Panama City
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
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62
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Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
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Panama City,
Panama
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Settling into the two and a half hour flight we were soon served the in-flight meal, a ham and cheese sandwich! Not had one of those for ages! The flight soon seemed over as we descended and got a view of the blue Caribbean sea below us before landing at Panama City airport. A very friendly immigration check and then on to play the baggage game. Yes, 1, 2, 3......... Viva Panama!
Outside the airport enthusiastic taxi drivers were being controlled by a 'minder' and at a price of $32.65 we were whisked away into the teatime traffic. There was a good highway running mostly along the coast and as we approached Panama City I was amazed at the number of modern buildings and dozens of high rise apartments, some of the newer ones and those under construction rivalled the skyscrapers in New York. We passed two sets of tolls (which accounted for the $2.65) and then slowed to a grinding halt, as we turned into the city, with cars, buses and trucks all edging for superiority in the grid locked streets. It was now dusk and suddenly clearing the city, we passed into a coastal area and in a quiet road we stopped at our hotel.
View from hotel room
Check-In and then to our room, where I couldn't wait to go out onto the balcony. Yes - beyond the lit swimming pool, we could see navigation buoy lights, marking the main shipping lane of the Pacific side, of the Panama Canal.The temperature was in the mid 20's and as we came back into the room it felt very cold with the air conditioning on. Both of us still suffering from colds didn't help either. I turned the aircon off and we went to explore the hotel, which was also pretty cool. There was a 'TGI Fridays' in the hotel so we took the easy option and went there, it was cool also! We were both starting to get cold by now and opted for soup and coffees to warm up - in Panama! Back in the cold room I set the aircon to warm and waited... and waited. No warmth and we were getting progressively colder. I phoned reception and asked how I could set the aircon to warm and got the answer " I'm sorry Sir, but this is Panama - we don't use heat!!!!" with an inferred 'Stupid English, how can you be cold near the Caribbean'? We rushed to bed and covered up with blanket and bedcover, thankfully soon warming up and falling asleep in the peace and quiet. Bliss.
Friday 4th
OK, not quite paradise. It's 8am and the maids are out and about - remember my theory about there being no word for whisper, it still applies. I open the balcony curtains and let in a gorgeous, sunny day. Blinking, I step out and watch an impressive, white, 'Princess' Line cruise ship move slowly past, as she heads up the approach channel in the canal.
By the hotel pool
Coming the other way is a large container ship and the two vessels pass each other less than fifty metres apart. Spectacular. In the trees around the hotel there are several new species of birds, chattering, swooping and chasing flies. Some of these were later identified as Flycatchers (small ones this time), Caracaras (which were like a small hawk) and a blackbird sized bird with a tail as long as its body.Breakfast was a basic continental buffet. We had talked with someone over breakfast who had advised us to see the visitor centre at the first set of locks at 'Miraflores'. A friendly taxi driver explained the area we were seeing during the short drive and gave us some of the background history to the Canal and Panama. Spain had first had the idea of a canal several centuries ago but this was impractical then. A French company then started to dig in the 1800's but disease and landslides killed many men and the company went bankrupt. In the early 1900's the Americans offered to build the canal if they could have control over the whole canal area, which Panama agreed to. The canal was built with 3 locks up from the Pacific, the excavation of a long 'cut', the construction of a huge inland lake (whose freshwater feeds the canal) fed by an existing main river and 3 locks down to the Caribbean Sea. It was opened in 1914. The Americans ran it and kept the vast majority of the money, until the canal was handed back to Panama on December 31st 1999. Now all the transit fees go to the government of Panama.
Time for chillin
This is certainly reflected in the high rises and construction work that is going on, although we did see a lot of older buildings and some shanty type towns.The locks visitor centre was a modern, four storey building with a big observation deck, on the fourth floor overlooking the locks. We could watch the enormous vessels locking through, whilst a commentator described the action, history, engineering, etc.. There was a 20 minute video on the background to the canal and then four exhibitions on; the building of the canal, the wild life and environment implications, the people involved in the running of the canal and then the operation and engineering, which included the plans for new, additional sets of locks to take most of the newer, bigger ships that are now being built. Very well done.
