The Uncruise adventure was very different from our usual type of cruising, so we thought we should reflect a bit on the experience. In the past we have done a number of cruises on big cruise lines. Those are large ships with typically 1000 – 3000 passengers – great place to get lost in the crowd. On our Uncruise trip there were approximately 32 passengers – not getting lost in the crowd here! That made for a hugely different and more intimate experience. However, the very nature of the trip — an adventure cruise — was also completely different from anything we had ever been on before.

Instead of putting into a port to wander around town each day, or maybe purchase some kind of add on tour, the focus of an adventure cruise is on outdoor activities like snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, nature watching, etc, as well as some cultural and historical experiences. Also, all these activities had no additional costs, they were just part of the cruise. And all drinks were included, too! That’s another nice perk.

On a big ship, what you do with your time is pretty much up to you. On a small ship with such a small group, logistics dictate that your day needs to be a bit more structured than it might be on a larger ship. The day’s activities might center on a cultural experience, going for a hike, beach time, a skiff tour, or something else depending on the location. You never have to go, of course you can stay on the ship if you like, and there may be several options at a given location (long hike vs short hike, snorkeling vs kayaking), but a small number of people means a small number of offerings each day. There is likely a specific time that you will need to leave for the day’s activities, and a specific time you will return. However, we did not find these limitations to be a problem at all. It was simply a matter of opening ourselves up to whatever experiences each day offered, and we found ourselves going for the gusto! At first we worried that we might be too ambitious in what we signed up for, but no, these two old farts kept up!

We were surprised to find that our fellow passengers where not at all what we had expected. Because small adventure cruises need to be a bit more expensive, we expected a snooty crowd of dressed to the nines wealthy people. Instead, what we found was a group of people like us. Everyone we talked to seemed to be there because they are inveterate travelers. They came from varied backgrounds – we met a shop teacher, a school nurse, a professor, an IT professional, a travel agent, and others. These were not wealthy people. They were mostly retired (the only young people on board seemed to be traveling in family groups with retired parents), but the defining characteristic seemed to be that whatever disposable income they had in retirement was used for travel. Every one of them could tell numerous stories about the many different places in the world they had visited, the different kinds of cruises they had gone on, and the various modes of travel they had employed. Travel (and the day’s adventures) was the most popular topic of conversation and a great way to learn about new places to visit and different ways to see them.

Frankly, one of our biggest concerns had been about cruising with such a small group of people. Those who know us will be amazed that we quickly made friends and fell into a routine of nearly constant socializing! We shocked ourselves! Usually we like the anonymity of a large ship, being able to disappear into the crowd (or a small, quiet private place) and not engage. And the tight quarters did push us out of our comfort zone socially. Generally the only place to go on board outside of lying on your bed (we had one of the smallest rooms) or going to meals, was the upstairs lounge. Therefore there was almost always a fair number of people there. Between the time together at meals, in the lounge, and on adventure activities, people got to know each other very quickly. Thus in our down time people invariably grouped together to talk and share stories. We usually wouldn’t be in the lounge for more than a few minutes before one friend or another sat down with us to strike up a conversation. And we liked that! We actually liked it! I think the difference for us was that the people on board were so quickly NOT strangers. Talking to strangers tends to make us uncomfortable, but we enjoy talking to friends, and everyone on board felt like a friend almost immediately.

Hanging in the lounge

This even extended to the crew. We noticed that the crew, even deckhands, seemed to make a concerted effort to learn our names first thing. They also had the freedom to stop what they were doing and chat with passengers (unlike large ships where crew fraternizing with passengers tends to be frowned upon). This helped create a much friendlier and cozier atmosphere.

Now let’s talk about food. We always love to talk about food. Once again, since it is a much smaller ship, the food options are more limited. There is no pizza or hamburger bar open for hours during the day and night or multiple restaurant choices for each meal. What there is, though, is very high quality, delicious food with ample selection and more than enough to satisfy those hearty appetites resulting from all that activity during the day. Each dinner had a meat, a seafood, and a vegetarian option available. We soon found ourselves tempted by more than one choice and were pleased to discover the “half and half” option which was happily accommodated by the kitchen staff. Many of us took advantage of that option because, well, who wants to miss out on any delicious food?

The chef on the ship clearly took advantage of local seafood and we found both the entrée choices and meal presentation to be top notch. One of our last meals was the chef’s version of the Cuban dish, Ropa Vieja (old clothes), which was absolutely wonderful. Tami was also pleasantly surprised when the crew surprised all of the May birthday passengers with yummy chocolate cake one evening after dinner! Mmm, that was good.

Cake!

