Blogs from Panama Canal, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 2

The idea of the Panama dates back to 1513 when Vasco Nunez de Balboa first crossed the Isthmus, the narrow land bridge between North and South America. A water passage between Atlantic and Pacific ocean. The European's recognized the potential for a canal and several proposals were made. By the late 19th century technical advancement and commercial pressure allowed construction to begin. Canal engineer Ferdindale de Lesseps led the Initial attempt to build a sea level canal. They failed by financial loss and personal losses from tropical diseases. Interest from the usa once France abandoned the project. The usa success was more converting the canal to a lock system and managing disease spread by mosquito's. On January 7 1914 the French crane boat Alexadrie Lavalley became the first to transverse and on April 1 1914 the ... read more

20 octobre 2018 : Nous nous levons à 6H30. Le temps est plus clément ce matin. Nous prenons un petit déjeuner très copieux. Nous allons à l'arrêt de bus (il est situé en face de l'hôtel juste de l'autre côté de la rue) mais nous le loupons de 5 minutes. Le gars qui s'occupe des bus, pour que nous ne perdions pas de temps, nous emmène avec sa voiture jusqu'au canal. Merci monsieur, c'est super sympa. Nous arrivons donc au canal à 9H30 et assistons à une projection expliquant toute la construction du canal. Très intéressant. L'après-midi, nous retournons d'abord à l'hôtel, puis nous découvrons le vieux centre-ville, grâce au système de bus touristique que l'on trouve maintenant dans toutes les villes importantes.... read more

Today’s blog, day 16 will be added to as we go because else it takes hours to upload photos etc. We’ve been through the americas bridge and now just got through miraflores lock. Photos and videos so far. Now we are in Pedro Miguel lock. It’s 9:35 here 14:35 in uk 10:10 am and we are through Pedro Miguel lock on way to centennial bridge. 10:20 we are now passed under centennial bridge . Photos added xx 11:15 passed through the cut and on our way to gatun lock. The cut was beautiful, you could clearly see were the land has literally been cut away by man. It’s crocodile infested waters too! Just passed the huge crane called Herman the German. 12:10 - we are in Gatun lake- still headed toward the Gatun lock. This is ... read more

Toured the Chagres river today and the Gamboa reserve. Our driver picked us up from the hotel this morning. We made as stop at the grocery store to get some bananas and grapes for the monkeys. It was another beautiful day. Sunny and warm. We saw 3 kinds of monkeys. The capuchin monkey jumped onto our boat today. I did not get a picture of him as he jumped onto the roof of the boat. We also saw the howler monkeys and the Geoffry's Tamarin monkey. Got some pictures of birds for Mary too. The guide said the hawk is a snail hawk (kite?). The Gomboa reserve was nice as well. The gondola took us up into the canopy. Got another nice bird picture for Mary at the reserve. Caiman and turtles too!... read more

Mist-netting Bats My first night out in the jungle – and it was amazing. I accompanied other bat scientists to go mist-netting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mist_net). The goal was, to catch the common sword-nosed bat (Lonchorhina aurita), an exceptionally cute bat (see picture) from the family Phyllostomidae. My first thoughts about the jungle at night were: · there are many things that could sneak up on me without being seen · there are snakes, right? · there are jaguars in Panama I soon realised, that every biologist would freely give their live for seeing a wild jaguar and would gladly record the whole “I´m being eaten alive” thing as footage for the rest of the world. If you have the feeling that I am exaggerating a bit, then you are probably right… my fr... read more