World Cruise Day 33/152 - Fuerte Amador (Panama City), Panama - Hey, Hey we're the monkeys!

Cruise day: 33/152
Ports days: 12
Sea days: 21
Countries: 4
Continents: 1
Ports: 8

We docked this morning in Fuerte Amador, Panama, just outside Panama City and near the south end of the Panama Canal.  

We had terrific views of Panama City from our balcony.

We also had a lovely view of Panama's Biodiversity Museum with the Bridge of The Americas providing the backdrop.

Today's adventure included an hour bus ride to Gatun Lake, the manmade lake that forms the central part of the north end of the Panama Canal. We passed the canal as well as the rail lines for the Panama Canal Railway.

Monumento al Dr. Arnulfo Arias - a monument to a former Panamanian president.

Once at Gatun Lake, we boarded our tour boats and headed out for a two-hour tour.

We were cruising in the Panama Canal, just like the commercial vessels that were transiting the canal.  The size difference between our little 20-person boat and the cargo ships, especially the Panamax enormous cargo ships, was staggering when you're so close.

There were lots of different insect nests in this jungle-like area.  This is an Azteca ant nest built next to a bee nest.

Our guide found a common basilisk lizard, informally known as the Jesus Christ lizard because of its ability to run on top of the water.

We spotted a yellow-headed caracara - a bird of prey in the falcon family.

Our guide spotted this beautiful snail kite, one of the more prevalent birds in this geography.

The other wildlife was nice to see, but the real attraction for this tour was monkeys.  Our guide as well as the guides on the other tour boats certainly knew the monkey's hiding places and culinary tastes.

He found only one howler monkey, although we heard a few others.  It was shy and not interested in posing for photos.

We found a few capuchin monkeys.  They seemed to favor peanuts and at one point caught one that our guide threw.

Tamarins are what we saw the most of.  They favored bananas and even came into our boat for a treat.  Their coloring was rich and they were quite agile.

As we cruised back to our waiting buses, we passed some of the heavy equipment used in the shipping process. This crane was massive.

To get back to our bus, we had to pass under what the guide called, "OMG bridge", because when you go under it, it is so close, you exclaim, "OMG!"

On the bus ride back to our ship, we noticed some of Panama's interesting hazard signs.

We assume this means no jumping cats with your car.

Ans I believe this is a message to help you remember to work your glutes at the gym.

Back on the ship, we spent some time in the infinity pool on deck 7 aft.

Before dinner in Wintergarden, they hosted what they called a Speakeasy, although none of the crew actually knew what a speakeasy is.  For those not in the know, a speakeasy was an illegal drinking establishment during the prohibition era in the United States.  These bars were opened behind legitimate business establishments, many times with secret entrances. The name came from the direction to "speak easy", or softly when enjoying an illegal beverage so the noise from the bar could not be heard in the legitimate business out front.  Many of these establishments flourished because they would offer free liquor to the law enforcement officers that should have shut them down.

Tonight's shindig was anything but a speakeasy as it was super-loud and busy.  They served an appetizer tower with Mexican-style pork eggrolls and salsa, blue cord tortilla chips and guacamole, and seafood ceviche.

They served specialty crafted cocktails for the event as well.

As we departed Panama, we were presented with a beautiful farewell.

We now start a stretch of six sea days en route to Chile.  That means bridge lessons and trivia tomorrow.