Jungle Fever

Sara Macefield and her family take a cruise on the wild side and get a look at the Panama Canal on an NCL Central American adventure

- Sara Macefield

Upsetting the locals had never been so entertaining. Each time the engines revved on our small river boat, an angry chorus of deep barks echoed through the air as a large troop of howler monkeys vented their displeasure.

As I looked up at the huge tree overhanging the river, I could see dark shapes jumping through the branches in rising consternation at every mechanical roar. Then twigs and branches started to rain down around us as the furious primates began throwing whatever they could lay their hands on.

“We’d better go,” our guide advised. “This is their first line of defence and if it doesn’t drive us away, they’ll start throwing their poo at us.”

Naturally, we didn’t hang around and roared off into the jungle to explore this slice of Costa Rica’s Caribbean coast on a hunt for exotic wildlife.

This pocket-size eco-tourism haven proved to be a real high point on our Norwegian Cruise Line round-trip voyage from Miami, but it wasn’t the only one. The other big draw was the chance to sail through the Panama Canal, one of the bucket list attractions in this part of the world.

In the lead-up to our departure, I’d impressed upon my 14-year-old twin daughters the historical significance of this legendary waterway linking the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. But then, just a few weeks before we departed, the penny suddenly dropped. We weren’t actually going to be sailing through the Panama Canal – well, not the entire length of it, anyway.