Gatun Lake and The Rainforest of the Panama Canal

If you visit Panama and do not have sufficient time to explore beyond the Panama City area, may I strongly suggest visiting Gatun Lake. There is simply no better wildlife viewing tour out of Panama City and it will give a run for its money to any other wildlife tour in the Americas. All it takes is a 35-40 minute drive out of Panama City and you are right smack in the middle of an oasis--Gatun Lake and the rainforest of the Panama Canal.

You see, most people think of the Panama Canal as an industrial complex, full of metal, cement, locks and ships. True, there is some validity to that statement. However, most of the Panama Canal is actually a well-protected rainforest that surrounds the 160 plus square miles of Gatun Lake. Once the largest artificial lake in the world, Gatun forms part of the journey that ships take when they navigate the Panama Canal. This is probably the only place in the world where you can view monkeys and turn 180 degrees to view beheamoths carrying 4000 plus containers.

I had the opportunity to spend the day on Gatun Lake aboard one of the boats that we operate on the lake. In the company of two brothers from Chicago, we departed from the access ramp in Gamboa and began our quest for the many characters that comprise the fauna of the Panama Canal watershed. I have been leading tours in Lake Gatun since the mid 90's and though a decade has gone by, I still get a kick watching Mantled-howler Monkeys "chillin" on the branches, Common Basilisk lizards running across the water and sloth doing...well, being sloths.

Every outting on the lake is different and today it seemed to be sloth and crocodile day. We saw American Crocodiles basking in the sun and moving on the water--at one point, we had a good laugh as a crocodile had to pull a quick U-turn when it realized it was headed directly for the path of a 950 foot long container ship. We saw iguanas, howlers, lots of egrets, herons, flycatchers and snail kites.

Not every thing is perfect on the lake and I have witnessed how certain tour companies in the area view the animals as entertainment for their guests. For years, there have been habituated White-faced Capuchin Monkeys on an island visited by EVERYONE that spends anytime on the lake. Though these creatures are used to human beings approaching them, they can easily survive without any additional food given to them. I have witnessed guides feeding these monkeys everything from apples to Pringles (see the video below). One local company went as far as nailing metal feeding platforms so the monkeys could perform for their overcrowded boats.




These are the pitfalls of ecotourism with no control. We cannot rely on local authorities to regulate this behavior, for they themselves would probably see nothing wrong in feeding wild animals! It is in the responsibility of the traveler to say something when they see this and let it be known to the hotel or tour company they use that this is wrong.


OK, on a more positive note, if you are wondering about fishing on that lake, the answer is yes! Great Peacock Bass fishing, Snook, Tarpon, Oscar. Fishing here is small scale and no commerical harvesting is allowed in the Panama Canal. On top of that, many of the species are exotics so you should not feel guilty about catching and eating as many as you'd like. This is something else you could do and there is a local company that specializes in fishing the Panama Canal. What name would you guess they have? http://www.panamacanalfishing.com/

If you are interested in doing the rainforest tour of Gatun Lake, contact Ancon Expeditions or view their website at www.anconexpeditions.com Ancon Expeditions has two boats on the lake and they can run the tour with a minimum of 2 people.