More from Panama

Six days of our trip were spent on the beautiful ship, Le Levant. It only held 90 passengers and a crew of about 50. The service was amazing and all of the staff bent over backwards to accommodate your every wish. I 'll post a picture of the ship in another post. While we were on the ship, we went to several locations that involved getting there in a Zodiac, a small rubber raft.

Here's my sister, Ruthie with the required life vest waiting to board the Zodiac. Although the life vests don't look very substantial, we were told that they blow up if they hit salt water. One of the women slipped getting out the Zodiac on shore and she found out the hard way that it really does work.


This was all done with great trepidation by me, being a total non swimmer. I mean not a stroke! But the young, able and incredibly handsome crew made sure that everyone was safe. I just held onto that black rope running around the edge for the whole trip, which was probably only about five minutes to shore.


The beach was beautiful and most people went snorkeling (equipment provided) or swimming. I did neither, but attempted to do some wading, but got knocked down by the strong surf. The water was like bath water and if the surf had been milder, I would have gone in.



Being a non swimmer, I hadn't had on a bathing suit in years, let alone be photographed in one. I got everyone's permission to publish this picture and I thought we didn't look too bad for women of (ahem) a certain age. Second from the left is Myra, another single traveler who hung around with us.


At the end of the sandy beach was a lovely section with smooth rocks and caves. That's Claire and Terry exploring in the distance.


To get back to our ship, we had to climb back into the Zodiac. We were advised to have beach shoes for these "wet landings". I got my online specifically for this trip and was so glad that I had them.