Blogs from Panama Canal, Panamá, Panama, Central America Caribbean - page 5

Hello from Fuerte Amador (Fort Amador), here at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. This is a special day being the 8th anniversary of us becoming grandparents. You see, today is Alex Chinn’s 8thbirthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEX! We anchored in the bay, along with a couple of dozen other ships waiting to go through the canal. However we are staying here all day and will not go through until tomorrow. Fuerte Amador is actually a man-made peninsula made by building a long causeway out to two islands (it gave them something to do with part of the material dredged from the cana)l. It also provides shelter for several marinas of private boats from either visiting tourists or wealthy locals. Janet’s cold developed into quite a persistent cough much of the night, so she did not ... read more

Geo: 8.97, -79.53Saturday 10/03/12 At sea 22c Sunny with some cloudThis is probably one of our last real chances for whale spotting, we've seen numerous blows both near and far out at sea as well as a couple of Minki Whales. Some of our table were even lucky enough to spot a blue whale almost alongside the ship but that's been about it.We had a very quite morning on the starboard side with more reading done than watching wildlife when all of a sudden we started to notice a few Pelicans flying by and then Terns and Boobies. In a very short time we then saw shoals of flying fish which is what was attracting the birds, in next to no time the sea was covered in birds both in the air and on the water, ... read more

Just checking out of my hotel in Panama City as we speak and catching a 7 hour bus up to David. NYE turned out to be pretty cool. I was minutes away from going solo to la zona rumba, which is a closed off area with multiple discotecas. Thankfully, things worked out for the better and I was able to get a hold of Jason´s friend Marian. Jason, thanks, she has been a fantastic tour guide during my brief stay. We ended up going to her parents´ house for a small wedding anniversay party. Apparently her dad was a former pilot, the captains that take over the cargo vessels through the locks. Then we went over to some other "zonian" friends of their´s and spent NYE at a small house party. One guy bought a decent ... read more

It is 6 am and waiting to transit the canal. yesterday a day at sea. We competed in the progressive and won for the second time. Took the trophy home and added more decorations. We will defend title on the 12th. dinner with our trivia partners mary lou and ed and we shared our other bottle of champagne to celebrate. the canal is amazing. does not look like the ship will fit in such a tiny space. Only inches on either side of the ship to the canal edge. Small trains called mules pull the ship into each lock and then we wait while it fills with water - enuf to take us to the water level in the next lock. Two locks and then a large lake and the small cut and onto the last ... read more

In mid-March I found myself spending a whole day in the company of one of man’s greatest feats of engineering. By “engineering”, I don’t simply mean “architecture” – although that’s not in any way to belittle the experience of wandering around Angkor Wat, walking along (and up and down) the Great Wall of China, imbibing the atmosphere at the Taj Mahal, or catching my breath at the first sight of the Potala Palace. By “engineering” in this context, I mean something that “operates”, with “moving bits” (to be un-technical about it). I was embarking upon an ocean-to-ocean transit of the Panama Canal. A far cry from chasing elephants in the Namib or trekking in the Himalaya or even pottering along the Río San Juan. For once, my camera shutter clicked at things mechanical: the enormity of ... read more