Another thing we learned from this trip is that there is a whole culture of traveling old farts. We ran into a group in the airport at Panama City returning from an OAT tour and compared notes with them. We are also anxious to hear about our good friend Peggy’s concurrent trip to Costa Rica through Road Scholars. Our many travel conversations from this trip will prompt a lot more research into other forms of travel. While we expected to enjoy this cruise, it far exceeded our expectations. We are really looking forward to sailing with Uncruise again. The main dilemma is Alaska vs Hawaii!

Watched this vendor selling empanadas while waiting for tour to start, he never lacked for customers!

Our last day in Panama. We hopped the bus again and took it to the old part of town, Casco Viejo, also known as Casco Antigua. As we walked to the bus we could tell that it was a Monday morning as the streets were filled with cars and pedestrians and horns were blaring once again everywhere. It was so quiet yesterday! But this is the true Panama City. As we waited for the bus to leave we were able to watch at a particularly bad intersection where multiple lanes of incoming traffic were trying to weave and merge against the flow. Fascinating and also illustrative of why we did not even consider renting a car.

Watching the cars do the weave – some cars coming from left want to exit on right, and some coming from right want to exit on left

Passed this small airport, interesting to note that the runway was less than flat

Tami loved some of the warning signs we saw for various things to watch out for, like this one (pedestrians crossing tracks?)

Saw many of these small vans parked on the side of the road selling food or drinks

Casco Viejo is the historical downtown area and dates back to 1673. There are many beautiful old buildings in various stages of renovation and a large section of the area also seems to be set aside for government purposes. We can tell that in a few years it will be even more beautiful and inviting. This area of the city is on a peninsula that juts into the sea away from the rest of the city. The area of the city directly adjacent to Casco Viejo is known to be dangerous for tourists, past Calle 11. Indeed, as we neared that street we could see that the neighborhood immediately changed demeanor and we steered clear of it.

Old town street

Tami thought Mike would like this bike

Mike thought Tami would like this car

Ruins of old church

Walls of gutted building being held up while be restored – LOTS of restoration going on in area

Three birds

We have certainly reinforced our knowledge that we are weather weenies. Within a minute or two of stepping outside in this humidity we are covered in a sweat slick. Tami tried to claim she was just glowing, but Mike pointed out that she was glowing in sheets. She did proclaim that she sweats more here after five minutes walking on a street than she does after 45 minutes of soccer in the summer at home.

The oppressively hot and humid weather did require two stops for refreshments just to survive as tourists. We did enjoy wandering the historic district but we are more than ready for some cool northwest weather again!

Picasso Bar appeared just in time

Cooling off at last – completely wilted!

Flowers on balcony

Still humid and warm, still noisy and busy, and it’s very strange that it starts to seem familiar, at least around the hotel. We took the sightseeing bus out to the Canal Visitor’s Center and enjoyed both seeing more on the history of the canal and it’s construction, and viewing the main locks from land. There were no ships going through until late afternoon, but it was fun to see it all from the perspective of land.

Locks and control house

Looking north, third lock in the distance

Looking south, towards Pacific

Nuns at locks, cooling down with gatorade

The bus ride itself gave a broad view of Panama City as we made our way back to the city. We passed through the old area where the Americans lived when the canal was under US control, including a movie theater and American style houses. Some buildings are in decent shape, but others are abandoned and decrepit, but are also beginning to be restored. Interesting to think of what it was like to live in a little piece of the US so many decades ago and so far from home. Nearing downtown again, we passed through areas with desperate-looking apartment buildings where life looked pretty rough, but these also butted up against nice looking modern high rise apartments. Even walking through the neighborhood around our very nice hotel in the financial district we could see many buildings and streets that were in sore need of maintenance, but also many successful businesses and modern structures under construction.

The local private buses – not a city bus as they look more standard, and not our bus which was a double decker tour bus

Spotted this ship exiting canal – These are specifically built to just fit in the new larger locks and can carry 13,000 containers

Our bus got a little close to a tree on the route and caught a few branches!

The poorer parts of town

Veranda

Mess of wires – infrastructure is still catching up

Since it was Mother’s Day, Mike was determined to find a restaurant to make Tami happy. The main requirement was that it involved meat, preferably grilled. So now Tami will rhapsodize about tonight’s dinner at La Pampa. We started with an Argentinian appetizer plate that included great chunks of grilled sausage, garlic mushrooms, the best tostones we’ve ever had, and mussels cooked with garlic.

Mike followed that with a jalapeño grilled steak for his main, and Tami had the most wonderfully flavorful skirt steak grilled to perfection. Both were served with the usual vegetable combo that we’ve seen everywhere here, which is a great blend of grilled onions, peppers, eggplant, and carrots. It sounds somewhat pedestrian but it is quite delicious. It is amazing the difference in flavor of the beef we have had in both Puerto Rico and Panama. Wish we could get meat like that at home.

