As we sailed into Colon in November 2019. I saw the tiny-looking dock and wondered how our huge ship was going to fit.
The ship’s ropes were lowered to a dock worker in the little boat below.
He zipped over to the posts and handed off the rope to another worker who secured the ship’s tether in two separate areas on land. The front tether was secured to the dock and everyone exited the ship from the forward gangway.
The original excursion we chose was NCL’s “Grand Tour.” We were supposed to go through the locks from our ship and then board a tender boat for the ride on Gatun Lake at 9:30 AM and then return to the ship in Colon after it docked. There was some issue with the tenders so many of the NCL excursions were cancelled. I really hated that for the guests who booked those excursions and then needed to find a different excursion. Our tour was bumped to 2:30PM and the itinerary was changed to start from Colon instead. This turned out to be great for us as it was pouring rain at 9:30 AND it allowed us to watch the canal transit both ways.
We drove through a very poor section here at the port of Limon.
Our guide explained that the government was in the process of relocating the poor here to the “highway.” I think he meant the rural areas. He said they are tearing down the old buildings and going to work on the infrastructure here – laying new drainage pipes, etc., and this area will become a business district. It was a very depressing area for the ship to dock.
After a short bus ride, we stopped at a lovely hotel that provided a restroom break for us before we walked down to the edge of Gatun Lake.
The boat captain served as a photographer and allowed each guest to go out on the front of the boat to pose for a photo.
We had a beautiful day for a boat ride and spotted some birds, sloths and monkeys, but they are a little too well-hidden in my pictures. If you look very closely in the treetop below, there is a sloth.
We then stopped at a village where the Embera tribe lives.
These indigenous people welcomed us with music and led us to a large hut where they told us about their customs (our guide translated) and performed some tribal dances. The father of the chief selected me out of the audience to dance with him. We basically walked around in a circle holding hands while following the leader. They are short in stature. I don’t think any of the tribe members were over 5 feet tall. We were warned that there could be some nudity, but our guide told us that the women now cover their chests. All of the men wore some kind of loin cloth – some with a little more fabric than others.
At the conclusion of the demonstration, we were given only 15 minutes to shop among the handmade souvenirs and wander through the village. I purchased a hand carved sloth as a remembrance of our trip here.
After leaving the village, we boated back over to the hotel, boarded our bus, and made our way to the Panama Canal Visitors center to view the canal from land.
Earlier, I took this picture of the visitor’s center while our ship sailed through the canal.
This view below is of the canal from that visitor’s center.
The locks were are viewing are the Agua Clara locks – named for the community where the locks were built.
The visitor’s center is usually already closed this time of day, but they remained open late for our ship’s tours and we enjoyed seeing a video of the making of the new locks.
We got back to the port and did not take any time to explore the little tourist area in Colon. For one, I was tired, and for two, it was already dark and didn’t look all that inviting at night time. That is just my perception, though, it might have been perfectly safe and exciting.
Our next port on this itinerary will be Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.