LOS SUENOS, Costa Rica -- It was a banquet of memories -- of the primitive Embera village, the virgin rainforest, the scarlet macaws, the embroidered finery of the San Blas Islands -- of glowing speeches and heartfelt farewells. On board the Pacific Explorer, the 92 passengers exchanged e-mail addresses and jotted down phone numbers.

But when Stacy Hug, Cruise West's program coordinator, asked what we'd remember most from our ten-day cruise to Costa Rica and Panama, with a Panama Canal crossing, all hands went up for the sloths and the monkeys.

On most Panama Canal cruises, the canal itself is the highlight of the voyage, a world traveler's rite of passage. The passage through the three sets of double locks that connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is a marvel that keeps most passengers standing at the rail, transfixed by the machinery that cut a path between two continents.

But the 100-passenger Pacific Explorer's itinerary, ''Between Two Seas,'' sailing the coasts of Costa Rica and Panama, charts a more adventurous course.

''Most of our passengers have already been through the Canal,'' said Hug, who uses Cruise West's passenger profiles to customize the ship's activities. ``By the time they join us they're ready for a smaller ship. They want to see what's beyond the trees on the shoreline.''

Our trip began in Panama City, on the Canal's Pacific side, where the passengers, mostly from the United States and Canada, checked into the Caesar Park Hotel for the night. The next day we boarded a shuttle bus for the drive to Colón, on the Atlantic side, where we boarded the Explorer. A brief welcome champagne, and by sunset, we were gliding away from the dock toward the San Blas Islands.

That pier was the last one we would see until the cruise ended in Los Suenos, Costa Rica. When the passengers went ashore, it was in the ship's inflatable vinyl rafts, clambering in at the stern of the Explorer and climbing out on the beach, usually through gentle surf.

SAN BLAS ISLANDS

The exception was our first port of call, at the San Blas Islands, a popular stop for cruise ships. Visitors have been coming for so many years that the Kuna people now depend on tourist dollars, gathering at a central island where they set up their craft stalls and don the traditional embroidered dress and gleaming glass beads.

Depending on the quality of the design and fine stitching of the layered, embroidered fabrics, molas sell for $5 and up. Shop carefully, bargain tactfully and you'll bring home some unique artwork.

The ship's next stop was at the historic Spanish fort, Portobelo. A thriving port in the early 17th century, Portobelo was a hub for the transportation of gold that the Spanish looted or mined in Peru, shipped to Central America, hauled across the isthmus and stored under guard for eventual shipment to Spain. Now decaying and abandoned, the fort's limestone walls and rusty cannon echo its colorful past.

Highlights of this shore visit are a guided walking tour and folk dance performed by a dozen of the local residents.

THE OTHER SIDE

After the canal crossing, which takes a full day, the ship set a course for Corcovado National Park, 134 acres of virgin rainforest on remote Osa Peninsula on Costa Rica's west coast. Said to be one of the world's finest remaining Pacific Coast rainforests, the 134-acre preserve's ecosystem comprises 13 separate zones, from the spongy ground underfoot to the top of the canopy.

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