December 9 - Fuerto Amador

It was an early morning as we had an excursion with a meet time of 6:40.  Excursion was good, but it was very hot. Glad we went in the morning and not the afternoon.  It's hard to get good pictures of wildlife critters.  

Panama runs east-west; the same as Canada.  On the west is the Pacific Ocean, the North is Costa Rica, the east is the Caribbean Sea and the neighbor to the south is Columbia.  The Panama Canal, however, does run North to South.  The US dollar is the currency used in Panama. One of their corrupt president's tried introducing the Balboa, but it was only used for a week or so.

On our Excursion we saw howler monkeys, capuchin monkeys, iguanas, capybara and some critters, I don't remember the name, but our tour guide, said he'd been a guide since 2005 and only seen it about 5 times. I have capuchin monkey pictures, but I didn't even try to get Iguana pictures. It's hard enough to see Iguanas in a tree, let alone in a picture. 

The howler monkeys stay in the trees, so again it is hard to get pictures of them.

Once we returned to our air-conditioned bus ride back to the ship we were given a bottle of water and a ham and cheese on a bun. It was a welcome sight, as my breakfast at 630 was fading.

We've had other Princess ships in port with us both stops - the Diamond in Puerto Vallarta and the Coral in Panama. There have been no other ships in port, so the ports have not been crowded. The Coral is one of Princess' ships that can go through the original locks. They are referred to as Panamax Ships. Of course any of the ships can go through the new locks, but going ocean to ocean on a Panama Canal cruise going through the old, original locks is special.

Entertainment 

There was another comedian- magician last night. He was great! Nathan Phan. He calls himself the Magic Asian Man. Not only did he do comedy and magic, but he sang as well. And here's a twist, he was born in Scotland, so he has a Scottish accent. He was really entertaining!