Panama Canal Escapade[ Print this itinerary ]

Welcome to Panama! We start the day with a short sightseeing tour of Panama La Vieja and the city of Panama. After we finish with our sightseeing, we proceed to our hotel in Amador Area, where we will be staying for the night.

• Meals: No meals
• Accommodation: Standard room ,Country Inn Amador

We start the day early and we visit El Corotu on the shores of Madden Lake. Here, we board a motorized piragua (dugout canoe) and travel upstream on the Chagres River to the indigenous Embera village of Embera Drua. The river route takes us through the rainforests of the 320,000 acre Chagres National Park, the largest of the National Parks protecting the Panama Canal Watershed.

Panama is a birdwatchers paradise and along the Chagres River, you may spot the Little Blue and Green Heron, Great Egret, Anhingas, Neotropical Cormorant, Amazon, Ringed and Green Kingfishers, Keel-billed Toucans and Ospreys. You are greeted with traditional music and dance on arriving at Embera village. Here you learn more about the Embera customs and how they coexist in perfect harmony with nature.

You can buy some regional handicrafts here. If you are in an adventurous mood, you can get your body painted with traditional jagua, a natural dye that the Embera use to adorn their bodies! After a traditional Embera lunch we head back to Panama City.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
• Accommodation: Standard room ,Country Inn Amador
• Included Activities: Ground and river transportation, entrance fees to the Chagres National Park, traditional lunch at the community, donation and specialized guide
• Optional Activities: Short hiking in a botanical trail at the community.
• Duration: 8 hours; departure: 8:00 AM

What to bring

• Sunscreen and insect repellent,
• Light synthetic clothes (easy to dry)
• Walking shoes or river sandals
• Swimming suit
• Rain jacket
• An extra pair of clothes

We visit the expansion project of the Panama Canal.The Panama Canal is a 77 km (kilometres) ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the canal has had an enormous impact on shipping between the two oceans, replacing the long and treacherous route via either the Strait of Magellan or Cape Horn at the southernmost tip of South America. The expansion of the Panama Canal (Third Set of Locks Project) is a project that has been proposed to double the capacity of the Panama Canal by 2014 by allowing more and larger ships to transit. After this, you have the day to yourself. You can spend time relaxing or exploring the city.

• Meals: Breakfast
• Accommodation: Standard room ,Country Inn Amador

We leave the hotel at 9.00 a.m and cross the isthmus via the Trans-Isthmian Highway. We stop at Gatún, where we explore Lake Gatún and the famous Gatún Locks Visitor Center. We later cross the Panama Canal drawbridge and move on to Fort San Lorenzo, in to the San Lorenzo National Park.

San Lorenzo National Park is located on the Atlantic Coast, on the western bank of the Panama Canal. It consists of mangroves, semi deciduous forests, moist forests, pastures and a beautiful coastline. It was earlier known as Fort Sherman Training Area. Though it is best known as a birdwatching site, many other animals like the Jaguars, the Tapirs, etc., can be spotted at the Park.

Fort San Lorenzo was constructed by the Spaniards in the 16th century. It was occupied by British pirates over the years due to its strategic location on the Chagres River. Sir Henry Morgan conquered San Lorenzo and used it as an entrance point to sack Panama City in 1671.

We will then head for Colon Train Station for the journey back to Panama City. This transcontinental train ride is available every weekday throughout the year with departures at 5.15 p.m from Colon City to Panama City. It recreates the experience of the golden steam age. Enjoy the beautiful scenery and the wild rainforests from the heart of the canal.

• Meals: Breakfast, Lunch
• Accommodation: Standard room ,Country Inn Amador
• Includes Activities: Private transportation, Historical Guide, lunch in a local restaurant, train ride, entrance fees to Gatún Locks Visitor Center and San Lorenzo National Park
• Duration: 8 hrs; departure: 9.00 AM

The tour ends today and we drop you off at the Tocumen International Airport for your flight back home.

• Meals: Breakfast

Please note:Accommodation providers are subject to change without notice. The accommodations listed in this dossier are our preferred suppliers, but sometimes due to availability issues, we are unable to make use of the properties listed in this dossier. If we cannot use an accommodation provider as listed we will substitute another property of similar standards. However, en-suite facilities are not always guaranteed.