Río Buena Vista

A toucan, an enormous Butterfly, 5 x turtles, a Cayman, aTarantula, Black Vultures, Hawks, Howler monkeys and a Crocodile. The wildlife seen by the boys and I on our day trip.

We started with 2 hr drive to Fort San Lorenzo, the last hour of which was very bumpy road (after crossing the brand new bridge)

The fort was in the former US Canal Zone, so we drove through the old American naval base.

We enjoyed a hot but good walk around old fort (destroyed 3 times by British Privateers (Pirates)), discovering leaves that close when you touch them, leafcutter ants and old dungeons that then became a Panamanian Prison

We then drove back across the bridge to watch a massive cargo ship passing through the expansion locks (the new, bigger ones) of the Panama Canal.

Watched a great movie with stats relating to the building of the expansion - enough steel for 19 Eiffel Tours and a lot of concrete! The lock gates were manufactured in Italy and sailed across whole. The biggest is 33 metres high

We have lunch at a cafetria in Colon, followed by a bit of shopping. Bough Amy a beach bag, and some glue for Betsy.

We then had a Tour of Colon in our car - rough looking place, but you could see hints of its old glory.

 We then went to catch the train from Colon to Panama City from a very desolate looking station by the container port.

We took our seats in the viewing compartment – with snack pack and coffee.

Amazing view of the Gatan lake and canal during the hours journey. The tree stumps are still in the lake from when it was flooded.

 Betsy & Amy had a more relaxed day by the pool, but a Tour of the hotel grounds in the afternoon by golf buggy (Amy driving).

They saw turtles, caymans, a sloth and a nesting bird that wouldn't move from the path.Read more