Most people these days think cruises and immediately the gigantic ships from the major cruise lines come to mind. Cruises ships come in many different sizes these days. They can be as small as a few dozen passengers, or as large as the mega ships carrying thousands of passengers. Adventure or exploration cruises are a great alternative to the floating cities that have become so popular. Smaller ships offer a more intimate experience, a much smaller number of passengers, and can go places that the mega ships can’t enter. UnCruise Adventures, based in Seattle, has as it’s mission: “To provide our guests an enriching adventure travel experience and inspire an appreciation of local cultures and the natural world.” We chose to travel on one of their itineraries to the Panama Canal, a bucket list destination, and an incredible feat of construction and engineering. Beyond that, the country of Panama, and neighboring Costa Rica are beautiful, biodiverse, and wonderful places to visit.
The airplane approach to the Panama City airport offers a panoramic view of downtown before swinging back out over the Pacific Ocean for the final decent. It’s a fairly short ride to downtown, passing through tropical foliage that makes up a great deal of the country’s landscape. The most noticeable thing, beside the substantial amount of construction going on, is the number of high rise buildings everywhere. Both tall office and residential buildings are sprouting like weeds. Ironically, the tallest buildings aren’t office towers, but condos and apartment buildings. It looks much like Miami. Read the full story at SentinelTravel.com
