After completing our tours of the Orchid, Snake, Butterfly, and Reptile displays, we were taken by an open bed truck(with seats) to the start of the tramway.  Each car holds 6 people and one of those is a tour guide.  They tried to portion 5 people for each car, but most of us were by couples.  They finally agreed to allow 4 people per car.  Some of the cars, incuding ours were filled with a young person.  I am not sure whether they were from a local school or what.

As we approached the loading area, we could see the main drive for the cable way.  I wondered how people loaded and unloaded from the cars. It turns out to be very simple.  Whenever a car is in either a loading or unloading position, the tram stops until the people are safely in place.  The monitors at the top coordinate with the operator using handy talkies. This means that there are frequent stops in the ride as you ride up or down the run.  This merely gives more time for photos.

We are in thick jungle as we wait to board the tram.

Our guide's name was Irena.  She did a good job describing the vegetation and the wildlife.  She pointed out a number of birds, but I was only able to find a couple of them.

The ride takes you through the canopy of the rain forest.

Here are a couple of tourists enjoying the ride.  Irena took this picture for me.

Irena is pointing out something of interest.

I was only able to actually find a couple of the birds she pointed out.

I had no idea that Iguanas climbed trees, but this fellow looks very happy on his branch.

It turned out that there were actually 3 Iguanas in that tree.

After getting off at the top, we walked a path through the jungle to an observation tower.

Some of the trees along the path had very slender, but very tall trunks.

We are starting our walk up the tower.  It is at least 10 stories high and has a fairly steep ramp winding around the tower to the top.

This view is looking down the tower from near the top. As we approached the observation deck at the top, it started to pour!  Before we were able to look through our bag for our raingear, Irena handed each of us a disposable vinyl rain parka.  So much for our $10 purchases of raingear. The shower only lasted a few minutes.

The view from the top of the tower was marvelous!  Here we see part of the Panama Canal.

After we rode the tram down again, we had quite a long bus ride. Here we see a ship traversing part of the canal.

The Panama Canal Railroad used to be the primary way across the isthmus.  It is still heavily used.  The toll for the canal is so high that many container ships unload their cargo to trains, pass throught the canal empty, then reload at the other end. In addition to other fees, there is a toll of $78 per container.  The ships carry about 2000 containers.  That's over $150,000 they save in canal fees. Yes, those are curtains hanging in the bus windows.

As we approached the harbor, we could see the Coral Princess at anchor. Sorry about the reflections in the bus window.

This boat used to belong to Al Capone.  It was later bought by John Wayne.

We again rode a tender back to the ship.  This was a very tiring, but totally enjoyable day.  Tomorrow promises to be an active and very interesting day, as that is when we traverse the Panama Canal.