Fuerte Amador, Panama?

[CoconutFish]

An April 2006 Panama cruise on Hal visits this port.

 

Has anyone who has been there have any information on things to do, shopping, general atmosphere etc?

 

Thanks very much.

[scuba diver]

I am also spending an extended stay in Fuerte Amador on the HAL Veendam and looking for info on this city as HAL has not posted any excursions yet. A search of all of the board postings are split about even for good/bad port. I am looking for specific ideas on what to do. It also appears that FA is right next to Panama City so any info on this location would be helpful.

[cands]

We stopped at this stop late last year. Before we left on the cruise we researched the port. There was very mixed reviews at that time as well.

 

We tendered to the pier where there are some shops and some sort of bar. The 'duty free' shop there seemed quite cheap on items I compared, but then I am not a great shopper.

 

We did the ship-organised tour to the locks by night. There was quite an interesting narration on the full sized coach in both directions. The tour was a bit of a chore after being out and about on deck all day through the canal.

 

However, despite the pouring rain, we enjoyed seeing the locks at night. They kept the visitors centre open just for our tour. The shop at the visitors centre closed not long after we got there, as the attendants had stayed back for us.

 

At night the locks change to multidirectional - one lane each way, and there was more of a mix of different sized ships.

 

There was a delay in tendering off the ship due to the numbers of people doing tours. Even so, we had plenty of time to do the tour and look at the few shops at Fuerte Amador and caught the last tender back.

 

Talking to other passengers later who had gone to Panama City, I got the impression that they weren't particularly thrilled. Some had felt unsafe at times - not sure whether this was justified or not.

 

Hope this is helpful

 

Chris

[scuba diver]

Chris:

 

Thanks for the info. It was very helpful.