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Panama and Costa Rica Expedition Cruise

Making friends with the kids of the Darien Jungle
Making friends with the kids of the Darien Jungle
Mom, two-year-old Matthew and I enjoyed a unique small ship expedition of Central America's Panama and Costa Rica. We cruised the Panama Canal and had a true authentic experience with local children. We also hiked in the rainforest and whitewater rafted the rivers of Costa Rica. I loved spending time with my family in a beautiful location!
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Cultural and wildlife encounters in Panama

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Our little ambassador- I called him the Pied Piper

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Cultural and wildlife encounters in Panama

A long day on the plane

After a restless overnight at a Seattle airport hotel, we were up at 3am to begin the hurry and wait of modern air travel.

Just a few years back, I traveled around the world for a year with one backpack. Now I happily tipped the SkyCap to help us to the gate with our overloaded bags. Though I always said that I would

We arrived this evening to a …
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Panama City Exploration

We woke at leisure and enjoyed our complimentary breakfast of eggs, fruit, toast, and cereal. I left the door to our room ajar and plugged in a baby monitor. Halfway through breakfast, Matthew slipped out of bed and toddled charmingly into the outdoor restaurant wearing only a diaper.

He turned down everything except plain toast. However, still …
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Our little ambassador- I called him the Pied Piper

Cruising the Panama Canal

We woke early for a plentiful selection of breakfast options and then boarded buses to the Ish fees.

We started our journey on the southern side of the canal in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The canal runs south-north through Panama and we transited just over half of the canal. We first crossed under the Bridge of the Americas connecting North …
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Local families playing at the beach!

Darien Jungle and Visit to the Embera People

Number the positive comments that I have heard about Matthew in the dozens now. We had a wonderful morning visit to the Embera people of the Darien Jungle (located in southern Panama, near the Columbian border). The villagers greeted us in brightly colored skirts and loin cloths and the kids of the village quickly surrounded my fair-skinned, blond …
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New friends in Panama

Granita de Oro

This morning we arrived at Granita de Oro, a small island near Coiba Island, off the coast of Panama. The island took ~ 20 minutes to circle via kayak and was the perfect picture of a deserted tropical island.

We had snorkeling training in the morning and then headed off the island after a mid-morning brunch. Mom tried snorkeling, but her fear of …
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Travelers at Casa Orquideas Jardin Botanico!

Casa Orquidea

This morning we took a short rainforest hike. I spent most of the time pacing ahead of the group to try to get Matthew to sleep in the backpack so that he wouldn't make any noise and disturb the wildlife. We saw a few howler monkeys high in the trees and soon returned back to the boat.

In the afternoon, we visited Casa Orquidea, a privately owned …
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Corcovado National Park

We started with a rainforest hike near Corcovado National Park. The group moved slowly with frequent stops. Matthew eventually became restless so I branched away from the group to take him back to the beach. He had fun filling a cup with water, sand and rocks and letting the waves crash against his legs.

A trio of hungry capuchin monkeys arrived …
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Manuel Antonio

We arrived at the beach of Manuel Antonio National Park and walked through the park to the small town. We had signed up for the optional "Rainmaker Canopy Tour" so a bus picked us up in town and drove ~45 minutes into the mountains.

There I strapped Matthew into a backpack for the 3 hour walk up the mountain. We traversed suspended …
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Mom and I exploring!

Disembarking and crossing Costa Rica. Aerial Tram Enroute

We disembarked in Herradura on the Pacific side of Costa Rica near Jaco. We traveled by bus across the mountains to San Jose in the Central Valley. There we transferred immediately to a van for our customized Adventure Life land tour. We needed to cross the country to overnight at Selva Bananito Rainforest Lodge on the Caribbean side.

Enroute we …
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TrustScore 4.8 | 418 reviews
TrustScore 4.8 of 5
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Based on 418 reviews on
review score
2 days ago
Excellent service, great hotels and well organized excursions with expert guides! Highly recommended!
Shadi Dalili
review score
1 month ago
We keep coming back to Adventure-Life for custom tailored, out of the ordinary, non-touristy trips and they deliver the best every time. The trip planners know how to put together just what we are looking for.
Judith P. NYC
review score
1 month ago
We have been working with Adventure Life for 5 years now and it is very easy to plan out our trips. Our holidays include customization of activities and side trips along with the standard packages available on the Adventure Life website. Kevin, Jess, Mary Rose and their teams have many recommendations that have enhanced our travel.
Joe
review score
1 month ago
We had a great experience- they were very helpful in trip planning and making sure we got to do all the activities and see the places we wanted. There were some things we couldn't do/see due to the time of year being the rainy/low season and they steered us away from those. We had never been to Costa Rica before and it gave us a good overview of this lovely country.
Jody Dice
review score
3 months ago
Jess was terrific and patiently guided us to make what we feel will be a wonderful family adventure.
David Herr

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