The Gamboa Rainforest Resort is nestled in the Soberania National Park Rainforest. Located on the banks of the Panama Canal and the Chagres River this luxurious resort and hotel has may adventure to offer.

You may want to take the aerial tram into the jungle, relax by the pool or experience the Panama Canal in a boat ride. Whether you are looking for adventure or relaxation it is within thirty minutes of the resort.

You can experience a one-of-a-kind vacation experience in the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. There is a variety of natural wildlife and colorful sights to see. You can escape into a jungle paradise that is appropriate for couples or families. Enjoy and experience nature without ever leaving the exotic comforts of a full-service resort.

From the Aerial Tram rainforest canopy tour you can experience the rich life of a rainforest. Be eye to eye with birds and the creatures of a rainforest while in a comfortable seat of a Swiss-engineered aerial tram. You will smoothly glide through the treetops and experience firsthand the peaceful sounds of a deep tropical rainforest. The tram operator that accompanies your tour will describe the flora and fauna that you see. The tour ends at the Observation Tower at the end of the 1.2-kilometer ride. There is a spiral walking ramp where you will experience a panoramic view of the Panama Canal, Emberra indigenous village, town of Gamboa, and the Chagres River all surrounded by the rainforests lush mountains.

Travel the Panama Canal’s secret waterways on a boat tour and find hidden islands that are the favorites of Cappuccio and Howler monkeys. See them leap from tree to tree. If you are lucky one may come down to get a closer look. You can view wild monkeys in their natural habitat and be as close to them as you would be in a zoo. On this tour you will also see alligators, sloths and turtles that are native to the area. You will passes through the Panama Canal where you can see the large container ships as they take their passage across the world.

If you fish you will be impressed by the variety and quantity of fish in Gatun Lake. Species include snook, tarpon and peacock bass as well as many others. There are not limits or restrictions on the number of fish you can catch. Your guide will take you on a guided private tour of the lake to all the best spots. Enjoy fishing on Lake Gatun surrounded by the tranquility and peace of lush tropical forests.

Experience what rainforest animals do at night on the night safari tour. The tour is in a Gamboa open-air bus and you will see alligators, capibaras, tapirs, tropical opossums and two-toed sloths.

If you are looking for more of an adventure raid the waters of the Panama Canal in a kayak and discover what the Canal has to offer. Whatever exotic adventure you are looking for you can find it at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort.

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The Panama Canal is a key transportation route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Without the canal, shipping and other vessels would either need to travel south around the tip of South America, or they would need to offload their goods to be transported across land to another vessel.The Panama Canal consists of three sets of locks (Gatun Locks, Pedro Miguel Locks and Miraflores Locks), two artificial lakes (Lake Gatun and Lake Miraflores) and artificial channels. In addition, Lake Alajuela acts as a reservoir for the canal.

Entering from the Atlantic side of the canal, a ship arrives through the Caribbean Sea and then traverses the Gatun Locks. The Gatun Locks are a series of 3 locks, or steps, which lift a ship from the level of the Atlantic Ocean to the level of Lake Gatun.Once the ship has traversed through Lake Gatun, it then proceeds through the Chagres river and then the Culebra Cut (or Gaillard Cut), going under the Centennial Bridge, until it reaches the Pedro Miguel Locks. Unlike the Gatun Locks, the Pedro Miguel Locks consist of only one step. Once past the Pedro Miguel Locks, the sip travels through Miraflores Lake and then through the Miraflores Locks, which consist of two steps. The ship then continues underneath the Bridge of the Americas and then out through the Gulf of Panama to the Pacific Ocean.

Mules

Mules (mulas) are train locomotives that help steer large ships through the Panama Canal to prevent a ship from hitting and damaging the canal. The mules run on rack tracks, train tracks with a toothed rail down the middle to help the train climb steep inclines. The rack tracks run along both sides of the Panama Canal. Large ships are steered by 4 mules on each side of the ship, two in the front (bow) and two in the rear (stern). The mules are for steering and don’t actually tow the ships. Smaller vessels don’t use the mules, but instead use hand lines which are controlled by the ship’s crew.

Future of the Panama Canal

In October of 2006, Panama voters overwhelmingly approved a national referendum on a $5.25 billion expansion of the Panama Canal. The plan calls for the largest modernization plan in the 92-year history of the Panama Canal, which would allow the canal to handle modern container ships, cruise liners and tankers that are too large for its current 108-foot-wide locks. The plan is to build a third set of locks on the Pacific and Atlantic ends with a completion date of 2015.

Panama was the native name of a village on the Pacific Coast of the Gulf and Isthmus of Panama. Before its discovery by the Spanish, Panama was inhabited by a large number of Amerindians. The groups lived in organized chiefdoms, depending on the area’s fish, birds, and sea turtles, and on starchy root crops for food. Numbering nearly one million when the Spanish arrived in 1501, the largest group was the Cuna. The country’s name, which means “land of plenty fish,” may also come from the Cuna words panna mai , or “far away,” a reply to Spaniards who wondered where to find gold. The name Panama is also believed to be a Guarani Indian word meaning “a butterfly,” and also signifying a mud fish, perhaps because the flaps of the mudfish resembled the wings of a butterfly.

Panama has been subjected to numerous occupations by foreign powers since the Renaissance period. Since 1513, when the Spanish explorer Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed a narrow strip of land and discovered the Pacific Ocean, the Isthmus of Panama has been a major crossroad of the world, linking two great continents and separating two great oceans. His discovery opened up a shorter route to Peru and the gold of the Incas. Fortune seekers from Europe could land at Colón, cross the narrow isthmus, and set sail on the Pacific for Peru.

By 1519 Spanish settlements had been established, and the king’s appointed governor, Pedro Arias de Avila, had settled in the village of Panama. Under his rule, Balboa’s Indian allies were killed and other Indians were enslaved. Many fled to the jungle or to the swampland and isolated islands on the northeast coast. A priest, Bartolomé de la Casas, was outraged by the Indian enslavement and persuaded Spain’s government to send African slaves in their stead. The separation of Indian groups from Panamanians remains today. African slaves became so important that the British were given a contract to deliver 4,800 slaves a year for 30 years. Slave revolts moved the Spanish king to interrupt the delivery for a time.

The California gold rush in the 1840s renewed interest in travel between the oceans. In 1845, the United States helped build the first transcontinental railroad that crossed Panama. Meanwhile, France, Britain, and the United States explored the possibility of a canal to join the two oceans by way of either Panama or Nicaragua. In 1879 Ferdinand de Lesseps of France, and builder of the Suez Canal, began construction of a canal in Panama under a license from Colombia. However, disease (yellow fever, malaria), rain, and mud made him abandon the project. From 16,000 to 22,000 workers had died.