Panama Canal and Darien Gap Cruise
01/01/2026
AMANAP LANAC A NALP A NAM A
A Palindrome Cruise
Panama City is a tale of two cities: A shiny, high‑rise metropolis with all the soul of a corporate PowerPoint template. A new old town built in 1673 after Henry Morgan trashed the original one-because nothing says 'fresh start' like rebuilding your city a little to the left. The new old town is lovely, full of colonial charm, decorated streets, Panama hats, and vultures circling overhead in a way that feels just a bit judgemental. The BBC promised thunder and rain all day, but not a drop fell. The exoticism is accentuated by the birdlife. A key difference to London is that pigeons are replaced by black vultures, thousands of them, seagulls by brown pelicans and starlings by noisy Great-tailed grackles.
We Ubered ($4! Cheaper than a cup of tea at an airport) to Metropolitano Natural Park where we immediately spotted and a Great Kiskadee. Minutes later, a biblical downpour arrived finally fulfilling the BBC's prophecy. Bird sightings were good, and the highlight was the whooping motmot, which sounds like a bird and a malfunctioning car horn had a baby. Also: sloth with bonus mini‑sloth, and monkeys that were probably Geoffroy's but refused to show ID.
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National Geographic Quest sailed overnight, and awoke in the Darién Gap, which is not a gap so much as an enormous tangle of rainforest, swamp and mystery. Our first view from our balcony was of some local fishermen offering scraps to some verry persistent pelicans, against a backdrop of steamy forested hills shrouded in mist.
Punta Patiño – Darién
Ashore, we were greeted by rangers who explained that the reserve was once a cattle ranch but has since been reclaimed by the forest—nature’s version of “I’m just going to put this back the way it was.” A jungle walk delivered tamarins, an orchestra of unseen birds, fungi everywhere, and the soulful ambiance of “We’re definitely being watched by something.” We visited the old ranch (now park HQ), spotted some cayman who looked far too pleased with themselves, then took a Zodiac trip to admire pelicans, blue‑footed boobies, frigatebirds, and herons.
We arrived at Playa de Muerte (“Beach of the Dead” - see banner photo at top of page), which sounds ominous but is actually delightful. Our first encounter with the Embera people however was at the breakfast buffet, where a few Embera guides who had come aboard to help us ashore made full use of the offerings – A full English! Fair play.
Baby Olive Ridley Turtles
A full welcoming party met us ashore—singing, dancing, laughter, and the occasional wave that tried to steal your shoes. Then: 100 baby Olive Ridley turtles making their heroic dash to the ocean. Not planned, just one of those special moments. The villagers run a turtle hatchery, which is working wonders: 350 nests last year, 500 this year. More turtles, more tourists, more joy for everyone. The babies scuttled off like wind‑up toys on a mission.
The Village
Pure magic. We trekked up a muddy hill to the “Big House” for speeches, dances, crafts for sale (genuinely superb), and a brief demonstration of the stocks—still used for naughty boys. A one‑mile beach walk led us through the village: large bare‑necked, fruit trees, a couple of pigs, dugout canoes, a football pitch, solar panels, hammocks everywhere, and about 200 of the healthiest, happiest people imaginable. We played football with the kids (still kicking myself for not bringing a ball), met a puppy in a Tonka dump truck, and wondered if we could quietly move in forever.
Jungle Trek – Darién Gap
Cue Jimmy Cliff: “Many Rivers to Cross.”
I brought river‑crossing shoes but used walking boots, which quickly converted themselves into portable aquariums. After a while it poured, people fell in rivers, guides fell over in rivers, and at some point this became entirely normal. I absolutely loved it. Saw very little wildlife—one magnificent butterfly and one kingfisher—but did pick bananas straight from the tree - delicious. Chatted with porter Mitchell (who renamed me Pablo/Paulo because “Powell” was too confusing). He taught me to count to five in Embera and we discussed life, the universe, and football. He had three children, 3, 5 and 8 years old, 2 boys and a girl – “Bastante, finito” he assured me.
Pearl Islands
We stopped at the Pearl Islands for a night, which provided time for snorkelling and a Zodiac ride (or kayak) through some mangroves. Plenty of birdlife, and plenty of fishlife too. There are 200 or so islands in this group, some inhabited but many not. Much used as a TV set (Survivor, The Real Swiss Family Robinson, Bear Grylls) for their tropical vegetation, white beaches and clear blue waters.
