Our 3rd leg of our cruise was to Fuerte Amador, Panama.
For this leg, there were no ports in Panama. We had to pull down one of the small tender boats from the ship to ferry people to the docks. The weather getting into Panama was pretty rough. Instead of having 4 ferries, only 2 ended up working. The normal 15 minute ride became 25 minutes each way. We chose to do the Indian Village tour with the cruise but ended up getting to the port 2 1/2 hours after our scheduled time.
After that hiccup, we were on our way!
There were a lot of interesting facts about panama so let me see if I can remember some (or make up my own facts about this country).
1. there are hundreds of boats all sprawled out in the bay outside of Panama City; this is because it is free docking! Boats would hunker down here in preparation for crossing the Panama Canal. There are no time limits to how long a boat can chill out in the bay.
2. The French, who completed the Suez Canal, failed massively at building the Panama Canal in 1904. Jungle, Mangroves, Massive trees, Mosquitoes, Malaria, Yellow Fever, Tribes, and other wild animals owned them. 20,000+ people died!
3. The USA took over the project without permission and completed it by 1914. Their strategy was to spend 2 years eradicating mosquitoes and promote cleanliness, then get black people to do the digging and building.
4. After completion, the USA drafted up a treaty allowing them to own it but no Panamanian signed it. What did the USA do? owned it for the next 55+ years anyway because they are the USA!
5. All the hills surrounding panama are full of these beautiful 10 feet tall weeds with white stuff on it. They were introduced by the USA to keep the ground stable to prevent mud slides and to keep the Panama Canal in place. Eventually the Guatemalans discovered a better way to keep the mountains from falling. So what was to happen to the weeds that the USA introduced? Well it spread all across the mountains and hills of Panama. What are the only animals in the world that eat those weeds? Elephants. How many Elephants are in panama including pets and circus ones? 0
6. There are 4 Indian tribes in Panama, 3 of which are apparently always angry and dangerous.
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the tender that took us to the docks |
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very choppy water with view of Panama City |
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sailing around the boat |
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some of the boats docked there for free |
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the white weeds the USA brought over to destroy Panama |
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random big church |
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everywhere in latin america, there are public busses with random crap drawn on it. They are, however, called something different in each country. Chicken bus in guatemala, red devil in panama, i forget costa rica |
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MCDONALDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 in the ghetto |
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random kids |
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random cop |
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these guys think they are Chuck Norris from the movie Delta Force |
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canoes we took to get to the village. Water kept creeping up. |
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view from canoe |
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Indian Chief checking out if one of us were worthy. I AM |
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A indian |
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THE NEW CHIEF |
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Alyssa preparing to become a slave to one of these 3 kids. |
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Found hieroglyphs of me on the walls. Their god has returned! :D |
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talapia and bananas! |
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papaya and pineapple |
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The current chief. |
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Andy getting a tattoo |
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The only weird thing about this trip even though it was deep in the jungle was that all the guys had a good line up and haircuts from today. Feel like we are somehow being trolled and these are hired people from disney world... :\ |
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Andy with a kid that made that face all day. Lauren the main singer to all the production shows on the trip. she got quite the pipes. |
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panama city |
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this fish and tackle shop only had massive fishing poles and baits... wtf do they feed these fishes in panama. there was literally no small hook and bait section. |
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panama city |
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ice cream paparazzi |
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weird panamanian bird that doesn't give a s*** |
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