As we approached Colon, surrounded by dozens of ships anchored offshore, the tall dockland crane structures came into view. They reminded me of Star Wars fighting machines. (Anyone remember them?).
We passed a couple of part-sunken ships near the harbour entrance attracting the attentions of some crew members.
Parts of the Panama Canal are deep channels cut mostly through solid rock but other areas are large navigable man-made lakes. By far the largest is the Gatun Lake, originally a vast area of marshy valleys and high hills. Now the valleys are filled with fresh water, fed by the Chagres river from Panamanian rain forests. When the valleys were flooded, the tops of the hills created hundreds of small islands diversely rich in flora and fauna.
It’s an incredibly beautiful area and I had the pleasure of spending the afternoon cruising around in a small boat in search of wildlife.
My first surprise was to discover that the first part of our journey was along the main canal route, which we shared with some very large ships. Their bow-waves were rather large for our small craft and on several occasions I got a good dousing from the waves breaking over our bow. I soon dried in the warm air.
Eventually we diverted into a quiet and secluded parts of the lake.
Below are some of the sightings:
We also saw some very small tamarin monkeys and an osprey.
Then someone spotted a creature swimming towards an island. It was a Green Iguana and the boat driver slowly moved alongside it to allow us to take photos….or so we thought.
Then he put one hand over the side and lifted it out.
It seemed calm and untroubled being held. (I think I was more nervous than the iguana)
A friendly crocodile smiled pleasantly as we passed by (This one was over six metres long)
On the way back we were caught in a sudden cloudburst. Fortunately I managed to push my camera under cover at the front of the boat but otherwise I got absolutely drenched.
We had a soggy ride on the bus back to the ship.
A ships officers joined our dinner table one evening last week. He is the hotel manager, responsible for the restaurants and galleys, cabin servicing and all the entertainment etc. He provided all the wine, brandy and malt whisky for the evening (very nice).
Someone asked if we could have a tour of the galleys and that is being arranged.
We left Colon at 11pm to take up our position for the Panama Canal transit which commenced at 6am the following morning.
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