Collapsing back in the room, Mike was once again able to find some more soccer for Tami to watch, a great benefit of visiting a Central American country!

Carefully checking our passports and taking notes

After breakfast we all waited in the lounge for the Panamanian officials to review all of our passports and give us another stamp. We could watch their progress as they were also sitting at a table in the lounge.This took quite a while as they spent quite some time perusing each passport (and there were not that many of us), and taking notes. Nothing like the quick process going through the airport. What made it even odder was the fact that the ship had never left Panama. Oh well.

Finally we were reunited with our passports, said goodbye to the crew (a few hugs were exchanged), and loaded onto the awaiting bus. We wound around through Colon and were soon on the expressway to Panama City. Colon did not look like a city for hanging around in, and indeed we had been told that it would not be safe to spend time in.

Downtown Colon

Colon apartment building

The trip back to Panama City took about an hour, roughly paralleling the canal (though not within view of it). Along the way we spotted wildlife! A sloth was hanging from the wire between two telephone poles, slooowly making his way along… to the next pole?

Once again back to the city, we headed out to walk along the waterfront for as long as we could take the heat, then ducked inside an air-conditioned mall to find a cold drink. Fortuitously, there was a shop where Tami found herself a  Panamanian flag for this summer’s deck collection. Then there was a shop where Mike found a very bright and amazingly lightweight SPF shirt. He did point out the warning tag that said it might lead to more outdoor adventures. Tami said that was okay.

Waterfront trail

Bird spotted while on the waterfront trail

Panamanian flag (now flying on our back porch)

Tami did also have to take a picture of a Panamanian mannequin in the window of a women’s clothing shop. Let’s just say that you would not see this in the US (at least anywhere we have traveled). Another couple from the US were similarly agog and snapping pictures.

Seen in store window (Mike did NOT take this picture)

And then, of course, we came across a sporting goods store so off Tami went looking at soccer turf shoes, which are so hard to find in the US. She found a beautiful yellow and blue pair after much inept discussion with the clerk who spoke no English. Inept on Tami’s part, that is. After leaving the shop, Tami wondered aloud what that poor young man thought of this old fat American woman buying a pair of futbol shoes. Mike said he probably wondered what on earth she was going to do with those shoes? Surely not play soccer.

FUTBOL!!!

We had dinner in the hotel restaurant since it had the reputation as one of the best restaurants in Panama City and we were not disappointed. We started with a grilled octopus ceviche and a beef tenderloin with cassava. Both were excellent, but we had just scraps left before we even thought about taking a picture. We did remember for the entrees, though. Tami had the sea bass with a tamarind sauce and Mike had the pork belly on polenta. Both were wonderful preparations and we were very happy as we waddled up to our spacious room.

Wonderful cocktail

Porkbelly – YUM!

Some time was spent working on updating the blog and then we caught the second half of the Sounders game on ESPN. Best that we don’t talk about what happened there.

Today’s island

Another day, another beautiful tropical island. Same morning routine and away we went to sandy beaches, palm trees, and a reef with oodles of coral and fish. We first headed for the paddle boards to give them a try. We have paddle boards at home, but our only previous experience with them was on Lake Washington on a breezy day where there was a lot of chop. Tami had successfully stood up for about 30 seconds, Mike had managed maybe ten. We had hoped to try again in calmer waters. Yesterday it was very calm in the morning but we had never managed to try them out. So here was our chance! 

Tami did start out facing the wrong direction on the board, but once she got herself turned around she got steadied, stood up, and away she went. Mike, too, was able to stand up right away and paddle off. He did find the drink a couple times, but was soon back up and on his way. There was a good breeze blowing so it was still choppy, but somehow we managed to stay upright and had a good time paddling.

Both standing!

Locals paddling by

A top local artist, he even had business cards!

But there’s more to do! We thought about taking the kayaks out, but decided to switch to snorkeling. We had so much fun yesterday just snorkeling on our own that we did the same again. We spent the entire morning snorkeling, exploring the reef and the coral, discovering more and more variety of fish and Mike even saw a snake on the sea floor. Tami also saw a manta ray laying on the sea floor. As she took a picture she thought, gee, that looks more rectangular than square, and where’s the tail? As she looked closer she realized that it was a piece of carpet. Appropriate color, mostly covered with sand. A perfect example of a carpet ray.

Heading out

We saw a LOT of different fish just off the beach

Not the best picture, but Tami loved this bright blue guy – almost glowing!

This one was close to two feet long

Sea urchin

Perfectly round brain coral

Sea urchin shell with little fish swimming into the hole on top

Filter feeders on coral

Shark!!

