Postcards From Panama

The Canal and Beyond

When and Where: 3/2016 – Panama City, Panama Canal, Colon

1/2023 – Panama Canal, Fuerte Amador, Panama City

48^th Country Visited; 18^th North American Country Visited

Interesting Facts:

· The Panama Canal was built in the early 1900’s by the United States. After construction, the unincorporated area known as Canal Zone was a territory of the United States. Canal Zone was turned over to Panama in 1979. The Panama Canal is one of the eight modern wonders of the world. The most famous person to be born in Canal Zone, when it was a US territory was John McCain.

· Panama is the only place in the world where you can watch the sun rise and set over the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea) from the same spot.

· Panama is the wealthiest Central American country.

· Panama uses the US dollar as one of its two official currencies.

Wow! Yesterday was my first time crossing through the Panama Canal. What an amazing experience. I spent part of the day sitting on the front deck of the ship as we entered and departed locks, cruised under the three bridges that cross over the canal, and looked out on the lush jungle. Last night, I met up with some cruise friends and we took a bus to end of the port: a congested area with carnival rides, fancy restaurants and many tourists. Today is a holiday in Panama known as Martyr’s Day: a day commemorating the 1964 anti-American riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. Therefore, many locals were out last night celebrating. And today, many of Panama’s shops and restaurants are closed. I took a ride to a mall, and then on to a photography stop at a local hotel with great city views. Panama City is the most vibrant and cosmopolitan city in Central America. The skyline is one of the prettiest in the world, in my opinion. Of all the countries in the world, Panama has the fifth highest number of skyscrapers per capita. The numerous modern skyscrapers line the Panama City coastline. Sitting here in port blogging, I heard a loud boom about a half hour ago. The ship’s captain just told us we experienced a direct lightning strike which took out one of our radio antennas. After we leave port momentarily, the ship will be at sea the next nine days. The connectivity is uncertain, and I may not be able to post.

Back in 2016, Aaron, Joe and I took a southern Caribbean cruise out of Colon Panama. We flew into Panama City the night before, however our luggage didn’t make it. I was immediately surprised by the modern skyline. The next morning, we walked around Casa Viejo, the old town section of Panama City. The cobblestone streets were lined with colorful shops and eclectic restaurants. After, we left to see the Panama Canal, which consists of twelve locks divided into three sets. We visited the Gatun Locks. I was amazed at the narrowness of the locks. Large cruise ships and container ships pass through the locks with 2-3 feet to spare on each side of the ship. The Canal is an impressive fete of engineering. From the canal, we headed on to our cruise port in Colon. On the way, our driver made calls to American Airlines to inquire about our luggage. We discovered the luggage arrived at the airport, but it had not left for the port, which is three hours away. We finally arrived in Colon, a seedy, rundown town on the Caribbean side of Panama. We boarded the ship and somehow our luggage arrived just before departure.

Seven days later, we arrived back in Colon in a bit of a panic and rushed to Panama City hoping to catch an earlier flight home. In either Panama or Colombia, Aaron was bitten by a mosquito. I thought he had Zika, which was somewhat common in South and Central America around the time of our travels. At the Panama City Airport, I fought with the customer service rep to allow us to return home on the earlier flight to Miami. Eventually he let us on the flight. We weren’t able to get three seats together, and Joe had to sit several rows behind us next to a medium-sized dog that was belted into a regular passenger seat. Fortunately, the dog was docile. Over twenty-four hours later and a night spent on the floor of Miami International Airport, we made it to Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and found out Aaron had Chikungunya, another mosquito borne virus. Aaron’s facial blisters healed up after a week. American Airlines again lost our luggage on the way home. Despite my requesting American hold our luggage at the airport upon arrival, they instead dropped it off at our home in West Collingswood. We woke up to rain soaked luggage on our front step. So despite really liking Panama, this travel experience wasn’t so good.