Four Points By Sheraton Colon

... Maersk ship so close, towering above us with its cargo containers stacked high on her decks. And looking over the side you can see how close the ship is to the sides of the lock. A spectacle, that’s for sure. We separate, Barb and Allan to shower for the day (we were all up early), Michael and I are to meet up in the Lido for breakfast. We pass into the smaller lake Miraflores, the “mid level” before the last set of locks at Pedro Miguel. At ...

... hij morgen om 4 uur zou vertrekken....en dat we op tijd moesten zijn.....hahahaha. Er ging die dag geen enkele boot meer omdat het 3 november was....feest in Panama...en in Miramar. We hebben genoten van de optacht (er liepen 4 jongens met een trommel, twee mensen met een vaandel en drie meisjes met een stok) en ´s avonds hebben we in een andere gaarkeuken gegeten. Gelukkig bleek er iemand jarig te zijn in het dorp en kregen we taart en rum ijs.....en konden we een biertje kopen ...

... and directly deposited to their account at the bank. So off we went to the bank! For some reason it took us another hour just to do this. Moral of the story, as we've said before, patience is definitely required in order to do this. <br><br>We said our goodbyes to Nick and Rochelle and jumped on the train to Panama<br>City. This was the highlight of the Colon trip! The commuter train was gorgeous and high-end, reminding us of ...

... be robbed. having no contacts here we looked up where the kingdom hall was in the phone book. getting there was hard as well because there aren't any street signs, so we asked some military officials, and they ended giving us an escort on there suzuki 650 drz, both men fully equipped with a hand gun and an assault rifle. found the hall, no one there so we asked around and found a brother that lives just around the corner, he told us that the spanish ...

... boat I would be on. There are 2 leaving on Wednesday. How to choose? I said to her that it'd probably unfair to ask her which she would recommend and it was clear she didn't want to make the decision for me. One boat was for 12 passengers and the other for 6. I felt that the bigger boat might be more stable so thought I might choose that one. Then Silvia suggested that she show me photos of both ...

... bay, is beautiful. (Mar. 31) Spent the day exploring the ruins a little more and watched a really pretty sunset from a fort up on the hill. Will leave for Panama City early in the morning so we can attempt to find a good hotel. I spent a while calling around to various hotels yesterday to make reservations and they were all either full or too expensive for our budget. Starting to remember why we didn't like it there...

... taught this class) was so fantastic that we couldn't believe it could be replicated-so we said nothing. Galeta is a gem nestled within the armpit of Panama (hope I haven't understated that) known as the Colon Free Trade Zone. Some folks, namely wealthy traders, and a politician or two might think the FTZ has some charms, but I think everybody else would agree that it is a good place to not visit. Huge industrial ...

... has all the money and controls Panama.   This means that Panama does everything in its power to support the shipping industry.   So, no road has been built between Panama and Columbia, ensuring that the shipping companies have to be used to move goods between the continents.    Some people have ridden their bikes through what is called the Darien Gap - a very sparsely populated area between Columbia and Panama, mostly inhabited by Amerindians and rumored to be very dangerous, loaded ...

... around, one guy made it a personal mission to hook us up. Eventually we found ourselves in the living room of the Mayor's house, watching the game on ESPN2. I stayed long enough to enjoy the novelty, but I can't say soccer holds my interest so I wandered off the explore the countryside while Shen got his soccer fix. Personally, what I was craving was some nature time. Nothing spectacular was accessible on foot, as far as we could tell ...

... under a sign that said REY and the sign was about 100 feet up, the bus stoped and droped him right directly under it so he comes runing to our window freaking out where is it where is it looking every direction, we then point up and wave good by as our bus pulls away. on the bus we meet some old american soldier whos been living in panama since 1977 he tells us stories about all sorts of things to pass time ...