Lobsters in the bottom of the boat on shore

Lunch was back on the ship so we gathered gear, jumped in the skiff (Tami stayed off the boat bottom this time), and headed back for another wonderful lunch. Once we were cleaned up we decided not to go for the second snorkel. Up to the lounge to write, work on pictures, eat yet more treats, read, look at tropical islands out the window, and listen to Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto. Perfect.

Coming back to the ship

Photo editor Mike

The first indication that our fun and games would soon be over was the call to turn in our snorkels, fins, and water bottles. Sigh, it is all truly about to end. We then had the Captain’s dinner followed by a slide show put together by the crew. What a lot of fun to watch pictures of all of us, guests and crew, enjoying our glorious week. We will all receive a copy as well. Finally it was time to head back to our cabin and pack our belongings so we are ready for an early departure tomorrow.

BBQ Island

Today’s adventure followed the comfortable routine we’ve become accustomed to. Make sure you’re up by 7 am, which is earlier than we rise at home. Make yourself presentable for breakfast and head to the dining room for a breakfast that is different every morning. Return to the room to slather on sunscreen, stuff the essential clothing du jour into the pack along with cameras, water bottles, and sometimes even some money and any other stuff for the day. Today we grabbed snorkels and fins and wore the water shoes. Head to the fantail, grab a PFD and put it on, slide your ‘ashore’ magnet, and get on the next skiff. It’s very organized and efficient and we are soon on our way for the day.

Today we headed for one of the very small islands in the San Blas Islands, colloquially called BBQ island. It is owned by one of the indigenous Kuna Yala groups. Visitors are welcome to come play on the island for a small fee and member families in the group take turns each day at the island to receive the visitors. Those families also bring their handcrafted textile art to sell. The island is only 1-2 acres and is quite the tropical paradise island. White coral beaches, palm trees shading the island, reefs at the edge of the island, and more beautiful islands to view from the beach.

Visitors, selling fabric art, and selling coconuts are major sources of income for the locals – we were told to leave any coconuts alone as they are like cash

Kayaks all lined up for us

We joined one of the snorkeling groups for a morning snorkel off one of the skiffs. At the first stop we all jumped in and as soon as she hit the water, Tami realized she had left her PFD on. She had also grabbed a noodle. She was very buoyant. Extremely buoyant. (Mike said she was floating ABOVE the water.) She didn’t want to try and struggle out of it while in the water, but she certainly had no fear of sinking.

We swam back to the skiff to clamber back on and head to another site. The side of the skiff is fairly high and Tami once again showed her flair for grace as she launched herself out of the water and up and over the side of the skiff, right onto the floor of the skiff. She was fine, only slightly embarrassed. And off we went for more snorkeling, although Tami wisely shed the PFD for the next round.

One of the other passengers

Brain coral

Coral

Fish

Tami was particularly excited to spot some squid

More coral

We saw a large variety of coral and a fair number of fish. After heading back to the island we had time to wander the island, which did not take long, and find a few treasures for purchase from the Kuna Yala, including a dashing hat for Mike that he can even wear to Sounders games.

Tami enjoyed seeing the Kuna Yala art, since she is so into fabric art herself. The technique seems to combine cutting slits in the cloth to let a backing color show through, applique (sewing a piece of cloth onto of another), and embroidery.

Kuna Yala woman with her art for sale

Another one of the artists

Kuna Yala family at the beach

Crew playing volleyball after lunch

Tami after lunch

What Tami was looking at

Local kid and his sister borrowed one of the paddle boards

After lunch we decided to forego the skiff snorkeling and just donned our snorkels and floated around exploring the areas right next to the island where we saw an even greater variety of fish. We both enjoyed the freedom of just gently swimming along and observing the myriad life below us, so unapparent from the surface. We swam and swam, and several others were enjoying swimming and relaxing in the water around us. It was beautifully sunny despite the dark clouds that seemed to hang off in the distance and periodically dump showers in the distance.

Little fish all around us

Locals in a boat viewed while swimming

So we swam some more, then at one point we both stood up and realized that no one else was around us anymore. Where did everyone go? And wow, those dark, really really black clouds sure did move in fast and were awfully close! We hightailed it back to the beach and madly gathered up our gear, quickly put those PFDs back on (easier said than done), and started looking for a skiff to the ship. Within seconds a great wind picked up and we could just feel that rain cloud heading our way. One of the snorkel skiffs was just pulling into the beach so everyone could grab their gear before turning around and heading to the ship. It was quite full but we managed to get the last two spots and as we made our way to the ship the clouds opened and we got to experience a true tropical deluge. The air became water, spray came from the bow, we were wetter than wet. Well, at least it washed off a lot of the sea salt!

