We sloooowly cruised into Panama City waters Thursday evening. Because it was a “no wake zone”, we took about 2 hours to travel a couple of miles, arriving around 5PM. We anchored offshore so we had a panoramic view of the beautiful skyline. That evening we met up with Jan and Karen from Calgary, Alberta, who had been on the Amsterdam with us. The 6 of us took the tender to the wharf area that I think is the main entertainment area for cruisers and tourists. We found a nice restaurant and had a drink together. It was good to be off the ship on a balmy night with new friends. (Picture below of the 3 girls.)
This is our second time to spend the night in Panama City. Everyone said that it isn’t worth the time or money to visit the city so we opted for a different kind of tour. We took a bus about an hour outside the city where we got an aerial tram that went through what our guide called a “forest” but I would call a jungle. The tram went up a few hundred feet where we exited and walked up a tower that was several more hundred feet in the air. There we were above the treetops and had a great view of the Panama Canal and the Chagres River, which supplies the canal with water.
After the tram, we visited a butterfly garden that had thousands of beautiful butterflies fluttering around loose and would occasionally land on people. Our guide warned us of this and showed us a mirror at the exit for us to examine ourselves to make sure we didn’t leave with a butterfly on our bodies. I did this and was satisfied that I didn’t have a butterfly hanging on. Several minutes later I looked down at my sandals and guess what was trapped in the velcro? Yep, a poor little butterfly. By the time I could get it unstuck, the unlucky fellow was practically torn apart and couldn’t fly anymore. I felt very sorry for him and guilty that I had ruined his life.
After a fairly rocky start (so to speak), the ship life is improving all the time. We all agree that we love our cruise director, Thom, who had big shoes to fill after Bruce, our Amsterdam cruise director. Sharon says he is a cross between Robin Williams and Tim Conway. The entertainment has been very good, too. Last night we had the son of Jackie Wilson, the black singer from the 50’s and 60’s. He looks just like his father and was a very dynamic entertainer. Of course, most his songs were from the 60’s and we all felt young again for a whole hour.
Next stop: Manta, Ecuador.
This is our second time to spend the night in Panama City. Everyone said that it isn’t worth the time or money to visit the city so we opted for a different kind of tour. We took a bus about an hour outside the city where we got an aerial tram that went through what our guide called a “forest” but I would call a jungle. The tram went up a few hundred feet where we exited and walked up a tower that was several more hundred feet in the air. There we were above the treetops and had a great view of the Panama Canal and the Chagres River, which supplies the canal with water.
After the tram, we visited a butterfly garden that had thousands of beautiful butterflies fluttering around loose and would occasionally land on people. Our guide warned us of this and showed us a mirror at the exit for us to examine ourselves to make sure we didn’t leave with a butterfly on our bodies. I did this and was satisfied that I didn’t have a butterfly hanging on. Several minutes later I looked down at my sandals and guess what was trapped in the velcro? Yep, a poor little butterfly. By the time I could get it unstuck, the unlucky fellow was practically torn apart and couldn’t fly anymore. I felt very sorry for him and guilty that I had ruined his life.
After a fairly rocky start (so to speak), the ship life is improving all the time. We all agree that we love our cruise director, Thom, who had big shoes to fill after Bruce, our Amsterdam cruise director. Sharon says he is a cross between Robin Williams and Tim Conway. The entertainment has been very good, too. Last night we had the son of Jackie Wilson, the black singer from the 50’s and 60’s. He looks just like his father and was a very dynamic entertainer. Of course, most his songs were from the 60’s and we all felt young again for a whole hour.
Next stop: Manta, Ecuador.
The tram of "the jungle" sounds cool.
ReplyDeleteThat is soooo sad about the butterfly, especially that you have to have "butterfly guilt" over it. Leave it to a man-made invention (velcro) to screw things up.
I'm thinking if your cruise director is a cross between Robin Williams and Tim Conway you're going to be exhaustedly smiling a lot.
Keep em comin..... Still cold and wet here in the Midwest.
Tootles