A Family, A Plan, A Canal: Panama

When we canceled our ski trip in December due to the lack of snow in Vermont, we were pretty confident there would be great spring skiing. With plans to go to Okemo the week of March 19th with our two kids, we began to hesitate when the temperature reached 77 degrees on March 9. That night, my husband and I began frantically searching for flights to warm places with all-inclusive hotels with little luck. We were about to settle on a boring beach condo in Florida when kayak.com picked up some cheap, direct flights to Panama in Central America. We'd been before as a couple in 2005 and thought our six and eight-year-old kids might be up for the adventure. We had a solid eight days to read thousands of Tripadvisor reviews and plan the trip...no problema. We decided to go for it and a few days later we found ourselves and our kids in Panama.

Day 1: We awoke in our Panama City hotel to no hot water but a lovely free breakfast. We found our guide, Luis on a Tripadvisor forum, and he actually showed up to take us to a couple sights around the city. I was delighted to see seat belts in his car for the kids, although these proved to be the last seat belts I saw. We got to the Panama Canal (the Miraflores Locks) by 9 am, or in tourist talk, before the crowds descended. We were able to watch a container ship and a grain ship pass through the set of locks. It's fascinating. Using simple gravity, the water in the locks is lowered (or raised) 54 feet allowing ships to pass through the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean or vice versa. Soon our bored and hot kids were ready to tour the museum and try the simulator where you captain the ship as you make your way through the canal. From there, Luis took us to the top of Ancon Hill which boasts an unbeatable view of Panama City. The bonus was seeing a sloth with her baby and some very large Golden Orb Weaver spiders. From there we caught a flight out to the Bocas Del Toro islands in northeastern Panama.

Days 2, 3, 4: A quick flight brought us into the tiny island airport and we hopped in a boat with the lodge owner. Tranquilo Bay Eco Adventure Lodge is situated on Isla Bastimentos, a paradise-like island, surrounded by coral-filled waters and home to a rainforest of flora and fauna. We were taken to our private cabana, where we applied some (provided) bug spray, and headed up the 63-foot canopy tower to bird watch. The kids were excited to see so many pairs of bright green red-lored parrots flying right by our heads. After the tenth pair of birds flew by the kids were "bored" again and we abandoned bird watching for dinner.

Our daily rate at Tranquilo Bay included food and drinks. We had a chance to mingle with the other families prior to dinner who were a lovely and interesting bunch. Ironically they were ALL from New York (Larchmont and Manhattan). Our kids were the youngest and we got a lot of "wow, that's brave" remarks about bringing our kids to Panama. While the kids were being entertained by (or possibly entertaining) the four kids who live at the resort, we ate delicious steaks and enjoyed a massive piece of chocolate cake. The owners of the lodge have four kids who are homeschooled in the mornings (free in the afternoons), and our kids really enjoyed hanging out with them.

Day 3 began with a hearty breakfast. We all loved the fresh juices especially the passion fruit juice. We met Natalia and Ramon, the two on-site guides employed by the lodge who led us down to the dock where Natalia could (hopefully) teach our kids to snorkel. They're great swimmers, but we were surprised to see how easily they picked up snorkeling. We spent the morning with knowledgeable and patient Natalia, learning about every fish we saw and then took the kayaks out to a nearby reef for more snorkeling. It was beautiful. Our daughter learned how to avoid fire coral and how to safely pick up sea urchins. We came back to the lodge for a quick lunch and went right back out for more snorkeling and kayaking, and the kids even tried stand up paddle boarding. It was a perfect afternoon. Dinner was jackfish (which both kids ate, even thought they won't even try fish at home.) Then it was dark enough to go on the spider hunt that our 6-year-old son planned with Natalia despite his mother's severe arachnophobia.

We awoke in the morning for a hike in the rainforest with Ramon, the hotel's other on-site guide. We were fascinated by Ramon's knowledge of the local environment. Every tree we passed suddenly became interesting as did every bird sound and breaking branch. We learned that termites are edible and they're actually pretty delicious.  We saw a sloth in a tree with her baby and hummingbirds gleefully bathing. We saw orange poison dart frogs and male orange-collared manakin birds competing for the females by doing a mating dance on the forest floor. We learned how pineapples and cashews grow. After about an hour and a half, the kids were ready for the water so we headed out with Ramon on some kayaks across the bay and through mangrove canopies to "Jellyfish Lagoon". We hopped in the water with our snorkel gear and were amazed to see a completely different underwater scene: upside down jellyfish, moon jellyfish, spotted eagle rays, a giant snail, and a funny little purple swimming worm. We watched the sun set and the moon rise at the dock that night before dinner and once again enjoyed the thoughtful and locally sourced cuisine.

Our last morning at Tranquilo Bay, we took one last walk to the top of the canopy tower, said goodbye to the resident sloth, and went for one more snorkel and swim. Although the lodge offers many different excursions, the guides are included in the package we chose and we never felt the need to leave the grounds. After lunch we were taken by boat back to the main island, Isla Colon, and the do-it-yourself part of our Panamanian adventure began.

Days 5 & 6: Since Easter is a popular vacation week, our lodging choices for the final days of the vacation on Isla Colon in Bocas Town were somewhat limited. We ended up at a B&B called Lula's. It was just okay and if you're going to stay on the island, I recommend you look elsewhere. We self-arranged a boat tour around the Bocas Del Toro islands for the day and were put on a boat for 16 people, 12 of whom were in their early twenties and from Venezuela and drinking hard liquor at 10 AM. We were the other four. Our bilingual guide apparently forgot his English but we still had an enjoyable day seeing dolphins, snorkeling at coral key where there's coral every color of the rainbow, observing active sloths in trees, playing with different types of starfish and spending a few hours on a picturesque beach. Our Venezuelan friends turned out to be nice (though very drunk). The next morning, we took a water taxi to a local beach and hung out until it was time to get our baggage. We walked from the B&B to the airport (kids loved being able to do that) and departed for Panama City. Luckily, our Panama City hotel had a rooftop pool (for the kids) and a rooftop bar (for the non-kids). In swimsuits, our son took it upon himself to do a mosquito bite count: dad- 34, sister- possibly 1, himself- 4, mom- 78!

Day 7: Another do-it-yourself day. The Best Western Zen Panama Hotel, a lucky find online, had one of the most incredible breakfasts I've ever had at a hotel. Between that and the luxe pool area, there was no sign this was a Best Western except for on the actual sign. We were impressed with the service, the amenities, the cleanliness, and the location of the hotel. It was the best $85 spent on lodging and I'd almost fly back to Panama just to stay there again. We learned very quickly that in Panama, if you take a taxi from your hotel, you will be pay between 3-5x the amount that you'll pay if you walk to the corner and hail one yourself. Our daughter loved learning how to bargain (in Spanglish) so we counted the haggling as part of our adventure and had fun with it. We took a $3 (not a $12!) ride to Parque Natural Metropolitano, a protected area within Panama City limits. As a family, we took turns being the nature guide in an attempt to keep the kids interested. The amount of wildlife we saw right in Panama City was astounding. In just over two hours of hiking, we encountered monkeys, sloths, (the kind that look like they're always smiling), Jesus Christ Lizards, turtles, lots of colorful birds, agoutis, and loads ants and termites. Our kids understood a lot more about the rainforest ecosystem thanks to our guides at Tranquilo Bay.

We spent the rest of the day swimming, reflecting on our trip and marveling that we had been so hesitant to take our kids to Panama. When I asked my daughter if she preferred Disney World or an adventure trip I was very gratified to hear her answer.