Blogs from Panama Canal, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean

Very few free moments and pure exhaustion (plus deep depression: Lost Lulu) prevented me from keeping up with our blogs while cruising the high seas. Time passed so quickly. You have heard “How Time Flies When Having a Good Time”....right? Well, that was our circumstance. Plain & simple. Now, we are all back on good, old terra firma. Debarked our ship on Sunday, February 2nd: Super Bowl Sunday and Groundhog Day. Much going on this day. Only delay after we left the ship was Cory going through customs because he had to declare his casino winnings. Had to fill out more paperwork, etc. The security staff as well as the Custom Agents said they had never seen a win as big as this on the cruise ships! Just doesn’t happen! But Mr. Lucky did it.....lucky, luckeeeeee. ... read more

I was up by 6AM and was out and on a mission. I found Lake Gatun to be balmy, breezy and quiet except for the hum of the catamaran’s engine. No one was around. But I missed the southern cross. I later learned it is usually seen around 4AM. And sadly I couldn’t record the howler monkey’s morning calls, but the sunrise was spectacular. And the coffee and breakfast helped to ease the pain of my missed adventures. We cast off early in this sunny morning for our voyage on the open waters of Lake Gatun (and the Chagres River) crossing the division between the provinces of Colon and Panama, several times in fact. The Chagres River, marks the division between Panama and Colon provinces. It is the only river that flows into both oceans. We ... read more

This morning, our bus left the Holiday Inn in Clayton, and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean on Corridor Norte. While Roberto navigated our bus, Abdiel discussed Panama’s position on land preservation and environmental protection. He said that 42% of the land in Panama is protected by the government for green space allowing for water mitigation and natural flow to the canal. A portion of the same 42% of land is also used for parks where some of the protesting squatters live. He also informed us that Stanley Motta, who some may know from his calypso record label in Kingston, Jamaica, owns the Panamanian airline COPA (that some of us will use flying to Colombia). COPA makes up 14% of Panama’s GDP. Motta has become an extremely wealthy man and is very influential in Panamanian elections. Abdiel ... read more

After an equally delicious breakfast at the Holiday Inn’s Ship View Cafe, we left Clayton for the Chagres River (the native name for crocodile) to see the Embera Indians. Along the way we passed the US Embassy and some very expensive homes. A school for wealthy Chinese residents was very impressive. Abdiel said the Chinese run most of the convenience stores in Panama and have made quite a bit of money. The Chinese were smart opening their shops during traditional siestas when other stores were closed. Chinese men were brought to Panama to work on the railroad for the canal. After the canal was built some went to California to work on the railroads, but others stayed in Panama to open their now thriving businesses. As we were leaving the city, Abdiel pointed out the egg ... read more

This is the day!! Breakfast at 6, on the bus at 6:30, on the boat at 6:45! We were to have our luggage outside our door by 11:30 the night before to be picked up by the bellboy and loaded on the bus to be driven to Colon, where we'll exit the boat. Luckily, we left the knapsack to pick up after breakfast and noticed that our luggage (and that of other travelers on the same hall) had not been picked up! Took the bus out to Flamenco Island and saw the sunrise over the Pacific. What, Susan, you have that wrong! No, the bay curved around so that the point we were on was actually facing East. Boarded the Islamorada, a 100 year old boat that used to belong to Al Capone! From url=http://www.canada.com/travel/Gangster+Capone+running+yacht+ferrying+tourists+Panama/9360023/story.htmlhttp://www.canada.com/travel/Gangster+Capone+running+yacht+ferrying+tourists+Panama/9360023/story.html... read more

Well, it's a month away but we were able to choose our seats on the plane to Panama City from Dulles, got a reservation for the airport hotel the night before the flight down, have the Panama City hotel information, and am gathering other things (mainly making lists, of course). Read the book about the canal construction and got very good feedback about the trip from a colleague at another Virginia community college. As usual, taking a few minutes to refresh myself with the blog page and how it works. Created a 'trip' for the week; still not sure how that works, different from just posting.... read more

Thurs 13 – Sun 16 December - Day 48 of tour but Day 60 total - Panama City to Brisbane by 18 December 2018 Today we headed to David where we had a short flight to Panama City. In the minivan on the way to the airport, we watched the beautiful sunrise thinking that this might be the last sunrise I see for a while! As usual, Alfredo had organised a seamless negotiation onto our flight, and no sooner we were up in the air with Panama Air, we started our descent. As soon as we arrived at the airport, we knew this was going to be the most developed city we had visited during our whole 60 days away. Even the minivan that picked us up was new and had a covered trailer for our ... read more