One good thing about getting soaked (and this was even more soaked than our day with the Embera, if that’s possible) is that it feels so darn good to get back to the ship, take a shower, put on dry clothes, and head to the lounge to see what the delicious treat was awaiting us that day. And have our choice of liquid refreshment, of course.

Well, we didn’t do it all ourselves, there were those original French efforts in the 1800’s, and then the US work in the early 1900’s.

We were curious about the purpose of these large floating boxes. We learned they are car carriers. Cars don’t lend themselves well to being shipped in containers, but they need to be protected from salt spray. These ships have large ramps so the cars can be driven on and off like a large ferry without passengers.

Checking out the window as soon as we woke, we were still staring at the boards of the dock. Knowing we were not going to make the planned destinations for the day we took our time getting up and learned at breakfast that we were docked right where we had stopped the night before, but it sounded promising that we would be leaving soon. We were very happy that we were not going to be stranded in the Panama Canal for days and that we would transit the entire Canal in daylight. And we got to sleep in the Panama Canal! How many people can say that?

We watched as tugs got the Planet V, docked in front of us, on her way and then it was our turn to head back down the Canal and into Culebra Cut, which is the section of the Canal that the French worked on. We were all excited to be on our way in the daylight, but the true fun was seeing the pure delight of all the crew members who were finally getting to see it all in daylight for the first time.

We were amused to watch a pilot boat trying to wake up the residents of the yacht docked behind us. It took quite a while, and you could tell they were getting exasperated as the beeps turned to honks turned to blasts. Understand that you can’t proceed through the canal without a pilot, and you need to stay on schedule, so they had an appointment with the pilot to keep.

Pilot boat trying to rouse the people on board.

From the bridge where we overnighted we moved on through another 8 miles of canal until we came to Lake Gatun. The lake is artificial. The river was dammed when the canal was built in order to provide the water to feed the locks. The locks (except for the new larger locks that opened last year and use pumps to reuse water) are entirely operated with gravity flow water from the lake out to the ocean, similar to the Ballard locks.

Transferring workers (probably line handlers – in the cnal they don’t trust you to handle your own lines as a small mess up could have big consequences)

Some old cranes and dredging equipment – notice the Titan, the Thor, and the Goliath

A map showing the whole canal – south locks, 9 mile cut, Lake Gatun, and north locks

Finally we reached the North locks (the canal actually runs North/South rather than East/West, with the Pacific being to the South and the Atlantic being to the North). Lunch was served up in the 3rd floor lounge so we could watch the action going through. We will probably always associate going through the locks with eating a good meal. That’s not a bad thing.

Heading into the north locks, another car carrier going into the lock to our right

The low tech row boat seems, after many experiments with other means, to be the best tool for assisting with getting lines to ships

Connecting line to mule

Mule driver

Mules have to change elevation as locks change elevation of ships – looks like an industrial roller coaster!

Sailors on the car carrier next to us

Leisure in the locks

Industial waterfall – where two locks doors meet

Side bumpers with paint scrapes from ships

Bumper looks like art

Looking back at ships in locks as we exit

After exiting into the Atlantic, we got a short visit to the town of Portobelo to make up for not getting to visit Fort San Lorenzo due to our delayed transit. Not that any of us where complaining. Getting to go through much of the canal in daylight had been a real treat. Only our friend the law professor had been disappointed by the delay, as it meant he was not able to visit the mouth of the Chagres River, which featured prominently in some historical research he was doing (and was much of the reason for he and his wife taking this particular trip).

Portobelo is an old Spanish colonial town with some interesting old fortifications. It was Columbus’s last mainland stop on his last voyage. It became an important port for shipping silver back to Spain, and it is said that Sir Francis Drake is buried nearby. Over the years the port was attacked by the privateer’s William Parker and Henry Morgan (not the one from MASH), as well as by the English navy. Today it is a sleepy little town with a population of around 4500.

Portobelo fortification

Canonical picture

Ad for restaurant

Small restaurant

In the local church they celebrate the story of the Black Jesus

Date on some fortifications

At dinner Tami got some early birthday cake

Bit Hitchcockian

What was that? No, we are talking about birds, Blue Footed Boobies to be exact. This was actually our day to transit the Panama Canal. Before we headed that way, however, we had a few hours to fit in a few short activities. We chose the 6:30 am skiff tour to see, to paraphrase the commercial, more birds than you have ever seen before. And yes, we actually got up early enough for a 6:30 am departure, but it was well worth it!

We were at the Pearl Islands which are an uninhabited group of islands north of the Darien jungle. One island has the only fresh water in the area and is one of the largest breeding grounds for frigate birds, pelicans, and several other species, including Blue-Footed Boobies! We had no idea you could see them anywhere other than the Galapagos, but there they were, blue feet and all.

