Day 8 - Panama Canal
This morning we woke up to the ship pullling into the Panama Canal. Because of our engin issues, we arrived later than expected and had to wait for a turn to enter the canal. There are two sets of locks here now. The old ones made in 1914 and the new ones (Aqua Clara) made in 2016. We navigated through the newer locks. It took 4 min for the doors of the lock to close when we entered. There are three locks to go through and it raised the ship 85 feet to the level of the man made Lake Gatlin. The history of this canal is very interesting and well worth the read if you have time. It is an engineering marvel.
Once in the lake, the ship anchored and we took tenders to start our excursion. Today we did the Authentic Embra Native Village excursion through Princess Cruise Line. The tour took us in air conditioned busses to Chagres National Park.This was a three hour drive (Yuck!). We were not expecting this based on the description of the tour. Our tour guide had a heavy accent and I missed most of the presentation of the history and heritage of these native people during the drive.
We were taken on rustic wooden canoes into the village. The canoes were long and pretty stable. However there were powered by a motor, not paddles. (Not quite as authentic as I would have wanted.) We were greeted by the native people playing musical instruments and children running around.
The village Chief welcomed us and gave us a brief history of the Embra people (through an interpreter). A native woman then presented the native dress and crafts made by the tribe. Then we were served some native foods. Fried fish and fried plantains. They were served in a banana leaf. Fresh fruit was served as well.
We had about an hour to walk about the village and tour the various buildings. You could get a “tattoo” by one of the natives for $5. I opted in and got a pretty cool looking arm band. The tattoo ink was applied with a stick and is only supposed to last for 5 days. It was warm and mine started to smear from my sweat and I did my best to let it dry (i.e. I sat around with my shirt off while we toured the village.) They had a shopping area where we could buy native crafts. Sandy got some earrings and I got a turtle keychain for my backpack.
The villagers returned and we were presented with some native dancing. Unfortunately they did not explain what the dancing was about, so much of it was confusing (The women would dance in a circle, then stop and four of them would yell and “fight”.) Then the men and women danced together in what appeared to be the two step. (Not necessarily a native dance). It made more sense later when they had the audience join them. I figured it was a dance that most anyone could do. Engaging, but lacked authenticity.
Looking around, it seemed mostly staged. There were no older tribes people around. Mostly 20 somethings with modern haircuts. (But dressed traditionally).
We returned to the bus via the wooden canoes and did the hour plus drive back to Colon to meet the ship.
We had time to shop the souvenir shops at the port before we got on. I got a Panama Hat and a few stickers for my suitcase.
Back on board, the time was gettting late and we went to dinner later then normal. Irene stayed on board and joined us. Sue and Steve did an excursion that was the last to return to the ship (past 7:30). They had messaged us just as we were going to dinner, so we saved a table for all of us.
Everyone was exhausted and went to bed early. Sandy and I decided to go to deck 15 for Movies Under the Stars to watch Wicked from the hot tub (with cocktails).
Tomorrow we make port at Costa Rica and they are on Central time, but do not observe Daylight Savings Time, so we needed to adjust our clocks back one more hour. Yeah! We get an extra hours of sleep!
