Category: Panama

Cébaco is a small island in the Gulf of Montijo off the coast of Panama. We dropped anchor there and went ashore in the RHIBs. More accurately, we did not drop anchor. Instead the Amundsen used its Dynamic Positioning system to hold station for the day. This works much better than an anchor. There is no damage to the delicate reefs. The ship stays pointing in the same direction. At anchor a ship will swing on the end of the anchor chain according to the water currents and tides. The weather was warm but overcast and raining. Diane could not risk getting the pot on her arm wet. She had a quiet day on the ship while I went bird watching.

This was not my plan. It just sort of happened. An accidental twitch if you like. The landing began with a walk down the beach. A few people live on the island. Mostly fishermen. There is no commercial ferry to Cébaco. It is seldom visited. After we landed most people wandered up towards the small settlement. I wandered off in the opposite direction and had a wonderful couple of hours wandering along the beach. Tropical rainforest, exotic flora and fauna, wide open beach and not another person in sight. Brilliant.

On the way back, I spotted a vividly coloured heron in a palm tree. It seemed quite calm. Step by step I cautiously moved closer to it. “Bared Throated Tiger Heron. Magnificent.” Came a voice behind me. It was Brendon the ship’s resident bird nerd. Then he asked if I wanted to join the bird watching walk that was just starting. I felt a bit obligated. It turned out to be good wholesome fun. We wandered around various habitat types. Brendon pointed out various birds, all of which he identified with a laser precision and then told us a bit about them. I started to question my eyesight. Normally, I think my eyes are fairly good. Now, I was starting to have doubts. Somebody would point to a tree. Brendon would do his stuff. Everyone would take a few photos. Then we would move on. Well, everyone else would. I was still looking at the tree trying desperately to spot a bird. Eventually I would have spots in front of my eyes. Maybe I needed to go to SpecSavers.

After twenty minutes or so of this, I did start to get my eye in. Just occasionally, I could differentiate a small brown bird from a leaf in the far distance. I even managed a few photographs. Started to quite enjoy myself. Started to become a twitcher.

At the edge of the settlement were some chickens. Diane likes chickens. We used to keep a couple that Diane named Hilda and Violet. Whenever I went into the garden, they would come over to see what I was doing. The dogs thought they were magic. After the initial introductions, I had to explain to the two German Shepards that the chickens were to be looked after, not eaten. This actually worked very well. Dogs and chickens lived outside together. We never had to worry about foxes. But the chickens were magic. At the edge of the field was an electric fence to keep the dogs out of the woods. I had put this up the year before. Only needed to have it switched on for two days before both dogs had learned to stay well clear of it. Now, a year later, the chickens fearlessly hopped through the fence while the dogs stayed well back. They watched in amazement at the magic chickens.

Sapping out of my reverie, I took a picture of a cute chick for Diane. The next day we would sail across the equator and then onwards to deepest, darkest Peru.

The Panama Canal cuts north south through Panamanian isthmus. Panama is the great land bridge between the continents of north and south American. The canal is the maritime connection between the mighty Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. The small country of Panama has always been massively important for international trade. The canal emphasises this. Each year 14,000 ships traverse the canal carrying nearly 300 million tons of cargo. By using the canal, they can avoid long and dangerous routes such as Cape Horn or the Northwest Passage. At the north end of the canal is the city of Colon: named after Columbus the explorer. Our ship arrived the day before we were scheduled to transit the canal. We got there just in time to see the Fram heading across Gatun lake. Fram was the ship we visited Greenland on last year. We had a day to explore and got taken to see the new canal locks.

Panama is covered by a substantial tropical rainforest although deforestation is increasingly becoming a problem. There are mangrove swamps next to many of the forested areas and this supports a remarkable diversity of plant and animal life. On the way to the locks, we stopped to watch a howler monkey high up in a tree. Also, a small group of white nosed coati running along the side of the road. These cute and curious mammals have become a bit accustomed to tourists and will, apparently, even hop inside the bus if they can smell Pringles.

The Panama Canal uses two flights of three locks. One at each end. 26m up to a large, artificial lake, Gatun Lake, then 26m back down to the ocean at the other side. The canal was mostly built between 1904 and 1914. It was only a few years before it was carrying far more traffic than initially envisaged. Ships were built to be exactly the maximum size that could pass through the locks. This has become known as Panamax. In 2007 work began on a second, larger set of locks to support larger ships now known as Neopanamax. The new locks use floating lock gates rather than the more conventional hinged doors in the original locks. There is a very impressive visitor centre where you can watch the massive ships transiting the locks. Unfortunately, there were no ships while we were there. Nonetheless, we got to watch a film, view an exhibition, look over the new locks and eat ice cream.