We returned to the hotel in the mid afternoon, mid 30's temp and while I, still shaking off the 'Cuban cold', did some internet and photo catching up, Norah chilled by the pool. As we didn't fancy much for supper we took the easy option of TGI's again before an early night.
Saturday 5th
There is a full tourist transit of the Canal once a month, on the first Saturday, which we had booked months ago. Collected from the hotel at 0730 we travelled the short journey down the (man made) peninsula to 'Isla Flamenco' and a small harbour. We boarded the boat, which was similar to the Mersey ferries (but with different accents - just!) and as we sat waiting we watched the row of tall trees in front of the mooring.
Room view
The end tree was a roost for over 20 pelicans amongst its branches. As we scanned the other trees there was a commotion in the branches and two, one metre long green iguanas were having a 'territorial' battle. The slightly smaller loser exited, by just rolling over and falling down to the next branch below. Other iguanas were lazing round the branches. Our guide then pointed out a sloth in the very top of one tree. I had always thought that these were the size of a small dog but this one was a light browny beige and was the size of a big chimpanzee. He was just hanging by one hand and plucking fruit. Fascinating.We set off and motored into the entry channel to the canal and towards the first set of locks at Miraflores. The system is that in a morning the biggest ships enter from the Pacific and Caribbean seas at either ends, transit along the channel in the central lake and then lock down the other side in an afternoon. This makes the most use of daylight and smaller ships then continue to transit through the night. Every ship has to have a Panamanian pilot on board and in control, for the whole transit. Fees are charged on the number of containers carried or per ton of cargo plus the pilot plus the use of tugs plus the number of 'mules', the engines that are used solely to keep the ship in the centre of the canal, as each ship uses its own engines for propulsion. Fees are around $250,000 per large container ship, although the record is held by a very big (lots of passengers = lots of cargo) cruise ship last year, that paid over $330,000 and it's still more cost effective than sailing all the way round South America.
Panama Sunset
The Panama Canal Company has even set up a subsidiary for the ships that are too large to pass through the canal. The containers are unloaded, rail freighted across the island (some 50 miles) and then reloaded onto another ship. All good business and it's good to see that Panama is thriving on it. The largest ships that can pass through the 330m long and 33.5m locks are called 'Panamax types' and there is about 0.5m space on each side of the ship in the locks, hence the use of the 'mules'. Each mule costs $2.25 million and they have 100 of them. The biggest ships use tugs to act as a brake inside the locks and sometimes for steering assistance in the tight bends of Gatun Lake. There were approx 17,000 transits last year and it takes about 10 hours for a ship to make the actual transit. Waiting time can take this, on average, to nearly 24 hours from sea to sea. To make the most efficient use of the fresh water from the 'Gatun Lake', we entered the lock with 2 tugs and a sailing yacht. On average each lock raises a ship 27 feet, uses 26 million gallons of water and each lock lift takes 8 minutes. All the freshwater runs away to the sea but the new locks will have a water reservoir system that will retain more than half of each lock's water. We asked about sufficient water and were told that Panama has a rainy season from March to December and an average of 200 inches of rain falls each year. The artificial Gatun Lake is 26m above sea level, covers over 400 square Km and at a depth of 25m holds over 775 million cubic metres of water.