The Panama Canal
Approaching the canal, a pod of pantropical spotted dolphins escorted us, clearly aware of their cinematic value. Ahead floated around 60 giant ships waiting their turn like very patient elephants. We entered the canal in a warm dark evening—excellent theatre. The “mules” (small electric locomotives) don’t pull the ship, they just guide it and prevent wall‑scraping. Fun fact: the biggest ships pay up to $1.5 million to cross. The cheapest fee ever? 36 cents for Richard Halliburton who swam the Panama Canal in 1928.
Barro Colorado – Monkey Island
Barro Colorado is a Smithsonian research station. Our walking with a guide from the research station revealed two howlers, white‑faced monkeys, an agouti, and some birds the guide couldn’t name. The enormous “beer belly trees” were excellent—full of water, full of character, commercially useless. It also revealed that, at least one co passenger, had zero concept that howling like a monkey (“LOOK THERE’S AN ANIMAL”) and repeated loud phone rings isn’t conducive to wildlife spotting.
Monkey Island
After lunch, a brave group set out again in Pangas (small motor boat) despite torrential rain, which stopped the moment we boarded, and were rewarded with tamarins, capuchins, howlers, iguanas, a sloth, birds, a toucan, and adorable teeny‑tiny bats. Much better than the research station trip. Of 15 brave souls who ignored the initial rain, 14 went straight back for a second go as the wildlife was so prolific.
Portobelo 
We descended through the Gatun locks at night and cruised a couple of hours along the coast to Portobelo. Historically important, visually charming, atmospherically steamy. We admired the colourful murals, a church with a Black Jesus (possibly a more accurate depiction), and ruins of a Spanish fort once sacked by Henry Morgan, who sensibly approached through the jungle, not via the bay guarded by large fortifications on both sides. Back on board, Congo devil dancers (A traditional Panamanian dance) performed on board as 20 December is a national day of mourning in Panama ( The anniversary of the US invasion) and parties are banned ashore. Nothing kills a vibe like geopolitical history. A Zodiac bird cruise followed, then a night moored in Colón—which is, to put it politely is aptly named as it is considered the aXXXXole of Panama. A sniffer dog inspected our bags and recoiled rapidly. We still don’t know why.
Rainforest Discovery Centre - Enchanting
There wasn’t time for us to visit the Rainforest Discovery Centre at Gamboa (we went to the Smithsonian research station instead). So we picked up a hire car, drove through heavy rain to Gamboa, which again stopped at the ideal moment. We found a rough track to the discovery centre and walked for 40 minutes with plenty of birdlife, howling (monkeys) and the standard‑issue agouti. But by far the most common wildlife we saw, and we saw it wherever there was a patch of woodland, the forest was alive with leaf-cutter ants.
The hummingbird station was sublime. Long-billed hermit hummingbirds, Violet-bellied hummingbirds, Violet-crowned woodnymphs and white-necked Jacobins are all present here, and regularly attend the various different feeders. Their ability to stay motionless, dart from feeder to feeder, and then disappear as in a puff of smoke just wonderful to watch. Sit and enjoy for 20 minutes and absorb the sounds of the forest. Just a few yards away we climbed 174 steps to the top of the canopy tower which provides views across the tree tops and down to the edge of Gatun lake. We saw spotted some howlers chilling quietly (for once) at the top of a nearby tree and listened to the forest ensemble.
Amusing anecdote
I love the story about Panama qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. To get there, Panama had to beat Costa Rica, while the United States needed to lose to Trinidad and Tobago—a combination that seemed wildly unlikely. But the US were stuffed 3–0, and Panama grabbed a last-minute winner. The country erupted. People poured into the streets, celebrations went on through the night, and at 2 a.m. the president went live on TV to declare a national holiday. The party didn’t really end until around midday the following day.
Then, when Panama scored their very first goal at the FIFA World Cup—against England, no less, with England already 6–0 up—the celebrations started all over again. This time the president stopped short of another holiday, but reassured everyone that no one would be fired for turning up late to work.
The best bit The National Geographic guest speaker, Hernan Arauz, is a leading authority on the people, history and wildlife of Panama. Conceived during the 1960 Trans Darien Gap expedition, Hernan is a great speaker and his breadth of knowledge was quite extraordinary. In my ignorance I had no idea of just how wild, important and interesting the history of Panama is from the arrival of the first Conquistadors to the failure of the Scottish colony which led to the union of Scotland and England, and the dominance that the canal has had over the politics of the whole region since the French first tried (and failed) to dig the canal. But it was his tales of the Darien Gap, and the indigenous people of Panama, the Embera, the Embera-Wounaan and the Guna that had me captivated.
Thank You Hernan. I now have a pile of books about Panama to read.
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