Today we docked in Panama. As a group we had all decided to tour the rain forest. We were docked in Colon. I have seen dirtier cities but not many. The parts of Colon that we saw were pretty depressing. The canal zone in general seems very run down with the buildings dilapidated and very much in need of a lot of work. Perhaps there are really nice parts of the city, but we certainly didn’t see them. The Cruise Director warned us that if we were not on an excursion, we should not venture out of the secure area. No fear of that.
The tour was pretty uneventful. We got stuck waiting on ships to clear the Gatun Lock for about 60 minutes. It was 
interesting to see the locks in operation but you could only see so much from our vantage point.
After we cleared the lock we drove on toward an old American base. This has been converted into a nature reserve. On the way we crossed the original attempt at making a canal. This was done by the same Frenchman that made the Suez Canal. It was unsuccessful and remains just an abandoned waterway.
The tour took us up two trails. One was actually a little used 
road. The other was over a WWII era railway right of way. We did see some sloths and a few howler monkeys. The guide would stop point into the jungle and say “There is a squirrel”. Of course everyone would look and claim to see what he pointed out. I do not really think many saw them or even if there was anything there to begin with. I think he was sometimes trying to make a boring, hot sweaty trek interesting.
Anyway, the Canal was interesting and we did see some sloths and some monkeys.
Tomorrow we are in Costa Rica. Rob, Tom and I are taking the “Crazy Monkey Jungle Canopy Tour”. This is supposed to be riding zip lines through the tree tops. THe others are taking a pontoon boat somewhere.
UPDATE: Because of strikes, protests and recent violence against cruise ship passengers in Costa Rica, the ship is now going to Playa Del Carmen. Monday will now be a day at sea; Tuesday we will be at Playa del Carmen; Wednesday will be our original port of call - Cozumel.
Well I am going to sign off. Rob is going to take the laptop to the Internet Cafe in the terminal and upload everything. The internet linkage on the ship is quite slow.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
