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New Year's in Panama 
$4,385 per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $1,295.
Trip Details
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Trip Overview
During our holiday tour of the Isthmus of Panama, visit the most protected areas in the Panama Canal watershed to look for dozens of bird species, monkeys, sloths and iguanas. Cruise along the lakes and locks of the canal and learn just how staggering an engineering feat it was to build. View the rain forest via aerial tram and luxury train. And meet indigenous Kuna Indians, who inhabit the San Blas Islands and maintain their traditional ways of life.
Trip Itinerary
Sunday, December 27: Depart U.S.
Depart the United States and fly to Panama City. Upon arrival, transfer to your home for the next four nights—a resort in the rain forest close to the Panama Canal. Join your fellow travelers and guide for a cocktail and orientation before having dinner on your own. Gamboa Rainforest Resort
Monday, December 28: Chagres National Park / Embera Village
After breakfast, drive to Madden Lake, which supplies 40 percent of the water required for the operation of the Panama Canal. Take a short piragua (dugout canoe) ride up the Chagres River, passing atop rapids and through the rain forest of the 300,000-acre Chagres National Park. This is the largest of the national parks protecting the Panama Canal watershed. Keep an eye out for such birds as little blue and green herons, great egrets, anhingas, cormorants and Amazon, ringed and green kingfishers.
Later, visit the village of one of Panama’s native tribes, the Embera. The tribe lives in the same region of the country as their ancestors did when Christopher Columbus came through Panama in 1502. Explore the surrounding rain forest during a trek to a waterfall. Gamboa Rainforest Resort (B,L,D)
Tuesday, December 29: Soberania National Park / Gatun Lake
Awake to the sounds of the birds of the rain forest. After breakfast, ready your cameras for a picturesque ride on an aerial tram that traverses a mile-long tract of forest within the resort boundaries. At the summit, walk to the observation tower to take in great views of the Panama Canal, the Chagres River and Soberania National Park.
After lunch and a siesta, take a boat ride across Gatun Lake, which makes up the large center section of the Panama Canal system. Pass by gigantic cargo ships transiting the waterway as you look for green iguanas and three-toed sloths lounging on tree branches, crocodiles on the banks, keel-billed toucans flying above and white-faced capuchins and endemic red-napped tamarins in the trees. Gamboa Rainforest Resort (B,L,D)
Wednesday, December 30: Trans-Isthmian Route
Drive across the Isthmus of Panama to the Caribbean side of the canal. Go to some of the few places in Panama inhabited by white-headed and stripe-breasted wrens, Montezuma oropendola and gray-checked nunlets, among other bird species. Visit Fort San Lorenzo and fortifications of Portobelo—Spanish warehouses for the riches being looted from the Incan Empire and tour its dungeons, moat and other features of the fort.
Next, go to the Gatun Locks at the northernmost point of the Panama Canal and then return to Gamboa on the famous Panama Canal Railway train. The one-hour ride across the isthmus takes you right alongside the edge of the canal and through lush rain forest. Gamboa Rainforest Resort (B,L,D)
Thursday, December 31: San Blas Islands
Fly to the San Blas Islands just off Panama’s Caribbean coast. Learn about the autonomous Kuna Indians, who have maintained traditional fishing villages along the beaches and have sovereignty over their territory. While visiting a village, observe how the palm leaf homes are constructed, watch women hand-stitching colorful “mola” fabrics and sample the local sugar cane-based drink. Stay in the seaside cabanas of a Kuna-styled lodge, celebrating New Year’s Eve with a special dinner. Akwadup Lodge (B,L,D)
Friday, January 1: Panama City / Miraflores Locks
Fly to Panama City and spend the morning exploring the Summit Botanical Gardens and its zoo, which affords close-up observations of such species as the Baird’s tapir and the Panamanian national bird, the harpy eagle. Drive to the Miraflores Locks to observe ships passing through the tallest of the canal’s three sets of locks.
After lunch, visit Casco Viejo, the colonial section of Panama City. Following an attack by pirate Henry Morgan, the original city burned down; officials decided to relocate it to a safer harbor locale—and built a massive wall and stronger fortress to ensure its protection. Explore the area’s museums, churches and cathedrals and the presidential palace before enjoying dinner on your own. Riande Continental Hotel (B,L)
Saturday, January 2: Panama City / Canal crossing
After breakfast, drive to Flamenco Pier and embark a small ship to begin a journey of a lifetime—a ride through the locks of the Panama Canal. Our ship will rise 55 feet above sea level in two steps before entering the mile-long Miraflores Lake, where fresh meets salt water. We then will navigate into the Pacific Ocean. Tonight, enjoy a farewell dinner at a tapas restaurant. Riande Continental Hotel (B,L,D)
Sunday, January 3: Panama City / U.S.
After breakfast, depart for the airport for your flight home. (B)
Optional Extension
Bocas del Toro
December 24-26, 2009
Snorkel and swim (or perhaps scuba dive) along coral reefs and hike the verdant rain forests of the the islands of Bocas del Toro during an optional pre-tour extension. The archipelago is an expanse of turquoise waters dotted with thickly forested islands, with the 32,700-acre Bastimentos National Marine Park at the heart of it. Spend two nights at a beach-side luxury resort. Cost: $1,295 per person, based on double occupancy. Single supplement: $695.
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