Panama Part 3

This was the Norwex provided tours.  It was SO hard to decide which tour to do.  Our friends all registered before us and had chosen the rain forest tour.  We tried to get on that with them but it was booked up... so we opted for the trip out to the Native's villiage.  I was really excited about this, but also really wante to see the rain forest with our friends. 

When we realized there was a rigous rain forest tour and an easy one, we knew there would be a lot who opted out of the "difficult" hike.  We got in the line to see how many people skipped that day.  Turns out, there was enough that opted out and we got on the same tour as our friends .

I missed meeting the native people and learning more about their culture... but our day did NOT DISAPPOINT!



We rode on this rickety looking bridge across Gutan Lake (the lake that connects the canal route

We stopped off at a place for a bathroom break and the view was amazing!!




Then we resume our ride to the Gamboa Rainforest preserve


Our hike was soooo cool!
First off, monkeys! Lots of monkey sightings

Caught a pic of the monkey in the air

Sloth

EXTREMELY venomous snake... thankfully just a baby


leaf cutter ants houses on the trees

Tucahn

We saw a lot more things, I know... but it's been a year since then and I just don't remember the details as well as I would have liked
Our guide:




After our nature walk (for it was definitely not a strenuous hike like advertized, we went on a boat ride on the Gutan Lake to MONKEY ISLAND!



the train ride across the continent was another optional trip:.  i preferred just seeing the train from our boat

a ship headed to or from the Panama Canal


Monkey island came to be when they flooded this giant plane to create Gutan Lake for the canal passage.  There were a couple higher spots that formed islands, trapping all of the wildlife, including  a lot of monkeys.  Over the near century, that is a lot of monkey reproduction... the only real hazzard they face is the looming crocodiles that lurk all around the islands. 

I'll stay in the boat, thank you.





Our next adventure of the day was a gondola ride to the top of the rainforest




In the distance on the left side of the picture is a tiny village-- the village we were suppose to tour

zoomed in on the village



Once we were at the top of the gondola ride we went on another hike/walk to an observation tower
The trees had these thick vines.. now i know how Tarzan could swing from them



sloth!



A view of the canal


Back onto the Gondolas

tiny little white spider on Luke's hand.  Ew.

a large rodent scurrying through the forest


After our gondola rides we went to the nature preserve buildings.  Home to rehabilitated animals


Afrian dart frog room (very poisonous frogs.. about the size of a quarter)


Butterfly sanctuary


These have incredible blue wings, but when they land they show only the underside which is a dull brown. 


Then the SLOTH SANTUARY~ i was in love!





So all of this was before lunch.  Well no.  Actually we were just starved to death by the time we got to the buffet

The restaurant was overlooking turtle invested waters.  They were EVERYWHERE! so cool
You ever heard of a herd of turtles? i think I've seen one now!



When we returned to the resort we had a few hours to kill and we enjoyed some time in the pools (first time we were there during the day time to actually use them!)
We played water volleyball. Luke loved it... i endured it



That night was the super bowl back at home.  There was a giant inflatable TV screen they were showing the game... we skipped it.  Never missed it once :)
Instead we enjoyed a nice dinner with friends eating sushi (for Luke) and yummy chinese something or another for me.

Another great, VERY busy day in Panama.  We certainly did not rest while we were on vacation.  Each day we were up on our excursions before 7 am and were living it up, seeing all we could, until we dropped in bed each night.