Morning view
This will be increased to supply the new locks. Michael says "and not a lot of people know that"? So pay attention, cos there'll be a test when I get back.Minutae apart, it was an incredible feat of engineering. Reaching the 'Culebra Cut', we appreciated in the enormous rock cutting, approx 100m high in places, how much serious excavation was required to enable the canal to ever happen. Away from the locks there was rainforest on each side of the canal, where we could see only a few birds such as Anghara cormorants, white Egrets, Caracaras and Panama Terns (?). What we did see in places along the muddy parts of the bank were crocodiles, warming themselves in the hot sun. We disturbed one and it slithered off the bank and set off after us, like a dog chasing a car. Intriguing. We passed an area where the guide said there were Howler Monkeys but we presumed they were staying hidden in the midday heat. Frigate bird and Pelicans centred on the locks, soaring around the ships, whilst they waited for the locks to empty, sending fish to the surface in the turbulent waters. They were joined by the occasional Black Vulture. Reaching the Gatun Locks there was an interesting view down to the Caribbean Sea exit and of the other ships in transit in front of us. We were joined in these locks by a 'small' freighter but which still filled up the space behind us. On reaching salt water again we joined this maritime motorway of ships, all heading into or out of the Caribbean, before we turned off and headed past the north Panama container base at Colon and the jetty where our coach was waiting.
Magnificent Frigate Bird
It was now dark and we headed through the busy streets of this unappealing looking port city, before joining the road south. This was just a narrow road taking all traffic in the main Panama trunk road north to south. We had the boat crew with us and we turned across country to drop them off, encountering some even narrower, unlit roads before finally reaching Panama City and the harbour after a 2 hour journey. Tired we reached the hotel at 9pm and settled for a quick chips and garlic bread - oh no, not from TGI's AGAIN, before crashing out. A really interesting day.
Sunday 6th
A late-ish start and gathering our thoughts ready to move off tomorrow. We needed one or two items, especially an alarm clock that had not survived a room clean in Havana, although we had found all the pieces! We took a taxi to a 'small' local shopping mall, which was the size of Manchester's Trafford Centre and an amazing place. They had all sorts of luxury goods, electronics, cameras, clothing and shoe stores, cafes, a cinema complex and supermarket. The sore was zoned into areas named after animals and all the security guards were dressed like African safari guards. They were, however, all carrying big, police type, riot batons! I wondered if shopping ever got that exciting in the Trafford Centre?
Most 'bits' acquired we taxi'd back to the hotel and decided to go for a swim in the hotel pool. As we entered the water it started to rain! Come on guys - you get 200 inches a year, aint that enough? The rain though was cool and refreshing in the 29 deg pool water.
Miraflores Locks
It was a mesmerizing sensation, swimming in warm water, being rained on and watching supercontainer ships drift slowly past.In the evening - No we didn't! We changed and went out to a restaurant at the end of the peninsula of 'Isla Flamenco' called 'El Barco'. The restaurant specialized in seafood and to Norah's Sea Bass I had a brilliant 'Salata Griego' and sautéed prawns, delicious and no withdrawal symptoms from TGI's. To drink? They had my favourite Spanish Rioja - Is this country fabulous or what? Back at the hotel, a few wistful minutes on the balcony, looking at all the channel lights and the passing ships and yet not once had we been disturbed by them.
Monday 7th
Another beautiful morning in Panama and we reluctantly pack and a half hour taxi ride to the airport. The Monday morning roads were quiet as this was a national holiday, 'The Anniversary of the Martyrs'. I think it was in 1964, that a group of Panamanian students held a demonstration against the continued presence, after over 60 years, of the American forces in Panama and their continuing ownership of the Panama Canal. There had been an agreement in 1914, that there would at least be a Panamanian flag flying in the canal zone which, it seems, was never honoured plus the fact that although the Americans had built and paid for the original building of the canal, they had more than recouped their money and were now making huge profits and paying the Panama government next to nothing. The demonstration got over enthusiastic and the Americans sadly responded with extreme force, causing many deaths. This was the anniversary.
Reflection - On the time theory of 'only so much to spend', I under valued Panama. There was another trip that wasn't run, due to being undersubscribed but we realized that there was much more here that we would have liked to have seen but I had decided to 'spend' it in Cuba - which rubbed more salt into the soreness of the Cuba experience. Panama was a fascinating experience and will definitely be on the 'would go again' list
