Today we got our first taste of the incredible country of Panama when our ship docked in Colon. We had another hot, sunny day with temps in the high 80s. Today our scheduled tour was an eco cruise of Gatun Lake. Gatun Lake is the enormous, man-made lake in the middle of the Panama Canal that is central to the entire lock system. At the time it was built in 1913, it was the largest man-made lake in the world. The amount of digging and dirt/land (and village!) displacement they had to do to create it is truly mind boggling. We will be crossing this lake tomorrow on our ship as we sail from the Atlantic locks to the Pacific locks, but today we got a more in-depth, close up look at the islands in this lake and some of the wildlife on our small boat eco excursion.

Colon

We docked in Colon, which had tons of modern buildings and is the home of the largest free trade zone in Panama. Unfortunately when the copper mines here closed years ago due to drawing too much water from the canal, it sent this area (home to most of the workers) into an 80% unemployment rate. With that came the inevitable desperation and crime, so our ship recommended only venturing out via ship excursions or in groups and leaving valuables on the ship. This is not the case in most of Panama, which overall is known for it’s vibrant and resilient economy. The cost of living in Panama is low and healthcare is very inexpensive by American standards, and the people are generally very friendly. And today we learned Panama is also really beautiful, as we toured it’s rainforest areas and the lake.

After our tour we did a little shopping right near the ship in the tourist area, but we respected the advice given and did not venture much into Colon. We didn’t make any purchases, but especially enjoyed seeing the colorful handcrafts.

Chagres River and Gatun Lake

Our lovely (air conditioned- yay!) bus took us from the ship to the Gamboa Rainforest Reserve, which was about 45 minutes from our port. From here we boarded our speedy little boat that took us, along with our guide Violeta, out into the Chagres River to where it meets up with Gatun Lake. Along the way we passed the many jungle-covered islands that house cool plants and animals. Fun fact: these islands are where Neil Armstrong and his fellow astronauts did the “jungle training” part of their mission prep! It was also neat to see that they use terraces here like the ones we saw in Bali for both avalanche prevention when they dug out the lake, and also for agricultural purposes.

Wildlife!

Today’s highlight was definitely seeing the animals and plants of Panama. On our Gatun Lake cruise, we saw three types of monkeys (Howler, Capuchin, and Tamarin), and got to hear the bone chilling cry that gave howler monkeys their name. We also saw a crocodile sunning itself, some beautiful birds, a turtle, some bats, an iguana, amazing ant mounds, and a little grasshopper friend. It was a wildlife lover’s dream afternoon! Our guide would throw pieces of banana on the bow of our boat to lure the monkeys down, and they responded! We weren’t successful in getting a good howler monkey cry recorded, but we got some cute footage of the monkeys eating!

Capuchin swinging down for food

He munch!

More Sights

We really enjoyed this wonderful sightseeing on the Gatun Lake. LeBeau judges give the tour four enthusiastic thumbs up!

Tomorrow we have a verrry early alarm set at an hour we haven’t seen often since we retired as we begin our full day crossing of the Panama Canal from Atlantic to Pacific. Stay tuned for the next blog post with that bucket list adventure! Thanks for adventuring with us!