We woke up early this morning to enjoy the view of entrance to the Panama Canal from our room!
How exciting to finally be here in Panama marking off a bit item on my world "to-do" list, visiting the Panama Canal!
We had a lot going on today; we were going to the visitor's center at Miraflores Locks and then heading to the regional airport to fly out to Bocas del Toro, on the Atlantic side, where we would be exploring for the next week on a catamaran.
We were leaving some things at the hotel we would be staying at on our way back through Panama City because the flight to Bocas del Toro only had a free allowance of 30 pounds per bag, if it was more they stated that they couldn't guarantee it would make the flight. We had already pretty much separated out our items so we could easily pull things to stay and leave them in our larger carry-ons, we were very prepared!
After some lengthy discussion the front desk helped us arrange for a taxi that would take us to drop off our bags at the other hotel, take us to the Mira Flores Locks visitor center to view the Panama Canal in action, and then drop us off at the regional airport in time for our flight.
Somehow, in all the shuffling around, I ended up with a much younger husband! Not that I'm going to complain...
I even managed to squeeze in a massage in the room by a local lady who interestingly enough was telling me that all that new construction in Panama City with the skyscrapers was from Colombians buying them up with some dirty money. I'm not sure how true that statement was but it was interesting to hear the opinion of a local.
At noon we checked out and our driver was waiting for us. Woohoo, and our adventure begins!
We had assumed we were just getting a driver but to our surprise it actually turned into a full blown tour with the driver telling us about everything we were seeing. Nice!
The hotel we would be staying at on our return, La Estancia, was located just 5 minutes from the Country Inn and Suites and in-between the two hotels was a lot of history. The operations of the Panama Canal was located in this area.
This is the Goethals Memorial in front of the canal administration building. George Goethals was a US Army officer and civil engineer and famous for his supervision of the construction and the opening of the Panama Canal.
After dropping our excess bags we headed over to the Miraflores Locks. Where the city stops the activity of the canal begins in this area, you can see all of the cranes in the distance used to load and unload ships if their cargo is too heavy and they decide to send some containers by rail.
So far everyone we spoke to mentioned the canal, it is something that is hugely important to the Panamanians and at this point their largest source of income for the country.
We'd only been in Panama City for a day and it was hard not to notice the flamboyant "Diablo Rojos" buses. They are vibrantly decorated, privately owned but provide public transportation and you see them everywhere. Everyone says that the more decorative they are the more customers they will attract and they literally will race each other to the next bus stop to also have the fastest service. We were fortunate to pull up beside one at a stoplight so I could take a few photos, you have to see it to believe it!
I'm not sure how the driver can see but they sure spend a lot of time tooting the horn!
In just a few minutes we were already entering the Miraflores Locks area.
Our driver deposited us at the guest entrance and told us he would meet us inside.
In! We were really at the Panama Canal! Pretty crazy!!! Our driver told us to start off with the English film that was just beginning with a brief history about the canal.
After the film he took us to another exhibition area that ended up being three floors showing from the beginning the building of the Panama Canal.
It was quite extensive and really interesting. This is what the actual lock doors are made from and the original ones are still functioning today.
They had a great simulation room where you could steer a boat through the locks. It actually moved around if you bumped into things and simulated speed, we watched a little kid maneuver it.
This is a map of the Panama Canal, traversing through Panama.
Silly me, I never realized that the locks were actually a series of three separate locks, Gatun Locks, Pedro Miguel Locks and Miraflores Locks. The canal actually elevates ships 26 meters above sea level on their way through. It is an amazing man-made invention when you think about the fact that the 152.9 million cubic meters of material that was removed could circle the globe four times if it was put on railroad flatcars.
Here at Miraflores there is a visitor’s center built right at the edge of the locks with a three story viewing center. Now, onto the real thing and our first sight of the Panama Canal!!!
They use electric locomotives that cost about 2 million apiece to slowly move the ships through. Working in pairs they keep ships in position in the locks chambers. For large cargo ships it costs around $200,000 - $380,000 to pass all the way through and charges are based on cargo capacity.
An unusual sight, a small sailboat passing through! Must have been a pretty exciting day for this boat!
Funny enough as I was looking closely at this photo you can just barely see some of the crew on the deck taking a picture of someone with the "Miraflores Locks" as their background. It is neat to know that even for them this is a big deal.
