First a little recap. We left Indy and traveled to Atlanta. They always say you need to be at the airport 3 yours ahead if traveling internationally but I was literally through the check in under a minute thanks to TSA pre-check and Andrew was following shortly after.
We grabbed some soup and looked for blue tooth keyboard as we want to travel light and dragging extra devices is just that-dragging. We even debated on blogging, but decided to give it a go at least to start. We did not find a keyboard at Indy.
We landed at Atlanta and made our way to the International and lo and behold, we found a keyboard. It pairs with our phones so we can type easier. It is a “v” shape so is taking a little to get used to but so much easier than thumbing our way through the blog.
The flight was uneventful even though we did get to fly through some lightening while descending into Panama City—very pretty! And a little bumpy.
We filled out the appropriate forms on what we were going to be doing in Panama, and that we didn’t bring things into the country to resell, have LOTS of cash, etc. and proceeded to go through customs and get our passports stamped. They don’t always stamp them so that is exciting!
We did arrange our Panama excursion via Donna at Jackie’s Travel and were met by our guide, who speaks perfect English, and our driver, who understands English but speaks it less so. They drove us to our hotel and reminded us we’d be picked up at 5:40! Early! We got a little history of the city while we were driving: 2 million people live here out of the 4 million that live in the country; the city is old but as a city with LOTS of skyscrapers, and such not that old, perhaps 15 years; their ancestors is more or less based on the Spanish invasions, but they do have some connections to the Incas vs the other ancient empires; and there are actually 7 languages but all students learn Spanish in school! We didn’t see our guide today so I am sure we will learn more tomorrow when we see him again.
Today we were picked up by Roberto and delivered to the Canal & Bay Tour company, boarding a boat to take us from Panama City to Gambia. We didn’t get to do a full canal tour from the Pacific to the Atlantic as there are only so many of them and the one for this day was full. It was still awesome! We went through several locks as the main part of the canal is really a lake! So you go in at sea level, the through 3 different locks, go up 85’ and then back down 85’ again to sea level! Fascinating! The part of the canal that we traveled on was restricted due to its width so from 4 AM - noon, 40-50 a day traveled towards the Atlantic and from noon until 8 PM, 40-50 traveled towards the Pacific. It was neat to see them all lined up ready to go. We, along with a really big shop called the Ocean Journey were the last ones of the morning to head north. Every boat pays to travel through, based on its size, and sometimes smaller ones get bumped down the cue as the bigger ones do pay more! Our boat was an international mix of travelers all wanting to experience this wonderment. Can you even imagine how Irvin and his friends from very rural Indiana felt seeing and experiencing this 75 years ago? WOW.
We did have breakfast on the boat (some sort of wieners in some kind of sauce (weird) but also eggs, fruit, and cake!) and lunch (better choices!). We did see an alligator along the shore, lots of birds, and ZILLIONS of shipping containers!! Oh, my!! This is the “short cut” as it takes on average another 22 days to go around South America!
We were done around noon and Roberto picked us up and delivered us back to the Hotel Bristol. We crashed and napped as it was an early morning and warm (hot) and then opted to walk and explore and find supper. We found food and a very persuasive wait team who convinced us to try the fried snapper (Yummy) and some gumbo-looking stuff loaded with squid, shrimp, etc. (also Yummy). We meandered back to the hotel and found the pool on the 5th floor, outside sort of on the ledge? It was 9’ x 52’ x 4’ deep and was cool and wonderful..
We then explored a quant little restaurant next door for a drink and dessert and enjoyed the cool breeze and laughing of those around us. One table was surrounded by older friends, visiting and it looked like catching up. It reminded us of our friends when we travel!
Tomorrow is another early day and we explore the canal by train, from Panama City to Colon, and then tour the way back with our guide.
It was a great day! So far we have been careful with consuming water and haven’t seen swarms of mosquitoes!!
Well, we took tons of pictures but will post soon. For some reason it won’t open that option this evening!
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