Cruise Saga continues with the Panama Canal and Panama City

Location, Home, CA

Today was the Retiree’s picnic at a local park. This is an annual event and was well attended. It is a chance to see folks we once worked with, although the numbers are dwindling rapidly. The weather was perfect with temps in the 80’s. It was really nice after our cold and dreary days earlier in the week.

Today I also picked the first boysenberries from the garden. I got 2 whole baskets which is very good for the first picking. They are large and plentiful so it should be a good year.

Now too continue the Cruise saga:

We arrived at Colon, the North entrance to the Panama Canal just at sunrise on May 4th. I should explain why I called it the North entrance. If you look at a map of Panama you will see that the canal actually runs North to South. Our ship was given the designation as HS06Z for the transit. This number is spelled out with signal flags on the ship. All passenger ships have priority over other ships going through the canal.

Entering Gatun Locks at Colon.

Excavating for the new lock at Colon.

Leaving Gatun Locks.

Gatiun Dam.

Looking back at Gatun Locks.

A WWII Liberty ship on Gatun Lake.

A drill barge working on the canal. Constant work to improve and widen the canal. 

 The canal is narrow.

 Centennial bridge. It took two years for the road to be built after the bridge was completed. The ship is in Culebre Cut which was the hardest part of the canal to complete.

 Work ongoing for the new Southern locks.

 Bridge of the Americas over which the Pan American Highway travels.

The transit takes almost a full day to complete. The cost for the Island Princess to transit the canal was $330,000. At the Southern end of the canal, the Island Princess anchored at Puerto Amador overnight and all the next day.

Clyda and Michele at the pool in the morning and free soft ice cream.

 

We had a tour scheduled for Wednesday at 1 PM of Panama City. Because we were anchored out in the bay, we had to take a ships tender into the dock to start our tour.

We toured the old colonial city where much has been restored and updated. 
 

 Leaded window of Saint Barbara inside the cathedral. This cathedral is only used for ceremonial purposes. Our guide was surprised to see it open.

 As large as these doors are, it was surprising how easy they opened.

 The old and the new.

We also drove through the new high rise section of the city. All the building has been done since 2004. Some of it is still in progress. I guess that is where a lot of the money from the canal is going.

Again, we did the obligatory shopping. 

 Our guide telling us about Molas.

Expalining how to buy a Panama hat. 

Again, the old and the new. 

Waiting to board the tender for a ride back to the ship. 

I traveled through the canal in 1978 on an oil drilling ship going from South to North. Much has changed since then. Culebre Cut has been widened, so much so , that I hardly recognized it. The old Colonial City has been cleaned up and namy improvements have been made. I refused to get out of a cab in 1978 because of the rundown condition of the area,. It looked like a good place for a "Gringo" to lose his wallet or life.

There were no high rise buildings either, so much progress has been made. This really is a trip of a lifetime and I highly recommend it.