Next came a visit to Fort San Lorenzo. This was the site of many pirate related episodes back in the days before the canal. Treasure from South America and several gold rushes in the north of the continent all tended to focus on the area. It was possible, back then, to sail part of the way to the Pacific along the Chagres River. Goods then got carried overland the rest of the way. Fort San Lorenzo controlled the entrance to the river making it strategically enormously important. Henry Morgan (as in Captain Morgan rum) famously sacked the fort by feigning a frontal assault with his fleet while 400 of his men sneaked in from behind. The canon had only been set up to guard from the ocean, so his men had quite an easy time of it.

That evening, our ship, the Amundsen, slipped out into the main estuary to join its place in the queue for the locks. We arrived at the first lock around 9am. Typically it takes around ten hours to get through the 82 km long canal. Although the locks are over a hundred years old, the scale of the construction is seriously impressive. The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Approaching the locks, lines were put out to four of the little locomotive engines running on rails at the side of the lock. We used four, two at the front, two at the back. Larger vessels use six. The purpose of these “mules” is not to pull the ship through the lock. It looks like that is what they do but in fact they are only positioning the ship in the middle of the lock. The ship is expected to use its own propulsion to move the vessel forward. We had long since taken a pilot on board. Now we also took on board a gang to handle the lines to the mules.

Each ship uses about 200 million litres of water to get through both staircases. The top lock is filled with fresh water from the lake. This drains down through the lower two locks and into the ocean. Fortunately, Panama has a very hight annual rainfall. Even so, on occasion, there have occasionally been drought conditions which have limited the number of ships that can transit. The lake is artificial. At the time it was built it was the largest man-made lake in the world. It is no deeper than necessary. To create a channel for the ships it was necessary to take down a lot of trees before the lake was filled. This was done with explosives. There is a marked channel through the lake. The rest of the area cannot be used for ships because even after a hundred years the trees, preserved in fresh water, are still there. An American company is currently studying the potential for harvesting these drowned trees.

The most difficult part of the canal to navigate is a section, “the cut”, that was dug through the continental divide. This is literally excavated through a small mountain range and was only made to be wide enough for the smaller ships of the day. A larger ship coming through the cut today needs a special, extra, pilot and a tug. This is to mitigate the potential collisions that might happen when big ships try to pass each other in a small space. The tug is tied onto the stern of the ship. From here, it can push, pull and steer the ship should there be a failure with the engine or steering gear.

Along the banks we spotted many deer. Somebody saw a crocodile but not me. We did see some Capybara, Frigate birds and Turkey Vultures. There was a big lizard which I also failed to get a good photograph of. Late afternoon we reached the final lock and the Pacific Ocean. The line crew left and a short while later the pilot left. Next stop is the tiny island of Cébaco.

A small (4.3 km²) isolated Caribbean island to the north of Panama. Much of the island is covered by mangrove forest. A short way offshore is an enormous coral reef. The island is about 17 km away from Panama and it is estimated that is has been isolated for about 9,000 years. Several animals found on the island have evolved to be quite distinct from their mainland counterparts. These include several types of bat and also the critically endangered pygmy three toed sloth. Until 1995 the island remained largely unpopulated, but since that time Ngöbe–Buglé fishermen from nearby coastal towns moved in, first using the island as a base for fishing parties and later settling permanently. In 2012, about 120 fishermen and their families were settled on the island.

The first part of the day was a beach landing which, to her annoyance, ruled Diane out. She still must be careful with her arm. I went ashore to see a presentation from some of the locals. This was mostly some dancing and a bit of music. As usual we were shown a selection of crafts and art. This is generally of little interest to us simply because we do not have space in our suitcases. Diane has taken to occasionally buying some earrings and now has quite a collection.

Our afternoon trip was far more interesting. At least it was for me. For a start Diane could come along. Some of the locals brought their boats out to the ship. We divided into suitably sized groups and clambered aboard. They took us all the way around the island. Weaving in and out of the mangroves and tiny, rocky islands. The vegetation was amazing. Dense, lush green mangroves back by exotic trees and palms. Then, up one particularly narrow channel the boatman suddenly cut the motor and pointed excitedly into the tree. I could not see a thing. Well, I could see lots of leaves and branches but nothing out of the ordinary. After more pointing and moving the boat a little I finally grasped what all the excitement was about. There were two pygmy three toed sloths. One was firmly wrapped round a tree trunk high in the canopy. He did not want anything to do with us. The other unwrapped himself a little and swung down to look at us. It was still very difficult to see through the leaves. Trying to photograph it was a particular challenge. The auto-focus would always fixate on the leaves, so I needed to go manual. Felt very old school. That was it for animals for the day but we did see a few more birds. In particular, there was a lovely brown boobie bird that sat on a branch over the water and seemed undisturbed by our presence.