PANAMA 5 Night/6 Day Land Tour January 19th – 24th, 2012

Day 1 - ARRIVE TO Arrive to Tocumen Airport, , in the early afternoon. Your local hosts will be waiting for us outside Customs to greet you and to assist you with the luggage. Transfer to your hotel.

After freshening up you will enjoy an introduction to Panama and the with a presentation by a special guest over cocktails and dinner. Night at the Rainforest Resort, Deluxe Riverview room (D)

Day 2 - OCEAN TO OCEAN PANAMA CANAL TRANSIT Early morning drive to the Flamenco Marina at the Amador Causeway, on the Pacific side of the canal, where you board the transit ship. You will meet with a Panama Canal specialist who will be your host for the day.

You will first sail under the bridge of the , which reunites the land divided by the Panama Canal as part of the Pan-American Highway. Breakfast will be served buffet style.

The Panama Canal is 80 kilometers long from deep waters in the Pacific Ocean to deep waters in the Caribbean Sea. It was cut through the lowest and one of the narrowest saddles of the long mountainous Isthmus that joins North and South America. The original elevation was 95 meters above sea level where it crosses the Continental Divide. Northbound on the Panama Canal the ship will reach locks. Due to the Pacific Ocean’s extreme tidal variations, Miraflores locks miter gates are the tallest of the canal’s locks system. In two steps, the vessel will be lifted 16.6 meters onto the 2-kilometer long Miraflores Lake in a transition from salt water to fresh water.

Next the ship is raised an additional 9.4 meters, in one step, at Pedro Miguel locks. At this point the ship will be sailing on at 26 meters above sea level and entering Gaillard Cut, the narrowest section of the Panama Canal. The 13.7-kilometer long portion of the waterway was carved through rock and shale and it is flanked by the backbone of the Continental Divide.

Gaillard Cut opens up into Gatun Lake where the flows into the waterway near the town of Gamboa, site of the Panama Canal's Dredging Division. The Chagres River has the distinction of being the only river in the world that flows into two oceans and it is the main source of fresh water which guarantees the operation of the waterway. Lunch is served buffet style, while enjoying views of the giant cranes and dredging

equipment near Gamboa, ships traveling southbound carrying cargo or passengers and the islands that dot Gatun Lake.

Panama is currently undertaking the monumental task of expanding the Panama Canal. The US$5.25 billion grand-scale project contemplates building of even larger locks and deepening the channel to accommodate post- ships, the largest of all cargo ships that now have to bypass this waterway. The project is estimated to be completed by 2015. You will have the opportunity to look at the advancement of this extraordinary engineering venture.

Half way through the voyage in Gatun Lake you will pass by Barro Colorado Island where the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has been carrying out research on rainforest biodiversity since 1923 after this area was flooded and the lake was formed. Gatun Lake covers an area of 423 square-kilometers and the islands in it are actually the tops of hills and mountains that were not flooded. Gatun Lake was once the largest man- made lake in the world.

Just before the ship reaches Gatun locks on the Caribbean end of the canal you will see . The locks at Gatun will lower the ship 26 meters back to sea level in three steps onto the Caribbean Sea.

You will disembark at the port in Colon City from where you take a 1 hour and 30 minute coach bus ride back to your hotel. Night at the Rainforest Resort, Deluxe Riverview room (BLD)

Day 3 – THE PANAMA CANAL – BEHIND THE SCENES A special day has been prepared for you. Access to off-limit areas within the Panama Canal have been secured for your group. Today you will not only learn about the history and current operation of the waterway, but you will also have access to restricted areas where the actual expansion works are taking place. You will learn first hand about the current system which has been in operation for 95 years and will also learn about the new locks system which will be in place by 2014 securing the efficiency and competitiveness of the Panama Canal for yet another century.

You will tour Miraflores Locks, a dredging site and an earth removal site. At Miraflores Locks you will tour the on-site museum and exhibits and you will have lunch overlooking the trans-oceanic ships making its way through the Panama Canal.

This afternoon you will tour the Biodiversity Museum construction site and Panama City, a contrasting metropolis filled with historic landmarks, skyscrapers and green areas. Dinner tonight will be in town, overlooking the Bay of Panama. Night at the Rainforest Resort, Deluxe Riverview room (BLD)

Day 4 – SITE INSPECTIONS AND MEETINGS This morning’s agenda includes site inspections to some other important projects in Panama. The City of Panama has plans to build a subway system and expects to complete phase one by 2014. In addition, the city is already undergoing a major project to update the entire city’s water collection and treatment which also includes the cleaning of the Bay of Panama. The US$350,000,000 project includes a 130km sewage network with multiple pump stations and sewage treatment plants. Panama City’s construction boom can be appreciated from any corner of the city with cranes and skyscrapers growing everywhere. The 2.4 million square feet, 64-story high, Trump Ocean Club Tower is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.

