May 17th - Boat Tour and Rainforest Hike

Early Sunday morning, we boated the Panama Canal down the Gatun Lake. The water, sky, and surrounding forest were bursting with flora and fauna. Our tour guide Fabio helped us identify many species of birds, insects, reptiles, and mammals.

 

The boat bounced along the water, bringing a cool freshwater breeze as we saw firsthand the stunning beauty and abundance of life in Panama. We saw a white-faced capuchin monkey, who came very close to the boat expecting treats due to many tourists feeding the begging monkeys. Fabio explained to us that feeding the animals makes them dependent, changing their behaviors by expecting food rather than hunting for it, and showing aggressive behaviors either when food is not presented to them or when they are presented with too much food and overstimulated with the many tourists in that area. A lot of people consider feeding wildlife the first step towards domestication, which is not beneficial to the species when you are trying to preserve their ability to survive and thrive in a biodiverse habitat. 

One member of a monkey troop of four or five that we saw ran down some vines near the water, and we did not understand why until we saw a huge American Crocodile thrash towards it in the water. The monkey proceeded to scream out and shake the vine he was standing on in order to taunt and agitate the crocodile. We later learned that the crocodile we saw was likely a new mother, and the monkeys were likely trying to distract her in order to eat her babies due to their omnivorous diet and clever hunting abilities. American Crocodiles can get up to 16 feet long and the young hatchlings that we saw were a mere 6 inches from tail to snout. 

 

We saw the famous Basilisk lizard coined the name "Jesus Christ Lizard" due to its ability to rapidly run across the surface of water, much like our Lord and Savior. 

The experience of Panamanian wildlife was followed aptly by that of authentic Panamanian food for lunch at El Trapiche followed by a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Tour and hike in dry forest arching over the building. In this forest we saw both a three-toed sloth and a rarer two-toed sloth, which has a large dark stripe down its back. 

Then we went on another hike in the forest, and we had our first surreal experience with rainforest rain.