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Published: March 13th 2006
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little engine that could
I forgot the price tag on these little jewels so let's just say A LOT Today is the day I planned this trip for. Today I "do" the Panama Canal. We climbed the stairs to the Miraflores Locks building shortly after it opened at 9 AM. We went directly to the viewing platform and did what all tourists do--gape at the big Panamax (meaning the maximum size for the Panama canal) ships as they barely squeeze into the lock. Since the operators need to have a good view of what's going on with these big bubbas, the Panamax ships go through in the daytime while the smaller ones go through in the dark. Since more and more companies are building vessels that exceed the present canal's capacity though, Panama was courting bankers from India, China and Russia that very week for financing of a new,bigger canal.
I could go on and on about what I saw and what I tried to take a picture of, but nothing would match with what really is there. There is an excellent blog on this same travelblog site by Sean and Shannon with a lot better pictures than anything I could ever take. So check over there with them and get the whole scoop. Very well written --especially about their
Big Guy on the Block
Tell me, does this color make my bottom look ...ah....BIG? impression of the museum.
You see, it wasn't until I read their comment that they felt this museum slighted the USAs accomplishment on building the canal that I realized I had a different perspective. Could it be -- my age??? I felt this was by far the best museum I ever went through and I normally HATE museums. I felt the very fact that very little space was given to the actual building of the canal by the US but gave lots of space to France's work that went on before sort of balanced out all the years of hearing only the US side of it!! I can just imagine that, when this museum was planned, the designers were told something like this " The majority of folks have seen all the documentaries on History Channel and Discovery Channel so let's be sure to tell 'the rest of the story' " or something like that. Also, after having read the book "The Path Between The Seas", I realize there WAS a lot more to the story than just Teddy Roosevelt being a good guy. The ship simulator, of course, was fun especially when Nadette insisted on driving it like a
Pray tell
And what would you think this was built for......a conduit of ?? drunk. Everything was laid out in a short, concise, logical way and appealed to folks like me with the attention span of a gnat. It looked at the canal from so many different angles but since I was only going to be there once in my life, I wanted to know something about the water aind environmental impacts, the flora and fauna, (That's the birds and bees and butterflies and weeds and stuff like that) but I don't want to know EVERYTHING about them either.
I could go on and on but time is awasting and here it is already 11 AM. The power was off so we had to walk back down the stairs instead of taking the elevator. A lot better than having to walk the stairs up. So now the three busloads of orange teeshirted tourists from Peru who had come in an hour behind us would also have no escalators to get around the exhibits. Hmm. I wonder...were the lights off in the exhibits too or just the power to the elevators and escalators??
We are loaded in the Toyota and off we go following the Canal to the north. Remember, Panama lays on an east-west
WHOSE Base Camp?
Somewhere there is someone just dying to tell me about this place axis and the Canal goes kind of north to south. There are big electrical transmission towers along the road as we near a big bridge that Luigi never did say what it was. Several big iguanas stared at us as we drove by.
We boarded a small boat on the Chagras River, donned our life jackets..... yes, everybody must wear them, sir.. and headed out into the canal itself. Wow, what a view to see one of those big ships from down where we sat. We cruised along for 15 minutes or so and disembarked at a little wornout looking dock almost hidden in the undergrowth.
We started up the stairs.all 57 of them and yes I counted them. Luigi said this was a power plant base or something but I didn't really hear what he had to tell about this place since I had to make a quick potty break behind one of these buildings... Sometimes quick isn't quick enough tho.!! Anyway,the trees growing through the buildings were amazing ..I wonder how long ago the place was operational. Was it during WW2? It appears to be an army base to me but I am certainly no expert on that.
A mural..in the jungle
Hard to believe the picture is still visible when so much of the building is gone On the way back Chris whispered "Toucan". Why sure there it is with a bright yellow something or other. Well, I at least looked in the right place but a bird watcher I am not. I thought that yellow was its bill. Instead it was its head. Good guess tho.
Shortly after getting underway, we got our chance to photograph the obligitory monkey. Yah, are you sure you don't have him tied up just so I could get a picture of him??
We no sooner got underway than we heard the godawfullest racket you can imagine. I know !! I know!! That must be.......howler monkeys!!! You don't need to be born in the jungle to know that anything making that much noise must be a howler somethingor other. I never could catch a glimpse of them but their amplified voices led me to believe they must be six feet tall. I know better but it's hard to believe something so small could be so loud.
We passed a dredge doing its thing there on the side of the canal where there had been a mudslide recently. Seems they pump the sludge onto barges and cart it off to make new
monkey see
Yep that's a monkey......ah, I don't know what kind so just kind of enjoy without classifying land somewhere. I don't remember where. I was getting very tired by now and breakfast had been a long time ago.
When we got back to the Toyota--oh oh--almost a flat so after getting it aired up,Luigi took us to the spot out on the causeway where we were to eat dinner while he slaved away getting it fixed . Oh how we suffered. Two hours goes by quickly when there is plenty to eat and, for some of the crew, to drink. That is one restaurant to remember--Mi Ranchito.
At 4 Pm he was back and told us that since we had 150 miles to go that we'd better get going. It was pretty quiet in the back as the party folks took naps between their potty breaks. Luigi wasn't talkative-- maybe he was trying to figure out how six people could eat that much. Just lucky he hadn't had to pick up the beer tab. I had a chance to notice the ranching and farming areas we were driving through.
Most of the pickups were Toyotas and Mitsibishis but there were a few old Ford Rangers and one old Chevy mixed in there. Some of them had
racks kind of cobbled together for hauling a few Brahma calves or a bull or cow. Diesel was $2.33 everyplace. Must not be competitive pricing here. They were burning off the canal grass-- a non-native grass introduced by the Canal Company that has become a nuisance like kudzu has in our South. They also were burning off sugarcane fields as I saw several loads of the cane heading both directions. There were mostly five strand fences with a good many dancers---probably all necessary seeing the large preponderance of the cattle being brahma. See what us old fence building helpers notice as they drive through a country?
It was getting dark as we got to Aqua Dulce, a little bitty town in the middle of nowhere. And there was a shoeshine stand!! Now what was that doing out here??
We drove through several long stretches of road construction. There had been mudslides in the rainy season in some of the areas but some of the places they were putting in new four lanes before the rainy season came again.
When we finally pulled into La Hacienda in Santiago. I was dead tired. It had been a verrrrrrrrry looooooong day.
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