This is looking out towards the Pedro Miguel Locks in the distance, you can see a couple of large cargo ships slowly going through. In a matter of about 15 minutes, this is what we observed...
Ack! Time to go! Only 15 minutes before we need to get to the airport! Our driver went to get the car while we slowly made our way out of the visitor's center. We started off for the airport but for some reason it didn't seem like we were going very fast. Uh oh, flat tire! Crap!
We now had 5 minutes to get to the airport and our driver decided to call someone to come get us. Unfortunately this someone passed the gas station we were at and had to come back, but finally we were on our way and luckily it was only to the regional airport, still, we showed up with 45 minutes to spare.
We were checked in quickly and made it through an interesting security check. We could actually see our bags being loaded on the plane.
Keith and I started in the front of the line but then they just had to go and let everyone with children board first. WHATever!
The ride from Panama City to Bocas del Toro was only an hour long and barely enough time for the stewardess to searve snacks and a drink.
Soon we were flying over the archipelago of Bocas del Toro!!!
It all looked very promising!
Welcome to Bocas del Toro!
The airport was so small that this was the baggage area. A door barely taller than this kid.
It was a bit of a madhouse when it finally came because here the guy goes piece by piece calling out the number and you have to go up with your part of the number to claim it.
Now for the confusing part. When we landed we knew we had to get a taxi and go to the Bocas Marina and specify the one with the restaurant. I was a little on edge as I hadn't remembered to print out the name of the restaurant and we had no cell phone service and I just wasn't in the carefree relaxed vibe of this surfing town yet. The taxis had left before we even got to them so we waited around getting even more worried and then one arrived. Here you share the taxi ride and it only costs $1.00/person, so we couldn't really complain.
We asked for the Bocas Marina and the driver seemed to know where to go. He took us down to a busy area and pointed out a business which to our surprise was right on the water, I hadn't realized the shoreline was right there. They pointed us to another business a few doors down and soon we figured out that we now were getting on a water taxi to go to the marina.
The guy told us $5.00 for both of us and who were we to complain? We had no idea what the going rate was but it wasn't going to break the bank. We dropped our bags in, hopped in our "taxi" and headed off to the Bocas Marina.
There it is, our first peek-a-boo glimpse of the Explorer! For those of you who don't know, we belong to a timeshare called Tradewinds Cruise Club and the Explorer is the largest and most luxury catamaran in the fleet. I was so excited!
I'll admit I was so stupidly excited that I waved to everyone on the catamaran as we passed. Great first impression I'm sure but hey, I'm easily excitable!
Someone was already coming out to greet us and it just happened to be the captain, Captain Chris! He welcomed us on board, took away our shoes and let us drop our bags on the dock. Ahh...time to relax, we were finally here!
We met some of our other fellow travelers as we sat down for a welcome cocktail and a much needed and very delicious snack.
Keith and I hadn't had time to eat lunch and at this point were starving, luckily no one was here to share the snack plate with us so we dug in!
So the Explorer is 70 ft., has 6 guest cabins, plus the captain’s cabin and another helper's cabin, for a total of 15 people! It is an all-inclusive vacation and consists of three meals a day, dinner usually being a few courses, with all the wine/alcohol or other spirits and drinks you want. Welcome to heaven!
I spied a fantastic display of local fruit in the kitchen which I imagined would be breakfast soon.
Here's our cabin, with an Asian theme.
The bathroom was HUGE compared to other smaller catamarans we have been on.
We were waiting on some other guests whose flight was late to still arrive so Keith made his last check of email before signing off the Internet for a week. A much needed break!
We sat and talked with everyone, enjoying finally being here!
Dinner prep was starting and Ali was hard at work in the kitchen getting it all together. Here you can try to help but they won't let you.
The couple whose flight was delayed finally arrived, although there still was one other couple who would arrive the following day, everyone was in for the night. Let the festivities begin!
Just like magic, dinner was served, lobster!
We all sat around two separate tables that could seat six. I think it was hard to get a word in edgewise with this group, we were all chatting and sharing stories and just getting to know each other since we would be spending the next week together!
Dessert was this warm chocolaty yummyness and I'm not even a dessert person!
We immediately hit it off with the last couple to arrive and ended up staying up late with them (maybe till 10 p.m.?) on the front of the boat talking and laughing and just enjoying the experience of being in Panama, in Bocas del Toro on the Explorer and meeting new friends!
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