Panama Canal and Hash House Harriers

Panama city was alot of fun.  The first thing I did when I arrived was of course check out the Panama canal.  I learned all sorts of fun facts about how it was built, how many people died during construction, how long it is and so on and so forth.  Since I cant remember any of these fun facts I will spare you ( the few that actually read this)  As you can see from the pictures the Canal  is like any locks system (just like Lake Washington) but on a much greater scale. It was cool to see a giant tanker go through and check out the museum. 

a) Canal

     The rest of my time in Panama city was spent trying to arrange a boat to Columbia. This is a huge ordeal since you have to find a boat, get enough people, barter the price, meet the captain, check his references and then finally catch a bus to the top of Panama and get on the boat!  This process took so long and kept getting delayed until many of us were at the point of almost catching a flight!  We even left for the boat 2 days early just so we could do something new!

cc) Crossing the Canal

      With all this time in Panama city I ended up checking out the night life with a bunch of people I had met in Bocas del Toro.  With all my spare time I was able to track down the Hash House Harriers of Panama.  This was not an easy task since their web site is not in English and is barley mentioned on the global English hash web page.  I ended up calling a random number off the net,  getting an address of a restaurant and using the phone book to track it down.  When I arrived I found out it was the red run,( everyone must wear red or a red dress)  Of course I did not know this and I showed up in all black.  Luckily they had a red skirt that I got to run in.  This was the first non English speaking hash I ever experinced.  The hash was the same but the symbols were all crazy and no matter how fast I ran I always lost the trail.  This was also one of the hardest hashes I had ever done.  It ran all over the city which is one giant hill!  There was at least 30 to 40 people running in red so we made quite a scene where ever we went.  At one point I got lost and found myself alone in a park.  Trying to find the trail with a red dress made a bunch of locals ask if  I was from Scotland... Good times... and of course since I was virgin to this hash I had to skull a small bucket a beer ( which was way bigger than a normal hash) Since the bucket was so big I spilled alot prompting the other 30 hasher's to pour their beers on my head.  The other virgins just dumped the bucket on their head without even trying to drink it. ( I then had to buy the gayest hashing shirt ever made...see the pics) After buying the gay shirt the hash rented out a disco bar with open tab for booze and food. All for 6 bucks!  It was great time and I ended up trying to dance salsa and meringue with all the old hasher ladies.  

b) Canal

d) Canal

e) Bocas gang in Panama city

f) Brian

g) Me

h) Cute little monkey that would not look at me!

i) old town Panama

j) Panama

k) Kuna Mula

kk) More Kuna Mula

l) shaved ice

m) Shaved ice with lemonde and condesed milk

o) Masks

oo) Old town

p) Old town

pp) Old town

r) Panama city buses

rr) bus

1-rr) bus

rrr) bus

s) bus

t) bus

u) more buses

z) Hashing group

zz) good hashing frined

z) This guy learned his English in Egland

z) Drinking to the bitter end