Of course every single one of our adventures together for my husband Matt and I have started with flight delays. Not just a couple hour delay - more like 12-24 hours at least. So I'm not sure why I expected any different for our trip to Panama in November. Instead of arriving Saturday evening and checking into our hotel, we arrived the following morning an hour before our Gatun Lake tour was to begin. We had spent the night on flights and sleeping from 1am-4am in the San Jose, Costa Rica airport. Bonus - Matt can now say he's been to Costa Rica!
We make it to our tour of Gatun Lake and motored up the Panama Canal - hopefully not looking to sleep-deprived. Cruising down the Panama Canal (Lynessa Nelson)
We spend about a hour cruising around the small island in Gatun Lake and watching the monkeys on shore. The Titi monkey is the smallest one in Panama and they were very curious about our boat as we passed on by. Such cute little creatures that look like they could be a in SciFi movie. The Titi monkey (Lynessa Nelson)
As we turned around and headed back to the dock, we noticed several large boats that were dredging the canal with huge machinery. You don't realize how much maintenance goes into the canal on a daily basis but it is a constant process of clearing the sediment that continues to settle down in the trench. Dredging the Panama Canal (Lynessa Nelson)
At the end of our trip we had the opportunities to visit the Miraflores Locks and go through the visitors center. We chose the wrong day to go through however. It was a Friday morning and apparently all of the schools come on that day for educational tours. You begin at the first level and walk your way through the ecology of Panama and up to the canal construction. They also have several interactive exhibits and videos as you go along. The Panama Canal construction (Lynessa Nelson)
At the very top there is a viewing area and we walked around for a bit to take photos. We missed the ships passing but they told us our tickets were good for the day and there was another ship scheduled for 2pm that afternoon. Unfortunately it was only eleven in the morning so we did not have time to wait. Instead we went downstairs and saw the ten minute video on the canal's 100 year anniversary in August 2014. All-in-all our Panama Canal experience was good and exciting to tell friends and family, however, I wouldn't say it was the highlight of our trip. I'll get to those in my next posts. Miraflores locks in the Panama Canal (Lynessa Nelson)
The holiday of a lifetime. The company is Alaksa-owned and thhat makes a big difference to the experineces you get i.e. meet genuine First Nations tribes people. The amount of wildlife was beyond my expectation, and seeing everything on sucha small, intimate boat made it even more spoecial and unique.
Liz O
2 days ago
Adventure Life covered all the details in planning our trip to Ireland. Any questions we had were answered immediately. Any trip glitches, which always happen when traveling, were resolved immediately. There were no worries, just fun!
Kathleen Weller
2 days ago
It was an outstanding, up-close, educational vacation of nature, culture, history, animals and geology! It was everything they promised! Binoculars were plentiful on the boat, but I'm glad I brought my own. Food was excellent. Rooms had black-out shades. Pack/wear multiple layers of clothing (I carried a small backpack when off the ship). Crew were delightful and very accommodating! Remember to jump FEET FIRST first when taking the optional polar plunge! Spend as much time outdoors as you are able and ENJOY!!!
Janet Dutton
1 week ago
Excellent travel advice and service
This is my second experience working with Adventure Life. I’m sold. Jess Heuermann is an experienced traveler and provides a lot of useful information when planning a trip. These are the questions I like to ask at the outset - What’s it like to go here, there, what would you suggest, what do people report, can we add any additional side trips? Jess took the time to answer my questions and seek additional information to share with me. Petchie Colina is outstanding in helping with travel logistics and final preparations. Adventure Life has excellent guides and offers private guides and small group adventures. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk with the guides and drivers to learn more about their countries, cultures and histories. A highlight was having the guides pick local restaurants where we could share meals together. Highly recommend.
Claire Cordon
1 week ago
Our six-day tour in Iceland went smoothly with one exception. We had asked for two rooms each night. Somehow we were booked with one room with three beds. It could not be fixed at the first hotel in Reykjavik because the hotel was fully booked. Once informed of the problem, however, Adventure Life rebooked for two rooms for the remainder of the trip. As an 85-year-old traveler, I appreciated that one could participate at different physical levels at many of the stops. Iceland is a great place to visit but on the expensive side.