Blue Footed Boobies!

The sun hadn’t been up for long, same as us, but it was hiding behind clouds so it was quite dark out with intermittent rain. Just like home! Wait, no, it was actually warm out so despite it being so early and dark, we were quite comfortable in shorts and no jacket. From the ship we could see thousands and thousands of large birds circling and wheeling above the rocky island. It had the look of a sci-fi movie with the masses of dark birds against the gloomy skies above the isolated island. Tami was imagining some maniacal monster deep in the island manipulating strange levers letting the masses of birds in and out. Or something.

On the skiffs we were able to come in very close to the islands and see the boobies perched on the sides of the cliffs. The pelicans preferred to either perch in the trees or on the very tops of the rocks. The frigate birds, which are kleptoparasites (love that name – had to work it in somehow), were continually circling above all the others presumably waiting to snatch someone else’s catch. Taking pictures was extremely difficult as the boat was pitching, it was quite dark out, and the raindrops were persistent, but we did get a few to share.

Pelicans

Pelican eyeing saint

Birds on the beach

Frigate bird

Pelican

Soon we had to head back to the ship for breakfast and we opted not to do the quick visit to a beach for snorkeling since the weather was still iffy. Instead we took the opportunity to catch up on blogging and finally take a look at our pictures so far. And wait for the next delicious meal, of course.

Next we headed back to Panama City to get in line to enter the Panama Canal, where it seemed that half the freighters in the world were hanging around waiting to go through. We joined the queue and waited several hours until it was our turn, but at last we were up!

See the drone flying with the birds? – film crew on board was using drone for shots of ship!

The ship’s crew served an outdoor grilled dinner on the top deck to celebrate our passage through the canal and it was like a garden party with the best view ever.

Having dinner on top with our friend Doug

The bar!

So the first thing that happens when we get to the first set of locks is that a guy comes out in a rowboat to bring a line to the ship. You’re surrounded by huge lock walls and high tech-looking mechanical mules and a guy comes out in a row boat. But it was a nice looking rowboat and those guys are pretty accurate with the rope throwing, evidenced by the practice target.

Entering canal under the landmark Bridge of the Americas

Pointing us to open lock

So we got hitched up to our big mules on tracks, bow and stern, and proceeded into the first lock. These locks make the Ballard Locks look like toys. Our companion in the lock was the Planet V. It was certainly bigger than we were. The gates closed behind us, water started flowing in and up we went, very quickly.

Electric mule – these are not to pull us through (we use our own power), but rather two on each side guide us and keep us under control

Front mule with line to ship – mule in front of that is working with Planet V

The sun was setting but the bright lights of the locks helped illuminate our transit through the second lock, a short trip through Miraflores Lake, and on to the third lock.

Following the third lock there is a long channel, Culebra Cut, about eight miles long, that leads to Gatun Lake and then entry into the three locks that take you back down to sea level and the Caribbean Sea. We exited the initial three locks about 9 pm and were not expected to reach the final three locks until about two in the morning. The big topic of discussion became how late to stay up, whether to set an alarm for the middle of the night, and of course, how delicious dinner was and how many times did you go back for more shrimp?

Just about that time the captain came on and said that there was thick fog in Gatun Lake and we were not able to proceed. Discussions were in progress with authorities to find us a place to dock and we did not know when we might be able continue. Well. Stuck in the Panama Canal. We had no idea that could happen, but we were actually excited at the prospect of continuing the transit during daylight. We retired early to our cabin and as we lay in bed we could hear the loud grinding noises that we assumed were reverse thrusters as we were maneuvered to shore. Being on the first deck, when we finally checked out our window we could see the boards of a dock up close and personal against our window. The big question would be when we might finally leave that dock.

Intrepid adventurer Mike

It’s hard to know where to start when talking about our experiences today. We sweated, we hiked, we sweated, we ate, we sweated, we kayaked, we sweated, we drank, we ate, we laughed and shared, and we realized that we just had a most amazing day.

Let’s go back a day. After each day’s adventure, the choices for the next day of activities is presented and you are asked what you would like to sign up for. The choices for today, Monday, were broken into the two halves of the day. The morning had the choice of a shorter hike into the rain forest region that would be at a slower pace with the potential to see some good examples of rain forest birds on a flat, even trail and would likely have fewer mosquitoes. Another choice was the longer hike up higher into the more primary rain forest that would involve a faster pace, more rugged terrain, possible heavy mud, probably more mosquitoes, and possibly more fauna. For the afternoon, the choices were a shorter kayak trip into the mangroves at a slower pace, a skiff tour into the mangroves, or a longer kayak trip into the mangroves that would be at a faster pace.

