enter the second set of locks which led us into the Pacific Ocean by 11:00 P.M.
After having crossed half of the Panama Canal the previous night and anchored in Gatun Lake, we woke up this morning by Barro Colorado Natural Monument (BCNM). This natural preserve is a biological station which the Panamanians have allowed the Smithsonian Institution to administer and use since 1923. BCNM consists of four peninsulas and an island covering some 3,865 acres which were formed when Gatun Lake, one of the largest manmade lakes in the world, came into existence as a conclusion of the construction of the Panama Canal. Since its creation, researchers from all over the world have been working at BCNM studying tropical biology and most of our knowledge on the ecology of the neotropics is owed to their work.
This morning we visited the preserve; some groups went to the main island of Barro Colorado while others hiked through the peninsulas or took a Zodiac cruise accompanied by the BCNM guides. When visiting a tropical forest one never knows what one might encounter. Some walkers saw howler monkeys, coatis, agoutis, peccaries and several bird species. In my case, I led the Zodiac cruise from which we saw some fifteen keel-billed toucans, a crested guan, howler monkeys and two snakes (a boa constrictor and a vine snake) swimming across the lake: not a bad start in our adventure through this spectacular region!
After lunch while waiting for the pilot to come we watched the David McCullough documentary entitled with the long palindrome: “A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama” which tells the story of the construction of the canal. Around five o’clock we proceeded to enter the second set of locks which led us into the Pacific Ocean by 11:00 P.M.
