Accompanying Person fee
Includes the welcome cocktail, the Half Day Panama City tour and the gala dinner
Fee USD
$285.00
The $285 Fee includes your accompanying person´s access to the Welcome Cocktail, the Panama City half day Tour and the Closing Gala dinner.
If your accompanying person wants to explore more of Panama, Columbia Tours will be organizing the optional accompanying day tour programs. Please contact them via email for pricing and availability, as well as other personalized pre or post activities in beautiful Panama:
reservas9@columbiatours.com.pa
Some of the accompanying program optional day tours include:
The Chocoe Indigenous group is divided in two smaller groups: Chocoe-Wounaan and Chocoe-Embera. These two groups have exactly the same roots. They originally came from the ancient Great Colombia over 300 years ago, and settled down mainly in the Darien Jungle.
Their behavior is the same: both have the ancestral use of the blowgun with poison darts for hunting purposes, men wear loincloth, their house system is based on (Tambos) elevated-bin houses with palm-leave roofs. They decorate their bodies using a mixture of ashes and plant pigments and they both are master wood carvers and basket weavers. The only difference between these groups is their language. Although, their communication system is very similar, they do not understand each other. One of the remarkable contrasts of the modern city of Panama is still having a Chocoe-Wounaan and a Chocoe-Embera community living as their ancestors, keeping their customs very jealously, in the watershed of the Panama Canal, only 1:30 hrs away, right in Chagres National Park.
This day you leave the Hotel early in the morning in a microbus with a naturalist tour guide to the community of Nuevo Vigia or Corotu to board a dugout canoe. Continue in the Alajuela Lake, which is the second largest man-made lake of Panama. Upon arrival, explore the community while our tour guide provides information on this ethnic group.
Admire the famous Taguas, which are small sculptures made from a seed that due to its solid texture has been given the name of vegetal ivory. The Embera are also unique wood carvers and they specially carve the precious Cocobolo tree wood. They are also fantastic basket weavers; sometimes they spend several days in just one piece. In short, their handcrafts are real art pieces and they are available for you to be purchased.
During our visit, the Embera will perform a welcome flute dance. After lunch and rest, return to the river and, if desired, you can swim and enjoy the cool waters of the river. Arrive back around 4:00 p.m.
This is an outdoor activity in the tropics, light clothes, towel, swimsuit, another T-shirt, insect repellent; hat, sunscreen and very comfortable shoes or sandals are suggested.Includes: land and water transportation, entrance fee, donation to the community, the Indian style lunch, refreshments and guide.
** Minimum 2 passengers per booking $150.00 p/p
We will pick you up from your city hotel.This is a lake adventure of the sounds and sights of the tropical rainforest. We will move to the public pier in the Gatun Lake after transiting in one of the picturesque internal roads used once to communicate the towns and military bases with the canal support buildings. We will board a small vessel to sail alongside the big ships transiting the Canal after going under a wooden bridge where the transithsmian railroad passes. This itself is a powerful experience of watching the canal from its guts. We will stop at Monkey Island to watch in close proximity the Topical rain forest that supports the functioning of the Panama Canal. We slow to a cruising speed as we motor along the forested banks of the lake, also a protected area, and we will look for wildlife such as Capuchin Monkeys, 3 toed sloths, Howler Monkeys, various kinds of Toucans and other bird life. When we approach the Monkey Island the excitement will bring your adrenaline levels up in anticipation to these cute animals come to the boat waiting to be feed, by the approved natural foods, you will be handling out. Extremely educational and cool for the small kids that might be part of your group. After this we will boat you to enjoy a lunch of Sandwich and beverages. Finally we will return to the pier and back to bus you to the Summit Zoo a mixture of plants and native animals including our National bird the Harpy Eagle. Then we will return to your Panama city hotel.
Includes: Transportation by bus and boat, soft drink, sandwich, entrance fee for the Summit Zoo and guide.
** Minimum 2 passengers per booking $120.00 p/p
El Valle the Anton is one of the most colorful areas of the Panamanian inner towns. Located two hours away from the Capital City, in the province of Cocle and at 600 meters above sea level we find this unique town. Geologists have concluded that El Valle is the crater of an inactive volcano, probably the largest of Central America. The pleasant weather in the area invites the visitor to experience its attractions.
On Sundays, the tour will take you to the Indian market where local artisans and Indians living around it bring their handicrafts, plants and vegetables products to sell them. There, you can find fine and wonderful hand-made woodcarvings, soapstone sculptures, seashells souvenirs, leather goodies and much more. Then, visit the Chorro del Macho, a waterfall that is within a nature-protected private area.
Later, visit the Indian petrography, where ancient inhabitants left their messages, still a mystery for our modern culture. Also, admire the India Dormida Mountain. Its name is due to it resemblance to a sleeping Indian woman. Finally, visit El Nispero, a Zoo where people takes care of some of the endemic species after they were found injured in the forest. This zoo also has a unique collection of orchids. Here, you will admire the golden frogs and the squared trees, both endangered species. Lunch will be served at a local restaurant. Return to Panama late in the afternoon.
Minimum 4 passengers per booking $165. p/p
When the Spanish colonies were at its prime and the conquest of the Inca Empire was accomplished; the Spaniards set their eyes in Panama to transfer their cargos from coast to coast. Portobello was the end of the Royal Road (Camino Real), path between the oceans that started in Panama City. There, the Spanish galleons unloaded cargo to be transferred across the Isthmus, to be then loaded with gold to be transferred to Spain. This activity became very attractive to Pirates and Buccaneers, forcing the Spanish conquerors to build forts for protection and customs. Nevertheless, all this was strategically planned, Sir Francis Drake, a British buccaneer, who sacked and destroyed Portobello where he was later killed in a battle. Still its body remains in a lead coffin in the bottom of the ocean in Portobello Bay. In the 20th Century, Portobello has been known as the site of the procession of the Black Christ, held every October. This activity attracts thousands of pilgrims from Panama and other countries. Leaving Panama early in the morning, head to the Atlantic coast following a portion of the old (Camino Real). Once in Portobello, visit the Black Christ Church, the historic Customs House, and the forts of the area. Enjoy a Caribbean style seafood lunch. Return to Panama City in the afternoon.
Includes: Transfer by bus and train on the Trans-isthmian railroad built in 1850 for the Gold rush in California, entrances, lunch and guide.
** Minimum 2 passengers per booking $260.00 p/p
The Partial Canal Transit from Flamenco or Gamboa takes place every Saturday around the year but also on additional days during the High Season. This tour gives you the opportunity to transit one set of Locks. The ship, our own, departs from Flamenco in Amador and goes right into the Miraflores Locks where is raised up to 54 feet in a two steps process. This activity is achieved by sending water from Pedro Miguel’s lake by gravity to fill the chambers where the ship is locked. Once the process is finished, get into Pedro Miguel’s Lake. Calling at Gamboa you are then transferred to a bus to return to your hotel approximately at 12:30 p.m.The tour includes breakfast or sandwiches. Some Fridays a night transit is possible from Flamenco to Gamboa by boat returning by autobus to Flamenco. No transits are scheduled for Christmas or New Year. In all cases we pick you up and deliver you back to your city hotel.
Includes: Transportation, entrance, snacks and lunch, drinks and guide
** Minimum 2 passengers per booking $175.00 p/p (Regular services - August Tuesday and Saturdays)