Experience the canal’s staggering scope and surprising wildness over two days. The Panama Canal changed global commerce and stands as one of the greatest feats of engineering in human history. National Geographic Quest is the perfect platform to transit it.
See the intricate workings of the lock doors at eye level from the top deck of National Geographic Quest, and look just over the deck rail as the ship is towed through the lock chambers by electric “mules”—named for the pack animals that pulled ships 100 years ago.
National Geographic Quest is the only passenger ship permitted to overnight in the Canal Zone allowing a two-day transit to see the Canal by day, and dramatically lit at night. National Geographic Quest will call at the Smithsonian Research Station on Barro Colorado Island in the Canal Zone where scientists have been studying since 1932. There’ll be time to Zodiac cruise among tiny “monkey islands,” home to healthy populations of primates that curiously approach the boats. Or, choose to venture to the mouth of the Chagres River and hike the Panama Rainforest Discovery Center trail into the rainforest canopy and along Pipeline Road where up to 400 species of birds can be seen in close proximity. Learn the history of the pirates who sailed up this river and hiked over land now flooded by the Canal to sack Panama City. Get the most in-depth, intimate experience possible on this life-list worthy Canal transit.
