ON the Panama Canal

Today J and I got up and went bird watching at 6:30 am as the sun was rising. Lots of parrots and birds in the trees, but foliage was plentiful so it was difficult to see them!  A refreshing walk just the same!

That speck of Orange is John's shirt. E and P appreciated being able to sleep a little longer this morning. 

After breakfast we met at the bus to drive to the Panama Canal just down the road and 10 minutes away from our Gamboa Rainforest Resort. This is where we boarded a 300 passenger 2 story boat to ferry us along the Panama Canal for an hour before we entered the Pedro Miguel locks. Lucky for us, Caravan passengers were allowed to board first and we got front row seats on the second level. It was HOT In the sun and we were dripping sweat!!  E had a couple of seats a few rows back in the shade so we rotated back there to join her. 

The Pedro Miguel lock drops 31 feet in 8 minutes. 26 million gallons of fresh water is drained out of the lock in the process. The equivocal 42 Olympic sized swimming pools. 

The six foot wide doors are pictured opening after the water level dropped in the Panama Canal!  

We passed through the Miraflores locks too. 

Seated from the left is P, then E and J with lock wall in background. At this lock 36 million gallons if freshwater is drained in 8 minutes.   We spent about 5 hours total on the water and I was stick with sweat!

The pool was very inviting when we got back to the resort!

Even Grandma got in the pool but pictured above is fellow traveller Margo with J and P after a game of soccer!

Supper was preceded by some local entertainers dancing. 

The dancers even got P up on the dance floor and he held his own with some disco moves!

We were given a bottle of Jacques champagne by the Gamboa Rainforest which we shared at 10 pm to ring in the New Year. E said she didn't believe this bottle was really 11% alcohol!

Another great day in paradise!

Gamboa Rainforest

Well what a stunning view I have off the balcony of my room to type this!

That is my balcony railing with just a hint of the hammock in the lower left corner. Talk about paradise!  But I get ahead of myself. We spent about 2 hours travelling through the countryside to get from Panama City to Colon. Colon is Spanish for Columbus, as in Christopher. If you have visited Panama by cruise ship and stopped at port - it was in Colon. 

This is a Seaborne cruise ship docked in front of the Radisson hotel in Colon - the safest place in Colon!  

Caravan began tours in Panama about 6 years ago. For the first four months they stayed at the Radisson in Colon for a two night stay. Our guide said every single night he was helping guests file reports with the police about thefts of wallets etc. 

Gerardos said they used to beg guests not to leave the resort property. They revised the tour to include two nights at the Gamboa Rainforest and am I glad they did!  It was interesting to see Colon - the second biggest city in Panama. Clearly the barbed wire atop all the fences speaks to the poverty and crime of the city. Many holes in roofs and in my 14 year olds words, "it was nasty, dirty and sketchy".  Oh but for the grace of God go I - thanks be to God for being born in Canada. 

We then visited the Gatun Locks on the Atlantic side of Panama. We got a much closer view of a ship transiting through the canal. 

I tried to take a picture of the lock gates after they closed; they had people walking on them and give you a great perspective of their since!

After the Gatun Lakes locks we continued our drive to the Gamboa Rainforest Resort where we had lunch with a stunning view. We turned around and took a fast motorboat up the Chagre River, onto Gatun Lake to see Monkey Island. J and P sat in the front row of one boat (and saved us seats but we were busy changing Grandma's life jacket from a child size to an adult size!). E and I sat in the third row of another boat. E found the high speed part of the boat ride really loud with her hearing aids so she covered her ears for the fast parts. 

We stayed on our boats as we toured around Monkey Island. We saw Capucin monkeys first, then Howler monkeys and then Tamarind monkeys. Amazing views encouraged by guides putting grapes on the front deck of the boats. 

This is a Capucin Monkey pictured above.

