Tour review - 4/9/05

[dmac]

We are just off the Carnival Legend 4/4/05 sailing. For our stop in Panama we arranged a tour with Mario through his website, myfriendmario.com. We chose his tour # CL007. Excellent tour. The highlight was the trip to the waterfall. You hike for about 20-30 minutes back into the rainforest following a streambed and you come to a beautiful swimming hole with a decent sized waterfall flowing into it. We were the only ones there at the time. Absolute paradise. The water feels great after the hike. The hike is not difficult, but there is some uphill and downhill on slippery, muddy terrain. Also the canoe ride on the Chagres river to and from the Indian Village is very nice. We saw quite a few caiman and many birds. Enjoyed this ride much more than the jungle canal ride we took in Costa Rica.

You need to plan a tour in Panama as Colon is not a great place to shop or hang out. But once you are out of Colon, it is a whole different world. Our experience with Mario from myfriendmario.com was very positive and I would recommend his services if you are going to Panama. He also does tours out of Panama City.

[palmtre2]

We are interested in this tour and have some questions- we have children with us who get cranky when bored, a few adults too!!! Are you spending alot of time driving on this tour??? Do you also visit the Gatun locks - any tour we take HAS to include this (we have 2 engineers along!!!). How many to a canoe??? How many can Mario accommodate - we are 12 total?