Hiring a taxi driver & taking a drive.

[maja]

Arriving on the Carnival Freedom at the Colon Port. Not interested in the locks, but rather than stay on ship, we would like to hire a taxi driver to take us for a drive & a stop for lunch so we can see a bit of Panama. Total of maybe 3 or 4 hrs. What would we see that's not far from the Colon port & is it worth doing this? Not expecting a rainforest nearby, but is the scenary pretty?

 

[tomko2]

From my limited knowledge of that Port, I would not venture out by taxi and instead either stay on the ship or take a ship sponsored excursion.

Kathy

Photos in the link below

[BillB48]

You could hire a cab in Colon at the adjacent mall where the ship docks in Colon. Don't go anywhere in Colon without benefit of a tour or a cab. The biggest problem is the time frame you provide, there is not a great deal to see in the Colon area other than urban sprawl and clutter. The one place that comes to mind that you could do in that time frame is go out to the ruins of Ft. San Lorenzo. This area is located near the former US military base of Ft. Sherman which is now in a state of modern day ruins for the most part. Actually if you go out to Sherman/Lorenzo you can get a good idea what the rain forrest looks like, there still is a lot of natural growth trees in the area and not a lot of development . What I would caution on, is while the Sherman/Lorenzo area is not physically far from Colon, the route there is a bit convoluted. If the vehicle crossing is still in use at Gatun Locks you will have to go to the locks anyway. There have been plans to use a ferry to cross the Canal near Gatun Locks, but the last time I was there the ferry was not being used. The point being allow plenty of time for delays in returning to the ship.

 

Where you would see more of a contrast would be to go to Panama City and the Pacific side, would be a much better area to get a lunch as well as see some of the country. You would need to allow about 6 hours for that. Again some caution as you are a considerable distance from the port and sometimes in areas that are prone to traffic congestion. My best advice here would be to look for a ship's tour that does not take in the locks. This is one area where the ship's tours are preferable, IMO.

 

Here's hoping you can find something you would like to do!!