I’m skipping most of what was another good day in Panama, to focus just one brief but amusing incident which occurred on our way to where our little group of pre-voyage adventurers (17 of us) was to board the National Geographic/Lindblad Quest, to begin our cruise through the canal and then on to Costa Rica.
We had spent the day visiting a National Park (Castillo de San Lorenzo) and then visited the first lock on the Caribbean side of the new canal channel. We then had a relatively short drive to get to the docks in Colon. We were very close, moving along on a small road when we hit a police roadblock – apparently there were repairs in progress on the road, and the police pointed us on to a detour. But, we immediately noticed that the detour was an entry to a cemetary. Really. Not just a little cemetary, a huge cemetary, which included a separate Jewish cemetary. It was kind of interesting, but very weird to be driving in a bus, on our way to board a cruise ship, and winding our way through an overgrown but still active burial ground. We also passed some very large, extremley delapidated buildings which someone noticed happened to be a prison. Even better. A real adventure!
So we continued on down the road, wondering where it was leading, until we hit the main road we had been on. Where there was a locked gate, and two police cars. The two officers were unable to open the gate, so they indicated that we should turn around and head back But by that time, there was a line of cars and buses behind us. Quite the show. So, our fearless driver managed to turn the bus around without driving over a grave, and we headed back to where we first entered the cemetary. By this time, we were giving our trip lead a very hard time about this unannounced excursion on our itinerary. Others wanted to know if we could stop and take pictures (just kidding). We got to pass the prison again, and someone noticed that the inmates were hanging out the windows, waving to us. I guess everone got a good laugh out of this.
So we had to back track a bit to take a different road into town, and we eventually made it to the ship. We were just a little late. And I had another good story to tell.
I figured the trip had to get better once I made it to the hotel, and miraculously, it did. No more stress. Dinner with the group was interesting that evening – the food menu at the restaurant we went to was limited to a few choices of local Panamanian fare – not great (dry fritas and mixed grill of fish and mystery meat), but I was starving by that point. As our group finished dinner, the curtain on a small stage was raised, and there was a dance/music group, that performed a number of dance and musical routines. There were two drummers, one of whom gave an absolutely amazing solo on his single bongo drum – he could probably work a full drum set and play with any rock band. My hands hurt just watching him. The 6 dancers were very good as well.
The schedule for the first day was full from morning through late afternoon. We started out on a tour of the old city, which dates back to the 1600’s. It kind of reminded me of New Orleans, which is not too surprising – Panama has a very complicated history, having been ‘owned’ by France, Spain, Columbia and to some degree, the US. Think back to Manuel Noriega – we bombed the crap out of the city, and eventually convinced Noriega to surrender, after driving him crazy by playing a continuous loop of loud rock music outside the building he was holed up in. Really…I’m not making it up. The playlist can be found with a Google search. I kind of liked what they played. But not everyone likes Black Sabbath or Guns N’ Roses. “I am Ironman” or “Welcome to the Jungle blaring all night and day.
Back in I the 1600’s, Panama City was the center for shipping gold from South America to Spain, so it was attacked, invaded and burned multiple times by pirates. Henry Morgan was not very popular here. So the old town was where Spain moved everything to after an earlier version was destroyed, and this one was fortified. At any rate, the relatively small area is packed with very old buildings, some ruined churches, a cathedral, and a lot of restaurants and tourist shops. A nice place to wander around for a few hours until the humidity becomes unbearable, which we experienced by noon. Yuck.
One or two last notes on the old city – one street has a bunch of shops which sell Panama Hats – Hat Street.
Oddly enough, all real Panama Hats are made in Ecuador, where the vegetation used to make the hats is grown. Ecuador has been trying for decades to get the name changed to Ecuador Hats, without any success. Maybe they could at least get the country name added – “Panama Hats From Ecuador”. Sort of like the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
The old town is located on a small peninsula which juts out into the Pacific, so you get some nice views of the city, most of which which has pretty much been built in the past two decades. The photo below was shot at low-tide….there is a 27 foot difference between low and high, and it changes every 6 hours. People go out in the flats to dig up shell fish, and then have to run back to shore as the tide comes rushing back in. That might be fun to watch.
Almost forgot – if you ever travel to Panama, be sure to visit the Biodiversity Museum, which was designed by Frank Gehry. With the exception of the Panama City and Colon, most of Panama is either farmland or jungle, with large tracts still controlled by the indigenous population who are stewards of this land. The overall diversity of life is amazing here. This museum is fantastic, and has exhibits which highlights the animal, plant and insect populations of the country, as well some incredible exhibits on the geology, and prehistoric life (animal and human) of the isthmus. There is even a small aquarium. Worth visiting for sure.
After rehydrating at lunch (walking in high humidity is draining), we headed out for our VIP tour at the Miraflores Canal. This is one of the tourist stops for the Panama Canal, with a large visitor center which includes an IMAX theater for viewing a really cool documentary narrated by Morgan Freeman. The standard tourist ticket gets you to a viewing stand, where you can watch ships transit through the lock. We had a VIP tour, with our own guides, and access to edge of the lock. Quite a different experience – you can reach out and touch the ship (if they let you and you’d probably have your arm torn off anyway so don’t do it). We scheduled the tour when a couple of large container ships were transiting the locks. It was amazing to watch as the huge ship pulled in (with two small sailboats crammed in front) and then watch as the lock water level dropped 27 feet in a few minutes. Then the ship was pulled through to the next lock with electric engines (mules) and then lowered another 27 feet to gain entry to the next channel leading to the Pacific. Quite the operation. And best of all, we would be going through the locks in a few days, and get to see the operation from the ship side. Woo hoo!
I have some great video of the huge container ships moving along the canal, but I’ll have to add those after I return. The Wifi on the ship is not strong enough to support video uploads to WordPress.
We finished the day off with a noisy dinner in the Old Town, after sitting in traffic on the drive back to the hotel. Traffic in Panama City is awful during rush hour since many of the works live outside of the city. And there are lots of cars, even though they have a subway and inexpensive public transportation. It gets worse when it rains – many of the roads flood. A lot of the buses and cars have snorkels – the water can get pretty high. The dinner was OK – food was great, service inconsistent, noise levels at “Heavy Traffic” on my phone app, but still a good evening and day overall.
Not a bad start for the trip after what I’d been through getting there. And I was not arrested for impersonating a National Geographic photographer. Things were looking up.
The Traveling Widower 