Miraflores Locks

We passed through the gigantic Miraflores locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal this morning, and now we are in front of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Station on Lake Gatun. The Sorcerer has sampled here on two other occasions, so to continue our time course evaluation, we ready the equipment for sampling.

However, the Panama Canal is currently being dredged and widened, and the water at this end of Lake Gatun is so stirred up with silt and sediment that our filters instantly clog, and this sample more resembles a soil sample than a traditional water sample. We preserve our silty samples and continue on to the Atlantic Ocean.