You might be asking: “what is so attractive about Panama?”, “is it really worth going there?” or “what can I do besides visiting the Panama Canal and the city?”

Well let me share with you what I personally call: “My Chagres River rafting adventure”

When I was 13 years old, an uncle of mine decided that we take an adventure; do something different from the occasional fishing trips (I’m not saying it’s not fun but I’ll about those trips later).

On my summer vacation I was staying at my uncle’s apartment in Panama city, when he suddenly told my cousin, my brother and me about a rafting trip at Chagres River. Although at that time I wasn’t very adventurous, I decided to play along with my uncle’s idea. The next day, my uncle and the guys got up pretty early in morning (it was around 3:00 am) and we boarded a bus that took us to the starting point.

Before we went to the river we took some breakfast at nice place that was really high up in a mountain and you could see pools of clouds and numerous valleys around the area. After having breakfast we then had to walk for almost two hours to reach the river basin. We walked through a small forest and passed a house that sold us some coconut water to quench our thirst. After walking for almost two hours and enjoying the view we reached the basin. The basin itself had a specific name: “Stone River”. It was a really beautiful scene. The water was crystal clear and it was safe to take swim.

After making our final pitstop at Stone River, we prepared the rafts to start with our river rafting adventure. The trip itself was going to take about 3 hours.

After saying good bye to Stone River we started our long journey through Chagres River. We encountered rapids along the way and witnessed beautiful natural sceneries; things that I have never would have seen if I hadn’t gone on this amazing adventure. When the trip was over, a group of people went to take us back to the bus. On the way back we rode on small boats that took us through Madden Lake (one the artificial lakes in Panama).

After getting of the small boat my we changed our wet and muddy clothes and went back to the bus all tired and hungry, but within ourselves we felt satisfied. When we got home aunt asked us how did it go on the rafting trip. Even though we were al tired we smiled and said: "It was really awesome, you should have gone with us"

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures with me, but believe me, It was an amazing trip.