Blogs from Panama Canal, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 10

Week 1 I didn't realize that I would be back in the lush jungles of Panama so soon after my last visit. But here I am, a field assistant at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute working with my favorite frog-eating bat. It is the dry season (Jan-May) and I've noticed that there are a lot more animals about. Just in my first week, I saw a family of coatis (raccoon-like animals), myriad birds and an two anteaters! Incidentally, I spent my first three-month field season in Panama searching for this elusive anteater so I could take a photo--so two anteaters in a day was a significant accomplishment. I even managed to break our bedroom window in pursuit of the red-legged honey creeper photo (see photos)! I was so thrilled that the bird was close enough ... read more

Sailing down the Colombian coast, big, grey, dusky mountains so close by. The mist is rising up the gullies and ridges, looks like bushfire smoke, wreathed in the trees, slowly tearing itself away, spiralling up to join the massive thunderhead, taking up half the sky, a gigantic slow motion explosion, billowing out, twisting and contorting, blindingly white, so pure and perfect, a larger-than-life, laundry detergent commercial. Spooky bit of mainland Colombia here. The Darien. Impassable, no roads, incredibly steep mountains, dangerous swamps and lots of people with guns: Colombian police and military, their Panamanian counterparts, the guerrillas, the cartels’ militia, CIA, FBI, DHS, KGB, ASIO(?)…it’s the bit of Colombia that borders Panama, the link between Central and South America, and you can’t get thru’. 4 weeks at sea, had a burger at the marina cafe, first ... read more

We reached the first set of locks in the Panama Canal around daybreak. It was raining as we entered the Gatun Locks. One of the beauties of having a balcony is that we can be outside and still be protected from the liquid sunshine. We sat on our porch, enjoying tea and berries from room service while marveling at the transiting operation of what is sometimes referred to as the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” There was a running commentary given by an employee of the Panama Canal Authority. The PCA has been in charge since the United States handed over the operations of the canal to the Panamanian Government in 1999. It costs our cruise ship around $160,000 to take this short cut from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. The lowest toll ever paid ... read more

A few days ago we had a hunger banquet onboard the ship. And I realize that it doesn’t make much sense to have a hunger banquet on board a ship that’s already pre-purchased all of its food. However, the concept behind the banquet made it worthwhile attending. Everyone was given a piece of paper with a colored dot on it. Depending on the dot you received depending on your social status. The upper class people were able to eat as much as they wanted and order as many times as they wanted. The middle class could eat as much as they wanted of rice and beans, and the lower classes were only allowed to go up once and get rice. I was in the middle class, but we all had the option to resign our title ... read more

My mission in Panama was to cross from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the Panama Canal. I was joined by my friends, Minnie and Paul from Australia and Karen and Will, the leaders of the Expedition from Alaska to Brazil. We all anticipated an historic adventure. This is as much a pictoral depiction of my transit as it is a textual one ..... and these 28 photos were gleaned from almost 300!! To begin ... a bit of history: “Since 1510 a route across the isthmus of Panama has been considered. In 1534 King Carlos IV of Spain ordered topographical maps in the hope of being able to build a canal thru the 80 km of isthmus. Three hundred years later tin 1879 the Frenchman Ferdinand Lesseps became interested in the idea of a ... read more

Waiting waiting...Just inside the "Breakwater"... read more