We all really wanted to see the Panama Canal while we were in Panama City and our hostel had an ad for what looked like a really cool Canal tour. It was called the Gatun Canal Tour and it was an all-day thing, from 8 to 5. The staff told us that everyone that had taken the tour had told them it was really great so we decided to do it. We drove about an hour outside of the city, past the canal locks, to a dock and got on a boat for our tour. The guide was an expat who owned a houseboat on the Gatun Lake, which is where we were headed. Originally, we thought that we might go through the Canal which didn't end up happening but we did see the huge boats that were headed that way on the water. We felt like ants next to the enormous ships!!! And it turned out that we were on kind of a nature tour that was way cooler than going through the Canal!!
On the way up the river, we heard a frog like noise coming from up in the trees. The guide told us that this strange croak was the sound a Toucan makes. (Remember this because it is relevant later!) Our first stop was to see and feed Cara Blanca monos. When we were pulling up to where they lived, the guide gave us each a couple of peanuts and told us to go ahead and feed the monkeys, that they will probably come on the boat to get them. They sure did!!! The monkeys were not shy, they climbed right onto the boat to grab and munch on our peanuts.
The next stop on the trip was to the guide's house boat. When we pulled up, we were all amazed at how big it was. The river that we were riding up was so thin, but then we got to a wide part and there was this huge house boat that was really three skinny house boats connected to one another! We got off our boat and onto the house boat just in time for a delicious meal of tamales, chicken, rice, beans, salad, and pineapple for dessert. After lunch we were free to either siesta in one of the 20 hammocks hanging up or to jump off the boat and swim in the lake. We, of course, chose the latter. Darren and Chris were the first ones to jump off the boat and they were amazed at how warm the water was. They encouraged everybody to jump off of the 20 foot edge into the 80 degree water. One by one more people got the huevos to take the plunge! We were all doing tricks into the water, but Darren was the most brave with his flips.
Then the guide told us to all come over by him, and while everybody was slowly making their way out of the hammocks and the lake, he left to get his HUGE pet Boa. Everybody got a chance to hold the slimy, heavy snake. It was pretty scary because the guide put him around your neck and you just had to trust that she wouldn't get hungry and choke you!! Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, the guide comes back with an alligator!! We didn't think there was any way that we were going to hold this guy but sure enough, he hands him off! This was scary too, because he was pretty adamant about not placing your fingers near his razor sharp teeth, which made us think that there had been a couple lost fingers in the past... The guide also had a pet toucan and a very large iguana that he kept in cages. We were able to feed the toucan and we noticed that he had the strangest looking tongue we had ever seen. We didn't take this picture out, but to see what we are talking about check this out! The guide said that before we continued our adventure, he needed a human sacrifice. Nobody volunteered so he picked on Rachel. He set her up against a pole and told her not to turn around. He handed her a plate of fruit and told her to hold it out away from her face. (That was probably the scariest part because I had no idea what he was going to come out with! ) Then he came up behind her with this strange nocturnal monkey and set him on her shoulders.
When we were done seeing all of the guides rescued pets, we got on canoes, two people to a boat, to head to a waterfall. But first, we were told to head over to a specific group of trees where we saw these little white monkeys with black faces. The guide threw each boat a banana and we all were able to feed the monos. They did not come onto our canoes but they came right up to us and took the food from our hands! We couldn't believe how close we had been to wildlife all day!!
Then we all traveled up the lake and when we made it to this marsh that looked overgrown, he told us to keep going straight ahead. It turns out, the guide cut out this baby canal from the marsh that enabled us to pass through! We ended up traveling about 2 miles through an absolutely beautiful stream and then we parked our canoes and hiked up to a really cool waterfall that we could jump off! The tour was absolutely amazing and we strongly recommend it to ANYONE that will be traveling to Panama City in the future! This is the link, but we heard people that paid ahead of time online say that they paid $100 per person and we only paid $50, so keep that in mind!! :)
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