PANAMA PORTS

Central America

PORTS AND CITIES

PANAMA PORTS AND CITIES

Balboa	Cristobal	Fuerte Amador	Isla de Coiba
Isla Iguana	Panama Canal	Panama City	San Blas Islands
San Juan del Sur

Balboa

Balboa, Panama Canal Cruising and Gateway to Panama City

Balboa lies at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, Balboa offers a pretty waterfront, but is mainly your way of getting up close and personal with the region's biggest attraction after the Canal - Panama City. One of very few walled cities in Central America, Panama City is a highlight of any cruise itinerary. Start your exploration in its old town – Casco Viejo – a treasury of French, Spanish and American colonial houses. The French Plaza is particularly atmospheric and you can enjoy panoramic views over the city from the Old City Wall right above the Plaza. Take in the grand Spanish style of the Metropolitan Cathedral and see the neo-Classical Municipal Palace, which surrounds the square right in front of it. If time allows, visit the fascinating Metropolitano National Park, the only protected rainforest in the world to lie within a city's limits.

Cristobal

Colón (Cristobal), Caribbean Cruising Entering The Panama Canal

Situated at the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal is the port of Cristobal (Spanish for Christopher), your stopping off point for Colon (Spanish for Columbus). The city, founded in 1850 by the Americans working on the Panama railroad, is today Panama's second largest. Colon underwent a massive redevelopment programme for the new millennium and is now a fantastic place to shop, as well as a great base for exploring the rest of Panama. Take an enchanting journey into the lush rainforest to San Lorenzo Fort and walk in the footsteps of the adventurous buccaneer – Captain Morgan. Experience the ecology and get a closer look at the wildlife on and around the amazing Gatun Lake. Then go further into the dense jungle and meet the Choco Indians. Living as they have done for centuries, in houses built on stilts along the banks of the Chagres River, you will get a glimpse of their mystical rituals and their amazing knowledge of medicinal plants and natural remedies. You can learn more about the rich diversity of flora and fauna at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and don't miss the impressive Gatun locks in action on the wondrous Panama Canal.

Fuerte Amador

Cruise to the Panama Canals Pacific Entrance, Fuerte Amador, Panama

Fuerte Amador, situated at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal is a manmade peninsula extending out into the Pacific Ocean. This one-mile causeway connects four small islands. There are shops and restaurants on a large marina that provides a panoramic view of Panama City's impressive skyline and serves as the home for the Smithsonian Institute of Tropical Research. Fuerte Amador is a major cruise hub, this bustling port provides a great launching point for further exploration. From here, take in the sights of Panama City, the region's dynamic trade capital. The new Miraflores Visitor Centre allows visitors to observe transiting vessels from a short distance and learn firsthand about the Panama Canal.

Isla de Coiba

Dive Right in to This Cruise, a highlight in Isla de Coiba, Panama

The crumbling cells and overgrown graves are all that remain of the former penal colony that once inhabited Isla de Coiba. Because of its unsavoury history, few people came here and almost 80% of the island's 124m acres are still virgin forest, where howler monkeys, crested eagles and scarlet macaws roam freely through the jungle canopy. Today, divers, snorkelers and surfers have made Coiba's Bahia Damas Reef a premier diving destination because of the amazing marine life including four kinds of turtle, manta rays, sharks, dolphins and whales.

Isla Iguana

Share your cruise adventure with 5,000 Frigate Birds at Isla Iguana, Panama

As you approach the remote uninhabited island of the Isla Iguana wildlife reserve on Panama's Pacific coast, the first thing you'll notice are the frigate birds, 5,000 of them, in fact, soaring and diving in breathtaking aerobatics. And the reason they are here is the abundance of the island's coral reefs. Their lure is as irresistible to snorkelers and divers as it is to the frigate birds, but if you'd rather stay topside, you can laze in a hammock under a palm tree and watch all the action from the beach.

Panama Canal

Scenic Cruising Through the Panama Canal, Connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific

One of the great engineering feats of the 20th century, the Panama Canal accomplished what nature forgot to do; it connected the Atlantic to the Pacific, and reduced the 12,000 mile sailing distance between New York and San Francisco by more than 7,000 miles. A Three Hundred Year Old Dream - Completed in 1914, the Panama Canal was the culmination of a dream that began in 1513 with the Spanish conquistador Balboa. He was the first European to trek across the 43-mile-wide Isthmus of Panama. In 1880, The French Canal Company began construction, but plagued by diseases, financial burdens and engineering problems, they sold the canal's rights and properties to the United States for $40 million. The US began construction in 1904 and completed it ten years later at a cost of roughly $387 million an unprecedented amount at the time. Building the Panama Canal involved solving monumental engineering challenges. In addition to the staggering concept of digging through the Continental Divide, the project also involved constructing the largest earth dam ever built up to that time, designing and building the most massive canal locks ever envisioned, constructing the largest gates ever swung, and solving environmental problems of enormous proportions. Without question, the best way to experience every mile of the Panama Canals magnificent wonder is from the deck of a transiting cruise ship. From this privileged vantage point you get an incomparable perspective while passing through the canal's three sets of locks. Ships passing through these are raised and lowered 85 feet.

Panama City

Cruise to the Capital City of Panama

Panama City is the capital city and an important business centre for this region. View the Plaza de Francia, dedicated to the 22,000 workers who perished whilst building the Panama Canal and the ruins of the Church of Santo Domingo. There are also several notable museums including the Museum of the History of Panama.

San Blas Islands

Cruise to the End of the Rainbow with the Colours of San Blas Islands, Panama

The vivid colours of the San Blas Islands are undoubtedly the inspiration for the fanciful birds, fish and animals in brilliant reds, oranges, blues and greens that decorate the intricately appliquéd molas created by the indigenous Kuna women. Strung along the throat of Panama's dramatically beautiful Kuna Yala coast, the remoteness of these coral atolls protects an independent people who prize their communal culture with its rich oral history and artistic heritage.

San Juan del Sur

Cruise to San Juan del Sur and visit One of largest Lakes in the World, Nicaragua

In the 1849 Gold Rush, before the Panama Canal was built, the way you went from the Atlantic to the Pacific was via Cornelius Vanderbilt's trans-isthmus steamboats, which took you up the Rio San Juan across Lake Nicaragua and then via rail to San Juan del Sur, the Pacific terminus, where you'd catch a clipper for San Francisco. Today you can easily drive to Lake Nicaragua, one of the largest lakes in the world and home to a species of fresh water shark, and take a more modern tourist boat to the twin-volcanic peaked island of Ometepe, a magical Eden-like place held in almost mystical regard by Nicaraguans.