Kayaking the Canal

My girl Melba came down for two weeks in December. The day after she arrived, we celebrated her birthday- since I couldn’t a birthday cake, I had the nice lady in the local bakery change a cake that said “Congrats on your retirement!” to “Congrats on your birthday!” Melba thought it was a very...um...tasty gesture.


Being the smooth operator that I am, I surprised her with a night in an awesome rain forest resort just an hour down the canal. The place was incredible and very 1^st world. The best part was the hammock on our balcony. I fell in love with the amazing view; Melba fell in love with the rum punches. Gotta love all-inclusive!

We went on a night jungle excursion in an open top truck with a guide and huge spotlight who pointed out tons of critters from anteaters to giant capybaras – the world’s biggest rodent. It looked like a rabbit a rabbit on Barry Bonds-type steroids.

The next day we signed up for kayaking the canal – one of the best things I’ve done in Panamá. They first took us cruising in the motorboat, weaving in and out of giant container ship making their way from ocean to ocean.

When they left us off, the first place we hit was Monkey Island, where a family of monkeys came running out of the jungle and jumped on our kayaks. The guide passed Melba a grape, and in a second, one of the little thieves had snagged it from her hand and jumped to safety in a nearby tree.

We kayaked for about 4 hours. Our guide, Edmundo, found us some howler monkeys , crocodiles sun bathing, three-toed sloths and these giant iguanas that were so big, Melba got a little too scared and almost tipped our kayaks.