There were some real pluses and minuses to each choice as we considered the options. First, it’s so humid that any physical activity feels more difficult. Second, Tami had some persistent knee wonkiness as usual, and additionally there was the question of how many mosquitoes we wanted to deal with. But here we were at the beginning of the adventure and we just decided to go for it. We chose Long and Long. Of course, when choosing the kayak option, Mike at first thought it was a choice between using a long kayak or a short kayak. Tami soon corrected his thinking.

Monday dawned, we had a great breakfast that featured a local dish with seasoned rice and black beans among other items, and then we scurried down to our cabin to don our bug repellent shirts (thanks to REI and Ex Officio) and long pants, slather up with DEET and sunscreen, ensure we had two water bottles each and electrolyte tablets, and make it to the fantail in time to get our PFD’s, move our ‘Ashore’ markers to show that we were off the ship, and use the ‘Viking’ grip to get into the skiff. Uncruise does a great job of setting up a simple routine for each disembarkation to ensure it’s safe and easy, and they know where everyone is at all times.

Once again we boarded the skiffs and headed to shore, this time landing on a black sand beach. As we headed towards the start of the trail into the jungle at Punta Pitano we started seeing hordes of little crabs scuttling across the beach away from us. They were bright orange and had big eyes on the ends of stalks and looked like cartoon versions of a crab. They were very fast and were running from the surf to the top of the beach where they would disappear into little holes in the beach. At one point a huge gang of them started running directly towards us, which was a little disconcerting, but we must have soon come within range of those huge eyeballs because someone sighted us and the whole crew diverted away.

Got the crabs!

Off we went up the trail into the rain forest. It was humid and oh so hot when we were in the sun, but once we got under the tree canopy it was noticeably cooler. Still humid and not actually cool, but certainly more comfortable. The path climbed up onto the ridge along some very steep sections, but mostly it was more gradual rolling terrain. Every 10-15 minutes our guide, Erika, would stop to show us something (and give us a chance to catch our breath and drink a little water). Tami was happy that her knee was behaving itself.

Our guide Erika

Big tree – basically hollow to hold water, sounds like a drum when pounded

At one point Erika stopped and poked her finger into a termite nest in a tree and let a number of them crawl onto her hand. (Tami was thinking eww!) She said they can be a good source of nourishment if you find yourself lost in the rain forest, and offered us tastes. Tami found they were crunchy and tasted a bit nutty and a bit woody, but as one person noted, there was also a strong tasted of DEET (as we were all slathered with the stuff).

Flowers and butterflies

Not sure what these were

Random flower

Papayas

Just at the point that Mike was starting to think “when do we turn around?”, Erika announced that it was time to head back (YAY!). Back at the beach we all had our fill of fresh coconut water out of coconuts they were opening as we arrived (very refreshing after the hike), then jumped in the skiffs to return to the ship for lunch. We were both feeling a bit worn out, but happy that we made the choice we did, and lunch revived us well.

Preparing coconut water

After lunch it was time to head back out for the kayaking. We had debated whether we were up to another expedition, but decided to go for it. That was the right choice as this turned out to be the best thing we had done on the trip so far.

They had already taken the kayaks to a beach at the mouth of a river leading back into the mangrove swamps, and just skiffed us over to them so we would not have to paddle across the open water from the ship and could spend our time in the mangroves.

Erika was our guide again (yay!) and she set a leisurely pace paddling up river, stopping to point out birds, trees, etc. When we would come to openings in the mangroves, she would lead us paddling back in under the overhanging trees to explore. These explorations were particularly cool, both literally and figuratively as it got us out of the sun and in amongst the mangroves. We saw more little crabs of a different type climbing around on the roots of the mangroves and as we sat under the canopy of trees in our kayaks it was so quiet that we could hear all sorts of unfamiliar birds in the distance making those tropical bird sounds as well as the distant rumble of thunder. It was truly magical.

Kayaking in the mangroves – picture provided by Uncruise

Sure enough, once again just again as Mike was starting to flag and wonder “when do we turn around?”, Erika announced that it was time to head back (YAY!). As we were paddling back down river, the birds were becoming more active as dusk approached. We saw flocks of Ibis flying over the river, and the pelicans were dive bombing for fish all around us.

It was a most memorable experience and we have no pictures to share except the one from Uncruise because we opted to not bring a camera so we could just enjoy the visit. Fun for us, less so for readers!

Back at the beach we loaded up in the skiffs for a return to the ship for dinner and and early bed.

