As such Lawrence and I have had a well deserved few days of explore Panama. However much of this exploring has involved visiting places and actually looking for wasps, so I guess that still counts as work right?
The only sad aspect to this was that my faithful digital camera has finally giving up after years of service, which meant that the only camera we have now is on the iPad and the quality is not that great so my apologies!
For the last two days we have been lucky enough to visit Gamboa and BCI.
17th July 2012 - Gamboa and down Pipeline Rd.
Gamboa is a little town that is only about a 35min car journey from the centre or Panama City located on the edge of the Panama Canal and the Chagres River. The town was originally built to house people who worked with dredging the Canal during its construction and now although still inhabited by local Panamanians is home to hundreds of scientist every year who flock to this remote place to work with STRI and in the beautiful Soberania National Park which surrounds the town.
We spent the morning hunting through the many abandoned buildings looking for our wasps with little luck. Lawrence of course was very happy to see his favour Panama Railway company Train again though!
In the afternoon we gave up hope of finding any wasps and heading up the world famous Pipeline road for a trek through the forest. As suggested by its name this road follows an old Pipeline that was once linked to the construction of the canal and is thought to be one of the best places to see birds in Central America (have to say we didn't spot that many - the bird of paradise plants were as close as we got) could hear the birds though!
The road itself is over 24km road and so by foot we covered only a tiny part of it length but I will defiantly be going back for an explore next year and hope to take some much better photos of wildlife!
http://www.stri.si.edu/english/research/facilities/terrestrial/gamboa/index.php
18th July 2012 - Barro Colorado Island (BCI)
The following day we got up extremely early for our trip to also famous Barro Colorado Island. This island is the largest found in Lake Gutun of the Panama Canal.
The island itself was formed during the construction of the canal and the damming of the Chagres River which Gamboa sits on. This 3000acre island is now one of the most extensively studied areas of the tropics with over 200 scientist visiting it every year. Although once exclusively for researchers to visit it has be classed as a biological reserver since the early 1920s and is just an incredible place to visit.
To start our day we caught a boat from Gamboa and got to travel along the Panama Canal, which in itself was incredible fun! It is hard to believe that this expanse of water cutting through an entire country was made by man, it looks so natural running throughout the landscape. The waters of the canal itself simply lap up the edge of huge espouses of outstandingly beautiful rainforest that make it look like it has always been hear, a wonderful feet of human engineering only to be marvelled at.
We passed and over took many of the huge shipping containers which towered over us and landed at the dock on BCI some time later.
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| A view over Laboratory Cove |
As with Gamboa our main aim of the day was to go hunting around for our wasps so we spent a couple of hours hunting all over buildings around the docks and following the advice of people who has seen them. Although we found several nests it was no where near as many as we have a Galeta, which was disappointing. Although we found thousands of ants and some other cool insects over the course of the day!
We then spent the rest of the day spending time following the trails which cover the whole of the island, past people research projects that were spotted through out the entire jungle. Within seconds you disappear to the beautiful rainforest and completely forget that you are on a small island in the middle of the canal! The reality of being there is very hard to put into words or bad photos taken on a iPad but the whole island is just a magical place. With fantastic plants, monkeys calling to each other and bouncing around the trees to the incredible wildlife that can be found just beneath your feet on the forest floor.
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| Me at the bottom of "BIG TREE" |
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| A litte fluffy friend that crossed out path |
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| Me on the edge of the Panama Canal on BCI |
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| Lawrence loving the jungle! |
We both had an amazing day here and felt particular honoured to be able to visit such a unique and special area of scientific interest. I can't wait to go back and explore more this spectacular place.
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| A very steamy and sweaty photo of Lawrence and I under under big tree |
For a bit more info about BCI and its history check out the STRI website
http://www.stri.si.edu/english/visit_us/barro_colorado/history.php
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