Panama from the Ground Up
Jul 15th, 2009 by wwftravel
© Ron Magill
Many travelers transiting the Panama Canal do so via a large cruise ship. Yet on our New Year’s in Panama tour this December, you can experience the canal in a smaller vessel, allowing you to see operational aspects of the system at close range—perhaps even traveling in tandem with a huge cargo vessel.
“Sometimes you’re so close to the lock walls that you could even touch them,” says Ariel Aguirre, a naturalist guide and birding expert in Panama who is scheduled to lead WWF’s tour.
This foray into Panama is special, because it employs several different modes of transportation to observe birds and other wildlife in the rain forest watershed. You have opportunities to observe the forests on the ground, along the water’s edge and high up in the forests’ canopy.
An aerial tram ride through Soberania National Park is a tour highlight. Small gondolas whisk you 280 feet off the ground and into the humid forest’s canopy. The tram was designed to put you at eye level with much of the wildlife that inhabits the watershed.
“The experience makes you see, feel and hear the same things that the animals in the forest do, and allows you to understand the importance of [the canopy] in such a complex ecosystem,” says Aguirre, an active member of the Panama Audubon Society. “The birds are so diverse, beautiful and abundant in this part of Panama that you can easily spot one hundred-plus species in a single day.”
During the trip you’ll also take a train ride along tracks that run parallel to the canal, passing alongside Gatun Lake, Miraflores and the Pedro Locks. The trains are styled like those from the mid 19th century, with lacquered wood walls and plush carpeted floors.
And for a truly memorable experience, climb into a hand-carved dugout canoe called a piragua for a ride down the Chagres River. It takes a crew of three men three months or so to carve the canoe from a single tree by hand using basic tools.