Lunch today will be hosted by the Panama Canal’s Administrator at his residence.

The afternoon has been set aside for meetings with local businessmen, government official and contractors who may be of interest to you. Night at the Rainforest Resort, Deluxe Riverview room (BLD)

Day 5 - OPTIONAL TOURS A variety of optional tours will be available today to choose from (small expedition boat Panama Canal tour, Peacock bass fishing in the Panama Canal, nature/bird watching, hiking, etc.). A farewell dinner will be held at a special restaurant in Panama City. Night at the Rainforest Resort, Deluxe Riverview room (BLD)

Day 6 – DEPARTURE DAY Today we will be picked up 3 hours prior to our flight departure time to be transferred to Tocumen International Airport (B)

* Single rate $3200.00 per person ** Double rate $2599.00 per person *** Triple rate $2475.00 per person The above rates are land only per person. AIRFARE IS NOT INCLUDED IN THESE RATES.

A non‐refundable deposit of $500.00 per person is due by February 28th, 2011 to confirm reservation. Personal and Comapany checks can only be accepted for payments on this group land tour. Remaining balance will be due by November 7th, 2011. All payments to be made to Great Southern Travel. This price quote is based on 50 participants. Cancellations made between 30 and 15 days of the schedule date of arrival are subject to a 75% late cancallation fee off the total land price of the trip. Cancellations made with 15 days of the scheduled arrival date are not subject to refunds.

For Information and reservations contact: Beth Newhard, Great Southern Travel 6260 Mills Civic Pkwy West Des Moines, IA 50266 Phone: 515‐223‐7474 or Toll Free 800‐331‐0380 email [email protected]

REGISTRATION Please make deposit checks payable to: $500.00 deposit per person Great Southern Travel, 6260 Mills Civic Pkwy Deposit due by February 28th, 2011 West Des Moines, IA 50266 Balance due by November 7th, 2011

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Meet your tour guide…

Hernan Arauz From a family of renowned scientists and explorers, Hernan Arauz´s calling as a Naturalist Guide and Interpreter emerged 20 years ago with the founding of Panama´s first ecotourism business. His early expeditions into Panama´s fabled Darien Gap, pioneering routes from the Caribbean Sea to Pacific Ocean, marked him as an extraordinary leader and expert naturalist, qualities that thousands of visitors to Panama have since enjoyed in his company. Hernan has led tours for heads of state, royalty, TV stars and the largest travel operators of the USA and Europe. They ask for him by name not only because he is a world-class guide, thoroughly knowledgeable in every aspect of Panama’s natural and cultural history, but because he inspires, entertains and reassures. Known not only as an expert generalist guide, Hernan has among his specialties bird-watching, family programs, customized expeditions into Darien, the history of the Panama Canal and the cultural history of Panama’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Hernan has a bird list of nearly 800 of Panama’s 960-plus species, and is renowned for his ability to find, identify and call-in the rare and exotic birds that bird-watchers come to see. He is equally at home bird-watching in the foothills of Cana as in the highlands of Chiriqui, the Caribbean coast or the Pacific islands, and all five of Panama’s regions of endemism, home to its 12 true endemic species. Bird-watching tours with Hernan can be booked through several quality US-based travel companies, as well as Ancon Expeditions of Panama, with whom Hernan works. As a veteran of seven Trans Darien Expeditions, countless other tours into Darien and the son of Amado Arauz and the late Dr Reina Torres de Arauz, Hernan has exploration in his blood. There is no better guide than Hernan to take you into the wilderness of the Darien Gap, where untouched primary forest, running with unspoiled rivers, is home to amazing and hard-to-find New World species. The discerning eco-tourist will be surprised by the Darien’s biodiversity and humbled by its timelessness. Special interest groups, media crews and scientific expeditions requiring customized travel in Darien can contact Ancon Expeditions of Panama to reserve Hernan’s services and arrange itineraries.

Hernan should be your guide of choice not only to the Darien National Park, but to all Panama’s World Heritage Sites, created in celebration of Panama’s diverse natural and cultural history. He will evoke Panama´s pirate stories in the mossy ruins of Portobelo and San Lorenzo, take you diving at Coiba National Park and make the cobblestones of Casco Viejo echo with the footsteps of early Canal laborers and the ’49ers sailing for San Francisco … At every chance, he will bring new eyes to your Neo-tropical adventure and Panama´s colorful past to life.