Days 4-5 – 5/30/11-5/31/11 – Gamboa; Atlanta

Evil Little Bastard

Dear Reader, our fourth and final day in Panama got off to quite a start. As I mentioned yesterday, Gamboa Rainforest Resort offers quite a number of excursions – a birdwatching trek, a ski lift-style ride for 1.5 km above the roof of the rainforest (which we obviously would have been done had it not been closed for maintenance for another 2 weeks), excursions around the canal, a dugout canoe trip to visit one of the local indigenous tribes, and our choice as the best combination of mildly adventuresome + TBJ-friendly, a boat trip to “monkey island” to see whatever wildlife we could see. If you know me at all, dear reader, you know two things about this – first, a boat trip to see wildlife in a rainforest is not something that I’m going to pass up, and second, that I’ve got a well earned fear of monkeys (with the scar and tattoo to prove it), meaning that this should be interesting.

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Day 3 – 5/29/11 – Panama City; Gamboa

Casco Viejo - What Panama Wants You to See

Dear Reader, as I write this I am being serenaded in my left ear by the sounds of a rainforest, including it seems a howler monkey (insanely loud), and in my right ear by the sounds of a relatively sedate hotel bar (Nights in White Satin for some reason). Tiger Mom, TBJ and I decamped from Panama City today to Gamboa Rainforest Resort – a resort that, as its name suggests, is in the rainforest more or less halfway between the two ends of the Panama Canal at Colon and Panama City. To say that we are pleased to be here (Moody Blues aside) doesn’t really do justice to the phrase.

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Days 1-2 – 5/27/11-5/28/11 – Atlanta, GA; Panama City, Panama

Hola Dear Reader! Today is the first day of a 5 day trip for your Blogger, Tiger Mom and The Blogger, Junior (TBJ) to Panama – home of the Panama Canal, numerous sloths, and as we have discovered this morning, 100% humidity. I must also apologize for the lack of pictures. Your Blogger cleverly ran out of the house without the charger for his camera battery, and of course it ran out with the first photo he snapped. Oh well. On to the trip! Your Blogger is happy to report that there is nothing of note from the trip down – only minor boarding delays, smooth flight, simple customs process, etc. The most notable thing is that a four hour flight that only takes you one time zone is a hell of a lot easier to manage with TBJ than a 10 hour flight that takes you across 6. He, of course, is a rock star and perfect in all situations, but he was more perfect on this flight than he would have been on a longer one.

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