Fuertes Amador, Panama
On Wednesday we spent the whole day traversing the Panama Canal. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it. It’s very interesting. That evening we anchored in waters outside Panama City, with a spectacular view of this large city with many tall buildings.
Early the next morning we embarked on a tour which would take us to the Embera Indian Village, about 2 hours north of the city. We traveled by bus for those two hours and were very impressed by the beauty and cleanliness of the city. We were mainly in the Canal Zone, which boasted tree-lined streets, modern buildings, lush vegetation, and the ubiquitous McDonalds. Along the way the bus suddenly stopped, as did traffic going the other way, to let a small anteater cross the road. Our guide, Christian, celebrated the fact that this anteater made it across, as it seems that most don’t make the trek.
After almost 2 hours we entered the Chagres National Park and finally arrived at an inlet where we boarded dugout canoes, each of which would hold about 20 people. Each canoe had a small outboard motor with a driver and a guide. We had a 45-minute ride down the spectacularly beautiful Chagres River before we saw the Indian village. This village was straight out of the National Geographic articles we remember as children. The men wore nothing but a loincloth and the women wore nothing but a piece of fabric wrapped around their middles, a necklace and maybe a wreath of flowers in their hair. I’m sure the bare-breasted women and girls were a fantasy fulfilled for many of the male tourists in our group! We spent a couple of hours exploring their little village of thatched huts. The people welcomed us with a native dance, a little speech by the village chief and an offering of their handmade crafts for purchase. Then we piled into our canoes and returned to civilization, marveling that there are people in this world who still live in an innocent, unspoiled and primitive environment.
We have begun our 8-day stretch of sea days. Ed and I both love the sea days; however, we’ve never had 8 of them in a row. We shall give a full report at the end of the 8 days as to how we fared. We seem to have established a routine similar to our days at home. We go our separate ways during the day, meeting occasionally for a lecture or just by chance. Then we spend our nights together, for dinner and afterwards. We’ve had some varied entertainment on board, some better than others, but we’re enjoying it immensely. Tonight will be taken up by football; the Packers play Seattle so we can’t miss that. But we will be missing the Black and White Ball and a formal dinner. Oh, well, 19 more formal nights to come.
More later. Love to everyone!!
On Wednesday we spent the whole day traversing the Panama Canal. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it. It’s very interesting. That evening we anchored in waters outside Panama City, with a spectacular view of this large city with many tall buildings.
Early the next morning we embarked on a tour which would take us to the Embera Indian Village, about 2 hours north of the city. We traveled by bus for those two hours and were very impressed by the beauty and cleanliness of the city. We were mainly in the Canal Zone, which boasted tree-lined streets, modern buildings, lush vegetation, and the ubiquitous McDonalds. Along the way the bus suddenly stopped, as did traffic going the other way, to let a small anteater cross the road. Our guide, Christian, celebrated the fact that this anteater made it across, as it seems that most don’t make the trek.
After almost 2 hours we entered the Chagres National Park and finally arrived at an inlet where we boarded dugout canoes, each of which would hold about 20 people. Each canoe had a small outboard motor with a driver and a guide. We had a 45-minute ride down the spectacularly beautiful Chagres River before we saw the Indian village. This village was straight out of the National Geographic articles we remember as children. The men wore nothing but a loincloth and the women wore nothing but a piece of fabric wrapped around their middles, a necklace and maybe a wreath of flowers in their hair. I’m sure the bare-breasted women and girls were a fantasy fulfilled for many of the male tourists in our group! We spent a couple of hours exploring their little village of thatched huts. The people welcomed us with a native dance, a little speech by the village chief and an offering of their handmade crafts for purchase. Then we piled into our canoes and returned to civilization, marveling that there are people in this world who still live in an innocent, unspoiled and primitive environment.
We have begun our 8-day stretch of sea days. Ed and I both love the sea days; however, we’ve never had 8 of them in a row. We shall give a full report at the end of the 8 days as to how we fared. We seem to have established a routine similar to our days at home. We go our separate ways during the day, meeting occasionally for a lecture or just by chance. Then we spend our nights together, for dinner and afterwards. We’ve had some varied entertainment on board, some better than others, but we’re enjoying it immensely. Tonight will be taken up by football; the Packers play Seattle so we can’t miss that. But we will be missing the Black and White Ball and a formal dinner. Oh, well, 19 more formal nights to come.
More later. Love to everyone!!
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