Fuerte Amador, Panama

I’m a bit behind so I’ll try to catch up. The Panama Canal is always fascinating - no matter how many times you pass through it. We spent time sitting on the shady side of the ship and then coming inside for a while. After leaving the Canal we anchored off Fuerte Amador which is the main port for Panama City. They ran tenders all night so those that wanted to go ashore could do so and return at their leisure. Seabourn Legend is anchored near us; she is a ‘yacht’ class luxury ship holding only about 200 passengers… very nice!

This morning we had to have the alarm clock at 6:00 since we needed to be ready for our shore excursion to the Embera Indian Village by 7:30. We rode on a bus for a little over an hour and then on long dugout canoes for about 20 minutes to reach the village. There was a rather nice presentation done by the ‘Governor’ of the village that explained about their culture and clothing. Then he answer many questions. I particularly liked the one about what types of food they eat and where it comes from… “there is a supermarket in a village about 5 minutes away by boat”. So much for a really traditional lifestyle. Their costumes were very colorful and I took many pictures. We also had a ‘traditional’ snack of fried fish and fried plantains along with some cold soda. Although it was hot, the weather fairies were good to us and it was cooler than I had expected.

Tired, hot and somewhat hungry we did make it to Trivia… we won so now we are the proud owners of Dam mugs.

I haven’t had time to get the photos off my camera yet so I’ll come back and add them tomorrow.