We then returned to the rainforest resort to Check in. We were assigned rooms 310 and 311 - both with stunning views of the rainforest, pool and river beyond. We have a large size verandah with two chairs and a sturdy hammock too. I am swaying in the hammock typing this in the dark at 9:30 pm and it is still 30 C!  This is pretty idyllic right here in this spot. J leans over his balcony railing to chat too!

After supper we watched a portion of a documentary on the making of the Panama Canal , but we had to leave early to catch a night safari bus. The guide has a big spotlight roaming through the trees to spot wildlife. We spotted a capybaras sp? A big rodent with two babies, a few sloths in trees and a snake. 

It was such an exciting day - it has been hard to summarize!  J and I plan to get up to bird watch at 6:30 so must sign off. What a glorious day it was!

Panama City to Colon to Gatun Locks

This morning we packed up our bags and had them outside the door at 7 am. A porter came along and collected them and we ate breakfast. As I ventured over to the boys room I met another caravan traveller. She was hauling out her second suitcase outside and said "I hope this is our earliest start of the trip!"  Glad we packed our bags last night. That is one of the challenges of bus touring rather than cruising - we are constantly re packing bags!

We loaded onto the bus by 8:30 am and lose wifi - so wanted to post letting you know our plans. Today we visit the Gatun Locks and cruise on Gatun Lake - the huge lake man made for the Panama Canal!  Then off to the rainforest tonight!

I like this picture of P and his Grandma with Panama City in the background. 

Panama City Day 2

Today we our guide showed us the sights in Panama City. It is a metropolitan city with a population of 1.3 million. We visited Old Panama (Panama Viejo) mostly just ruins now.

This is a Panama tree growing amidst the old ruins. 

Here is my family with the old Cathdral - one of the few ruins still standing.  Old Panama was founded in 1519. 

We then drove to the Old City - downtown Panama in the heart of the city - with lots of character. Poverty amid the high rise condos. We visited Casco Viejo  the area where you can find San Jose church with its gold altar. 

The gold altar extends up the entire wall. After visiting this Catholic Church we then walked to the Plaza Herrera. J had sweat pouring off his brow as we walked - it was 31 C and very humid! I bought a tropical guava and pineapple juice to try something local. It was 500 ml, cost 65 cents and was super sweet like kool-aid! I did feel perfectly safe on the streets. We periodically saw National Police in pairs keeping a watchful eye on actions. Our guide told us not to return after midnight!

Must show you one of the many striking buildings in Panama City. I call it the corkscrew building!

It was completed just two years ago and has the letters BBA atop it!

We then headed back to the hotel for a buffet lunch and 40 minutes of downtime.   One of the women on the trip is wearing a pedometer she reported we walked 5500 steps and my 84 year old Mother in Law did just fine keeping up!

Today is my Dad's 87th birthday!  I hope your other daughter helps you to read this to let you know I am thinking about you and wishing you a very happy birthday!

Once aboard the bus again, we headed to the Miraflores and Gatun Locks on the south side of the canal. That is the Pacific ocean side. Fascinating to see two ships move through the canal. The entire canal measures 80 km in length and was first operational August 15, 1914. It is 100 years old this year. 

The locks had a museum and 10 minute movie in English telling of the struggles to build the canal. The French spent 20 years and gave up countless lives to malaria and yellow fever before they gave up. Fifteen days later the Panamanians signed a deal with the USA. It took another 10 years to complete the canal. It really is an unbelievable feat of engineering!

A cargo freighter moving through the canal. 

P seeing the sites and learning about the operation of the lock system.

Once back at the hotel J and I scooted to the supermarket in the mall next door to buy some snacks. I was able to buy some freshly vacuum packed sugar cane in the produce section. A real treat for P and it cost $1.21!

After supper we called our eldest (JG) with the Vonage app (for free!  Get the app!). My blogging mentor who writes the Yellow Fish cruises blog, told me about the app, so I loaded it on my phone before I left home. Conversation was as clear as a bell and probably 20 minutes long!  For free in a mobile phone on a call from Central America to Canada!

Good night!

