2018 HAL World Cruise
Fuerte Amador is the port city for Panama City. Ships anchor off-shore and tender the passengers to a beautiful dock area (Flamenco Island Marina) filled with restaurants and shops. From there, shuttle buses will take you into the city or tours can be arranged to the ruins of the first Panama City (known as Panama Viejo) or to the Old Colonial City, (known as Casco Viejo, a UNESCO World Heritage site) or to the canal area and the Miraflores Locks as well as the HOP-ON/HOP-OFF tour bus (affectionately known all over the world as the HOHO.)
This time, we elected to ride the shuttle into the city. We were dropped-off at a large mall, Multiplaza. After shopping the English language bookstore, we had lunch and then shuttled on back to the dock area for a drink before re-boarding the ship. We passed the Old Canal Zone on the way back and saw signs of anticipated renovation. That could be very nice!
Now, we are on our way to French Polynesia. We will spend several days at sea just getting to our first Polynesian port of Taiohae, Nuku Hiva, in the Marquesas Islands. I’d like to point out the link at the top of our blog that will take you to Captain Who’s Driving. That is the blog of Captain Jonathan Mercer, the MS Amsterdam captain, who provides not only great commentary but pictures and video as well! He goes into navigational detail and blogs frequently (he must have FREE wifi!) I’m sure you’ll enjoy his blog. If you tend to read RovingRaconteurs on an ipad, you might not see the menu or link and can just type in captainwhosdriving.com.
RovingRaconteurs.com 