More Panama City

There are about 1.2 million people in Panama City. The city is constantly evolving into a safer, cleaner, cosmopolitan town. Tourist attractions have increased and there are plenty of high-end hotels. During the first part of our stay here, we had seen some of the business district and modern parts of the city. We decided it was time to take a taxi to explore the old part of Panama City.

The old town is a small neighborhood near the ocean. Like many 'old-towns' in cities that are hundreds of years old, It's filled with many 'squares', restaurants, churches and shops. Parts of it reminded me of Old San Juan in Puerto Rico with the colorful houses with small balconies. Some buildings were being restored. Others were just left in partial ruins, respected buildings honoring the city's past.  

One square with some municipal buildings surrounding it

Similar to Puerto Rico and other multi-century old cities, old town is surrounded by a wall.

Liam and the rest of the family walking through one section of the old town

Family favorite: ice cream break

Some trees growing out of the top of this church

It looks as if this road ends in the water

The other cool thing about Panama City is that it is the only city with a protected rain forest within its city limits. We spent another day hiking the trails here. There were some lovely lookouts that graced us with fabulous views of the city and the locks. This was the third country where we were hiking in rain forests, Fortunately, the idea was not received with complaints from the kids. I certainly don't want them to ever take rain forests (or churches, old towns, or any excursion for that matter) for granted. 

Panama City through the rain forest

Amazing how this tree adapts to protect itself with these little spikes all over the bark

Large tree that went down in the middle of the trail. Fortunately not while we were there.

The other unique feature to this rainforest was the pond filled with turtles. The kids definitely enjoyed this little surprise at the end of the trail.

Maeve's new friend

For more creative rainforest pictures, please check out Maeve's photo gallery under 'Panama'. I'm categorizing her shots by country, so will add shots as we travel. 

The Panama Canal

Visiting the Panama Canal has always been on the top of my 'to see' list. I've always been fascinated with any of the wonders of the world, so I was pretty excited for this excursion. The Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal was about a 30 minute taxi ride from our apartment. We had no problems getting there....my high school Spanish is really getting a workout though. August 15, 1914 was the day that the Panama Canal officially opened. We were there just one week after the centennial celebration. It must have been with this in mind that they doubled the entrance price. I'm joking, but when I researched the entrance price, it was literally half of this about a year ago, so not sure what happened there. 

We thought a weekday would be less crowded, but we didn't plan on the school groups. They came in masses. They all went straight up to the observation deck. We decided to head into the museum with the masses that were not a part of the school groups. The whole setup was a total fire hazard. There were four floors to the museum and they were arranged so that you had to start on the first floor and work your way up to the fourth. There was no other exit except the fourth floor-problem number one. It would be total pandemonium if you had to evacuate and you were on the second floor. Amazing how people can create and build a passage for boats between two continents, but can't plan a multi-floor museum with proper exits or traffic flow. Problem two was the sheer number of people they allowed into the museum. You could barely get to read the exhibit information without bumping into someone or interrupting a guided tour. Problem three was that the vessel traffic through the canal was not advertised well. The boats came in the morning and afternoon. Since we chose the museum first, we missed the boats coming through the canal that morning. By the time we got to the observation deck, we were told it would be three hours before the next boat would come through. Sigh. 

Now this is when the Collins family runs into problems. Some members would say, well, we saw the locks and the museum, let's go. I didn't come to the Panama Canal to miss the boats passing through. We knew there was a restaurant there and we had already planned to eat there. They didn't open until noon, so we had to wait a bit. It would seem our ignorant streak would continue. I had read reviews of the locks and the restaurant. They reported that the food was okay, but you had amazing views of the locks. No one mentioned the price of the food. It was a buffet and suffice it to say, once we learned the prices, we decided we were going to camp there until the boats showed up.

View of the lock from the observation deck

The other side of the lock from the observation deck

The second lock gate. You can see the water level difference here

Since we were the first ones in the restaurant, (apparently others knew the boats come in at 2:30 and planned their lunches later) we had our pick of seating. Of course, we went outside with the best view of the lock gates. 

Not a bad view at all

So here we were with a good two hours to kill. We ate as slowly as possible (not something easily achieved by any Collins family member). Eventually other people came in to eat in anticiation of the boats. We could see two boats far off in the distance. They were guided into the canal by tug boats. It would take two hours for them enter this area and clear the the three lock gates. Just as we could see the boats approaching, the clouds opened up and it began to pour. It didn't seem too bad at first. We had some shelter, but then it rained harder, then it started coming in on an angle so that water was entering the balcony area and people started moving their seats away from the edge.

It's difficult to see the first boat entering with all of the rain

The boat being pulled in by the four vehicles on the tracks

The water level has to change before the gate will open

The water level continues to drop and the rain subsides for a bit. You can see the cruise ship in the distance entering in the second lock parallel to this.