Coming to pick us up

Today’s adventure was a visit to a village of the Embera people, one of the indigenous groups in Panama. We had breakfast first and then were to ride in motorized canoes through the mangroves and up the river to the village. We were in the last canoe and it was only half full, but we must have all eaten too much breakfast because we hadn’t gone too far when some of the crew came over to our canoe in a canopied skiff and said we had to transfer to the skiff because our boat was going too slow. Okay, Tami did have a doughnut with breakfast, and then Mike had two, but geez, it was our first breakfast on the ship!

We did proceed faster in the skiff and had a very pleasant ride through the mangroves and up the river. We were fortunate to have Archie, the ship’s naturalist, in our boat and he pointed out many interesting features including huge conical ant nests (let’s hope our ants at home don’t get any ideas), a mangrove hawk, and some oropendola bird nests clustered in one tree.

Termite nest

Heading up river through the mangroves

Oropendola nests

On arrival at the landing where we disembarked, we were greeted by a large crowd from the local village, clapping rhythmically to welcome us. The villagers were all dressed in their VERY colorful finest traditional outfits (tops optional). (See this video from Uncruise.) Then per some sort of local tradition they assigned a child to each of us to hold our hands and walk with us the mile or so back to their village. Tami’s escort kept chattering to her in Spanish (they speak both their native dialect and learn Spanish in school). The only thing Tami understood was, “What’s your name?” Mike’s escort was younger and shyer and just kept glancing up at him until he looked back, at which point she would quickly glance down again. After we reached the village and Mike’s escort was released from her duties, she looked at one of her friends and made a motion of wiping off her hands as if to say “my person had really sweaty palms!”

Greeting crowd

Taking OUR picture

Walking with our hosts

These village visits are apparently infrequent. While there had been one from Uncruise the week before, we were told the one before that had been six months ago. At the same time, the occasional visit is an opportunity for the villagers to make some sorely needed cash, so they had a significant supply of arts and crafts on offer. The majority were very well made woven baskets and trays decorated with designs in any array of colors they make from local plants. Of course Tami wanted to know more about their dye making!

Some of the crafts for sale

They also did some dance and music performances for us. We were particularly impressed with the flute player who, backed by a whole percussion section, played something that struck us as almost jazz. It actually reminded Mike of Jethro Tull.

Dance performance

Flute player – wish he had some CD’s!

We then got a tour of the village. It was fairly good size, with around 480 residents. The houses are mostly platforms on stilts with thatched roofs. Animals are often kept on the ground under the platform. The ladders are logs with steps cut into them that also double as child minders. Pull that log up and those kids can’t get out! There was a small school for the children. If we heard right, they said they have one teacher for 160 children. Not sure how the teacher manages that! Tami spied a few boys kicking around a soccer ball in a lower field. The beautiful game here in the jungles of Panama!

SOCCER! With the school in the background.

Enjoying sugar cane – all kids like sugar!

House in village

Traditional and non-traditional foods

World’s ugliest chicken

Cute kid!

Emergency communication to the outside

Woman who helped organize our visit

Children watching the goings on

As we wound our way down the path from the village back to where the canoes were waiting, we were all strung out in a long progression of villagers and tourists as the villagers escorted us back to the canoes. As we were going down the path, we heard the wailing of a small child behind us. It did not diminish as we kept walking and we looked back to see one of the women holding a small child who was having quite a tantrum. We turned just in time to see her set the child down and we watched as he continued his tantrum. He looked to be about two years old and mom had clearly had enough of this behavior. It was somehow reassuring to see that some things are universal and all cultures have to deal with the terrible twos.

Back to the boats and we climbed into another open canoe. The boats picked up speed heading back to the ship and we saw quite a few white Ibis fly down the path of the river ahead of us as if they were our guides out of the mangroves.

Dugout

Canoe along the river – translates as “God’s Mercy”

White Heron, or Greater Egret

It seemed that we hit open water quite quickly and when we did, we discovered there was quite a swell going. The spray from the waves at first just sprinkled us but soon became much more enthusiastic and by the time we were halfway to the ship we were more wet than dry. It was refreshing! And salty! Well, they said to make sure we kept our electrolytes up. By the time we got to the ship we were completely soaked but we all were having a grand time. Returning to our cabin, we just took off everything and washed out the seawater as we showered ourselves. We now have wet clothing strung all over the bathroom and cabin. Who knows when it will dry in this humidity!

One again in dry, clean clothes, we returned to the lounge for snacks that really hit the spot. There was fresh guacamole and ceviche served with plantain chips, and other delicious snacks. And beer and cocktails, of course. It seemed no time at all until it was time for another excellent dinner. We both had the local fish again. We didn’t quite catch the name. Mike said, “It was black snoopy, or something like that.” We do know it was very good. (Later, it was apparently Black Snook.)