15 Feb - Fuerte Amador, western end of the Panama Canal. Indian village visit by dugout canoe and Panama City skyline.

The ship arrived and dropped anchor bang on time. This was after spending a few hours weaving through a vast armada of oil tankers and cargo ships waiting to enter the Panama Canal. Some of the container ships have so much cargo stacked on open decks that they seem to be ready to roll over at any time. I guess there's laws to prevent overloading and maintaining a safe centre of gravity, but it was a strange sight.

Once again we had to disembark using tenders. Although Ann was a bit apprehensive stepping over the gap, the sea was quite calm and we made landfall safely (that's me in explorer writing mode, rather than the writing style of a pampered passenger).

Embera Indian Village

We had selected the Indian village tour rather than a lock tour, as this guaranteed at least a few hours of NOT sitting on a bus and gave us a chance to get away from the sea for a while. The drive out to the canoe pick up point took about 2 hours during which time I fell in to a deep sleep occasionally letting go a really loud snore, usually in the middle of one of the tour guide's enthralling commentaries. This caused much amusement among most other passengers, but a few did get annoyed.

The canoe launching point is a small sandy beach located on a curve of quite a wide river. Due to a mix up in loading, I got to sit at the front of the dugout while Ann was further back. The dugout was powered by a powerful outboard motor and can go quite fast. After only a few minutes we started to hit the backwash from the dugouts in the lead. Because of my forward position I only got splashed by a small amount of spray... guess who got soaked!! The ride lasted for about 40 minutes and we saw lots of rainforest, but no wildlife.

On reaching the village, the Embera Headman welcomed us and provided refreshments. Ann tried the fresh caught river fish wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in an underground oven. I thought this was a bit reckless, given the fact that both of us were wiped out the night before by a stomach bug. However, Ann said it was the best fish she'd ever eaten and didn't seem to suffer from any immediate side effects. The involuntary bowl movements came much later (least said, sooner mended although the clean up might take a while).

The Indians have to rely on tourism and the sale of their handmade textiles, as they're not allowed to keep livestock within the reserve. They also use a curious mix of modern and traditional medicines, which apparently, are being studied by pharmaceutical companies in the search for new drugs. Watch out for "banana river fish tablets" marketed as a cure for constipation... Ann swears by (at) them (grin).

This was a really well organised tour and gave us an eight hour break from the ship. We were so exhausted that we didn't even have our traditional "beer in the pub" when we got back onboard. There was a fantastic sunset with the sun going down between two hills as the ship weighed anchor and set sail for our next port.

A day at sea tomorrow should give us chance to recharge batteries (Ann's, self and camera's) before our volcano tour in Costa Rica.

More later...

Organised chaos as we're issued lifejackets and prepare to board the dugout canoes.

Speeding along the river with rainforest either side.

"Awe F***, we took a wrong turning"... (translated from body language). Alternatively, "Awe F*** it, MORE f***ing tourists".

The tribe pose for photos, very colourful costumes. In other (remote) parts of the village Nike shirts and shorts were evident.

Very proud Headman and family.

Panama City skyline taken from the tender, hence the slight angle of the horizon.

Sunset over the Panama Canal... time for a G&T (with no fruit or veg and definitely NO banana river fish!)

Visiting Fuerte Amador, Panama - Options for an EIGHT hour Visit!
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