Fortunately, we were never asked to leave early since we were clearly done with our food. I think it was expected that we would stay if we payed that sort of price for a meal. Now I found this all very exciting. I was snapping pictures and taking video as best I could with the rain and people moving from the serious puddles that formed on the ground of the balcony. Just as the boat made it in front of us, my phone displayed a message saying that I had no more space for pictures or video. Are you kidding me? Maeve didn't have space on hers either and Michael didn't bring his phone. I frantically tried to get to my camera roll to delete old pics and video, but it wouldnt let me. I shut down the phone and restarted it....which seemed to take years as I'm watched the boat pass us by. I'll attach what I was able to capture.

Once the red boat cleared, the rest of the gang was ready to leave. I had to stay and grab a few more pics of the cruise ship coming through. The rest of the family was done. They left the restaurant for the bathrooms and I said I'd just be a minute more. I couldn't get enough. I tried a selfie with the cruise ship in the background  and a gentleman saved me by offering to snap a pic for me. 

It was a good day. We all took in a lot.

Here is what we learned:

There are three lock stations that make up the Panama Canal - The Miraflores, The Pedro Miguel Locks and the Gatun Locks. The Miraflores is on the Pacific Ocean side and Gatun exits into the Atlantic Ocean.

The direction of the boats through the canal depends on the time of day. 

It will take a boat 8-10 hours to clear the entire canal which is 48 miles in all. 

Once the boat has entered the locks, the ship's captain is no longer in control of the vessel. Panamanian workers guide the boats through with four attached vehichles on tracks (two on each side...see video). This allows for better control and the ships won't hit the sides. 

Over one million boats have passed through this canal (the millionth was in Sept. of 2010 according to the museum, Wikipedia says something different though.) 

They are building another set of wider locks to allow larger vessels to pass through.  

Happy 100 Birthday Panama Canal! 

Panama City

It was another long and interesting travel day for the Collins Crew. We were headed to Panama City on a bus, a 12 hour trip from start to finish. The 6:30 a.m. water taxi was beyond packed with others going to the bus, students and local residents. We arrived at the bus station early for the 8:00 a.m. scheduled departure. Well, that time came and went and still no bus. The two girls that I lent $5 had paid their cab an extra dollar to find an ATM before dropping them off at the bus station. They paid me and said that I had saved their lives. Michael and I have said we often rely on the kindness of strangers, so we hope to experience this as well if we find ourselves in a pridicament. 

It was probably 8:45 before the bus left. There was another man on the bus who worked for the bus company. As the bus departed, he informed us all about the stops the bus would make and how long they would be. He also provided directions on the use of the toilet on the bus. Unfortunately, all of the directions were in Spanish, so all I got was the idea that he was talking about the stops and toilet. 

To our surprise, a monitor lowered down from the ceiling of the bus and a movie started. It couldn't have been a more violent special ops type movie. Of course it was in Spanish, and there were no subtitles. All you could see were a lot of guns and a few topless women thrown in for good measure. There were several children on the bus. Of course, Liam was glued to it, trying to figure out the story line. I was relieved that he fell asleep during the movie. Only another movie started after that. It starred Keanu Reeves. It was filmed in China and called The Man of Tai Chi or something like that. This one was just as violent as the first movie only it featured constant intense, aggressive martial arts fights-some resulting in death...nothing like the title had suggested. This was quite distracting as I was trying to take in the views of the land which were definitely worth watching for the first third of the trip. 

Liam snoozing on the bus

We made several stops for people exiting the bus at seemingly random locations. One lady literally exited on a median in the middle of a busy road. I had no idea how far we were from Panama City, but we had gotten a late start, so we weren't going to meet to our estimated arrival of 5 p.m. We ended up arriving in Panama City around 7:00p.m. We still had to get a cab to our apartment for the week. I had a heck of a time trying to confirm that someone would be there to give us our key. They said we'd be charged extra money if we came after 6 and I thought that we would be there by then. Oh well. 

Our cab driver couldn't find the apartment. After several international phone calls with non-English speaking contacts, we finally had the taxi driver make a call to see if he could find the apartment. Something was lost in translation because the written provided directions said 'in front of the Hilton Garden Hotel'. We were there, but the apartment was across the street on the side of the hotel and back a bit on that street. We made it to the apartment probably around 8ish, and still hadn't had a proper meal. We found a local restaurant and had a nice, inexpensive meal. 

After we slept off that bus trip, we went for a walk in the morning and explored our new neighborhood. It was pretty hot, but we headed toward the water for a walk along the Cinta Costera.  In usual Collins fashion, we waited too long before we ate. It took forever to find a restaurant as this American couple told us there were tons of restaurants along this route (our shorts gave us away as other Americans). Well, there weren't any places to eat on this walk. We finally found a deli off the path and ate there. Full, but worn out, we grabbed a cab back to the apartment just in time to avoid the afternoon rain.

We relaxed a bit and ate some leftovers for dinner. We need to gear up for our next adventure tomorrow....the Panama Canal!

Exploring Panama City

Family selfie....Everyone is well and enjoying the adventure!