When my family and I travel, we prefer visiting a small place for a long time – nothing beats navigating unfamiliar streets and getting acquainted with local culture. We visited the tiny Caribbean nation of Dominica for two weeks, and it’s astounding how much richer our experience was than the cruiser’s afternoon excursion.
That’s not to say cruises are all bad – one particularly memorable journey was our visit to Panama. We started on the cruise ship, a huge liner with the capacity for some 5,000 people. Usually, we would enjoy the privileges of being on vacation – namely waking up very late, but today, we woke up much earlier than usual. We needed time if we were to make the most of this day.
We rushed down to breakfast at the buffet (as usual, an assortment of food from every cuisine), and made our way out to the port. It was not my first time stepping in Panama – I visited Panama City about 10 years earlier, and as we often visit South America with a connection through Panama City, I was very familiar with the airport.
After passing port security, we were greeted with our first glimpse of Colon. My first instinct about Colon was that it felt a lot different than Panama City, which is a towering modern metropolis that feels like Miami, even to the iconic beaches. Colon, on the other hand, was much more Caribbean. The city felt a lot smaller than Panama City (or at least a lot shorter). It felt a lot more like Port-of-Spain in Trinidad, with shorter buildings and a noticeable Afro-Caribbean influence.
The moment we exited the port, we were met with a crowd of tour guides, enticing us with different tour options – we noticed a funny pattern with the tour guide business – the further you were willing to walk, the lower you paid for your tour. This time, we met a man offering to take us on the trip we had planned for the day – a boat ride on Lake Gatun. We paid him $200 ($50 per person) and we were soon on our way.
As we drove, another thing I noticed about Colon was that it was a lot poorer than the other Panamanian and Caribbean cities that we visited. As we made our way away from the port, we found many old and dilapidated buildings, along potholed roads. Moss seemed to be taking over certain blocks. I was a little shocked to see the difference. How could one country be so strikingly different? Over all the countries I have visited, I don’t think I have seen a starker difference between the two largest cities.
The drive took us south, into the increasingly dense jungle of Panama. As we left the city, we entered the highway, which was thankfully in pristine condition. The two hour drive took us nearer to the Panama canal until we stopped by a small gravel parking lot by the road. We sat in a small white motorboat by the canal that our tour guide operated. I was happy to get near the cool water, beating back the tropical heat, and I could soon feel a refreshing breeze on my face as the motorboat started.
The canal near the lake is quite wide – you feel as though you are almost in a large river – and to think that the original canal was built nearly 150 years ago! Even for someone who isn’t a civil engineer, the canal piques your curiosity. The only way I could tell we were even on something man-made was the unnaturally straight bank of the canal.
Maybe 15 minutes later, I noticed that we were no longer in a canal. The bank of the canal suddenly opened and we veered sharply right. Facing us was not the unimpeded passageway, but instead a lake, dotted with lushly vegetated islets (In fact, we were in Lake Gatun, a man-made reservoir situated around halfway through the canal). None of the islets were more than 500 feet wide. We made our way to one of the islets, and waited inside the boat. It was impossible to see much, since past a tiny beach no larger than my height, the island was densely covered by trees. I would be shocked if anyone lived here.
I was still confused. Up until this point, I thought that we had been visiting the canal, and I had not expected this excursion to the edge of an islet. The guide started preparing some sort of bait with a banana. Then he made a sort of hooting call, and I finally understood – we were not alone in this forest.
Slowly, a monkey made its way to shore, ready to collect its little bribe. It was delightful to see the monkeys, since they are so smart. The first monkey quickly alerted a friend of our presence, and jumped on the boat, collecting its treat from our guide. Soon, we were the ones expected to hand out the treats.
This was an unwelcome surprise to me, so I quickly moved back and let someone else do the feeding. I wasn’t getting close to the monkeys that soon. Feeding the monkeys, I soon learned, is actually a simple task: if you hold the treat in your fingers, the monkeys will very politely grab the treat and help themselves. The only snag is that you must not be eating something else at the same time, or you’ll be left without lunch!
After a while, I warmed up to the monkeys and actually fed a few (my sister, who was much less afraid of the monkeys, really enjoyed herself). We also took a few pictures of the monkeys, and I must say, they are quite photogenic.
It was soon time to leave, and after saying good-bye to our monkey friends, we made our way back. I always feel that the way back feels shorter than the way there, and this time was no different. We were soon back at the port, ready to get back on the cruise ship for the next adventure.
The tour is definitely a great option for a half or full day trip. Every part of the journey is interesting in some way, whether that be seeing the city of Colon and the forest, or touring the canal, or feeding the monkeys.