Field trip to Gamboa Rain Forest

The amazing people at I.S.P. arranged for a field trip for all new hires to Gamboa rain forest and resort. Yes there is a hotel in the rain forest. Included was an awesome boat ride starting in the Chagres River through the canal and then into Lake Gatun. Lake Gatun at the time when the Canal was built was the largest man made lake ever. By a long shot. Panama is in the process of building new and bigger locks as well as widening the canal. We didn't get to see the locks but we were able to see the huge dredgers that are widening the canal. The machines are equipped with large drill heads that loosen rock and sediment and then they work just like a vacuum, sucking up water and rocks and pumping through pipes that are laying on floats on the water to where ever the deposit site is. The "spoil" are what ever is sucked, up is spread out to different areas around the canal. Turning what used to islands into peninsula's or creating hills where there was just flat land before. Some of the spoilage is trucked into Panama City to assist with building projects along the water front....

 we will call it Dredging Machine #1

 Also #1

 This one shall be called #2

if you look close you can see the pipe coming out of the right side. that is what all the rock and water is pushed through.

 

 

The dredgers work 24hs a day 7 days a week. Cleaning away erosion and widening the canal.

 

 

The tour guide was telling me that they used to call the water tour "Monkey Island', because they would take all of us tourist to an island where previously domesticated monkey's were released and we could all see them up close and personal. What they did not count on was the dredgers filling in between the island and the main land. Which created a bridge, and all the monkeys left "Monkey Island".  But the tour guides were very resourceful, and armed with a pocket knife and some banana's we still got to see some monkeys....

 Ballsy little guy

Cute little guys aren't they... I cant remember the name of them but I do know that these are one of the only species of monkey that do not use their tail to hold on to things. The tail is used only for balance.

 

 

We saw a variety of plants and animals while on the boat tour. It's amazing how in just a few feet things go from an international water way to thick jungle. Here are some more pics...

 just an idea of how close the jungle is to the lake.

 

 The little black thing in the middle of the picture is a howler monkey

 

 

I forgot what these monkey's were called as well (short term memory I guess) but the tour guide tossed this guy some junks of banana and the monkey caught them mid air. Pretty cool.

 

After the boat tour we headed back towards the hotel and met another tour guide that took us on a tram or gondola up to a fairly large hill with an amazing view.




On the left is the Chagres river, center is the Gaillard cut of the canal and on the left is the beginning of Lake Gatun.

 That's us on top of the look out tower at the top of the gondola.

 

On the ride back down we spotted a Sloth hanging in a tree...

 

 A sloth doing whatever it is sloth's do when upside down..

If the pictures look the same their not, sloths are known for their uncanny speed.

 

After the gondola ride we had lunch at the hotel in a restaurant right on the water. unfortunately our camera died right after the pictures of the sloth so no more pics. After lunch we went to a aquarium like thing and saw some crocodiles and Cayman as well as some native fish to the area. Then on to a reptile museum full of snakes native to the area and followed that up with visits to a butterfly farm and an orchid farm. All in all a pretty event full day. Not bad for our first excursion outside of the city. Until next time....