Panama City

We have a arrived in Panama City!  As we drove over the bridge to downtown Panama City it felt like the scene from the Hunger Games movie where Katniss and Peeta are rising the train and entering the city of Panem!  It was a majestic site to see with some amazing architecture for its modern buildings!

I was scrambling to power up my phone in the taxi to capture the scene but was way to close to the city by the time I launched the camera. 

But I digress. We did manage to partake in breakfast offered at La Quinta before our free shuttle to the airport. Standard fare with the addition of hot waffles but we didn't have time to eat them, having discovered breakfast was available just 25 minutes before our departure. 

On the shuttle we met a Calgarian - she is a second year Med student who is travelling to the Honduras. Very interesting person who has spent time in Haiti and is with the military. Hope she has safe travels alone. 

The Houston airport was a busy place.  Long line to process through United aiines bound for Central America but no lines at security. Hardly any wait at all at our gate before we boarded. I walked on early with E to get settled on this big 737. 

We were pleasantly surprised to see a wheelchair waiting to meet E as soon as we exited the plane. Juan, our porter spoke not a word of English, but whisked us to the front of the lines processing through immigration, then customs and meeting our caravan van transport to the Martiott Courtyard. 

The Caravan tour we are taking includes everything - meals, tourist sights, beautiful hotel rooms and tips for everybody except our guide and bus driver. E & I share a room and J & P share a room. Each room has two double or queen beds. 

Once settled in our rooms, J, P and I went for a swim while E sat in the 

shade.   Our buffet supper had tasty food and a reasonable selection of gluten free options for my Mother in Law. 

We had a meeting at 8 pm with our tour guide Gerardo Morena. 32 guests on the tour and we four are the only Canadians. Two are from St Martin's and the remaining are from the USA. 

P is posing here at the welcome meeting. To to you tomorrow!

Overnight in Houston

Our flight on Air Canada to Houston was uneventful. Frederic our flight attendant was very personable and good at his job. He taught me to pull out my apple headphones from the armrest ever so slightly to properly hear my movie. R (enjoying peace and quiet at home) will appreciate that I watched three episodes of Master Chef Canada.

Something else Frederic mentioned is that Air Canada is beginning to offer direct flights from Toronto to Panama. That wasn't an option when I was booking flights for E coming out of that region!

Connections to Panama City are poor from western Canada and make for a long day of travel, so we were happy to stop in Houston. Once we claimed our luggage we called the La Quinta Hotel to catch the complimentary shuttle to the hotel. It arrived 15 minutes later. James escorted our family to the hotel in a matter of minutes. What we were a bit unprepared for was the cool weather.   When I had been checking in on the hotel just yesterday the weather was an expected 21 Celcius. When we arrived here it was below 10 and wet!

The hotel offers breakfast with our room rental but we will be catching the free shuttle back to the hotel at the exact time breakfast food service begins tomorrow morning. 

We decided we were willing to walk to "Good Eats" at the Holiday Inn for supper.  James happened to be parked out front and offered to drive us to the restaurant. We gratefully accepted - not because we were unwilling to walk but because we were cold!

P and J shared fried chicken and ribs, E had mesquite chicken and I had pot roast. A delicious meal for $50!  We braved the elements and walked the 10 minutes back to the hotel in the wind and dark cold weather. 

J and his Mom happily awaiting dinner!

J asked if anybody was willing to go for a hot tub. We all opted for hot showers instead (as the hot tub meant braving the elements outside)!

I was able to check in for tomorrow's flight using the one computer and printer at the business centre in the hotel. I even scooped 4 cups of tea and delivered them upstairs to my family!

Six AM will come early so I better head to bed!

Panama - Here we Come!

Today my husband (J), his Mom (E) and my son (P) are catching a plane bound for Houston!  It was too long to fly to Panama in a single day, so we have chosen a hotel with shuttle service near the airport, in Houston, where we will overnight.  The end goal is a Caravan Bus tour beginning in Panama City tomorrow evening.  For now, we await the taxi to take us to the airport!