January 23 Colon, Panama

We arrived in Colon, Panama at lunch time.  This was the first visit to this port for any Regent ship.  They have built a new terminal area with restaurants, shops, and a super market as they are trying to get more ships to visit here.  We had a nice tour that took us to the Gatun Locks visitor center and then a boat ride on Gatun Lake.  While on the way to the locks we passed by the construction area where they are building the new locks. It was interesting to see the locks from visitor center instead of from a ship.  There was a huge container ship in the lock while we were there.

The new shopping area at the Colon port

From our bus we had a quick view of the construction of the new canal, due to open in June (only two years behind schedule!)

The Gatun lock as seen from visitor center

Huge container ship in the Gatun lock

The boat tour started from a resort hotel that had previously been a military barracks.  It seemed to be very nice and had many families staying there as it is school vacation time.  While on the boat tour we saw sloths, howler monkeys, and a cayman.  El Nino has caused dry conditions throughout the area and the lake was very low with many exposed tree stumps.

The "blob" in the tree is a sloth!

Howler monkey

Old military barracks converted to resort hotel

For the evening show we enjoyed a local folk dancing show.  They had beautiful costumes and were very professional.  At the end of the show they came out into the audience and coerced some of the passengers up to the stage, Noel was sitting on the aisle so of course she got picked.

Panama folk dancers

Beautiful handmade costume

Noel on stage with dancers