Barro Colorado Island and the Panama Canal
Panama has always been defined by its geography – in other words, by the short distance across from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The isthmus became a crossroads for commerce as people and goods travelled across this narrow neck of land, first on foot with pack-mules, then by train. The exploitation of Spanish conquistadores, British buccaneers, French and American entrepreneurs, has given this part of the world and quality of adventure and adversity that stands to this day.
The dream of a connection between the two seas has existed for many years, but especially after gold was discovered in the San Francisco, California area in 1848; the canal question was of increasing concern to the United States, due to the American public’s idea of their country’s expansion across the North American continent. The first thorough survey of the region was in 1870, carried out by the US Navy, followed by six other expeditions. The results of these expeditions were presented to the Societé de Geographie in Paris; the US voted for a Canal in Nicaragua, France voted for Panama, mainly due to the convincing ability of Monsieur Ferdinand de Lesseps. Nevertheless, the French’s effort to build the Canal failed and it was on May 4 of 1904 that the US took possession of the Canal works in Panama. The final day of the Panama Canal’s historic opening arrived on August 15, 1914, two weeks after World War I began in Europe and 10 years after the US had taken over the project. Since then the Canal has worked non-stop, day and night - with three exceptions - to allow commerce and tourism across both seas.
A visit to Panama would not be complete without a visit to the Panama Canal. We were not the exception, and began our transit last night as soon as we arrived on board the National Geographic Sea Lion. We began with the Gatun Locks on the Caribbean coast, through the Gatun Lake. We spent our night in the lake and began our first full day exploring Barro Colorado Island, (BCI). BCI has produced more field research on the tropical rain forest than most any other field station in the New World tropics. We had the chance to walk its trails, or take a Zodiac cruise along its shores, in search of wildlife and learning about all the research that goes on in the site. We talked about ants, stingless and solitary bees, crocodiles and plant biology, we got to see a few interesting species of animals that have been studied for a long time, like the leaf cutter ants, Trigona sp. bees, Central American spider monkeys and mantled howler monkeys.
Coming back from our excursions, and once we had our third Panama Canal pilot on board, we headed on to finalize our full transit of the Canal. We had to go through the Culebra or Gaillard Cut, the Pedro Miguel and the Miraflores Locks, the latter being the last set before going under the famous bridge of the America’s and entering the Pacific Ocean. The new ocean brought for us a brand new chance for adventure and knowledge.
