The Panama experience - part one

Tassels in a coach!

Even though we had been to the Glass House for the wine tasting we couldn’t stay away and we had a pre-dinner glass of pop before heading down to the restaurant. Having fallen asleep at least twice on my book, we turned in around 9:30 with the alarm set for 6:30am. It was going to be a big day!

Pelican feeding frenzy

A great sunrise and a spectacular feeding frenzy of pelicans greeted us as we docked. Hundreds of birds were plummeting into the water in groups, making such a noise it was like a constant waterfall. 

Panama City

We were out of bed just in time to see Panama City rotating behind the ship as the sun rose. So we had breakfast overlooking the lagoon at Fuerta Amador with the Biomuseum (designed by Frank Gehry - the same person as the Bilbao Guggenheim) and the Bridge of the Americas behind it. Behind that bridge lay the Miraflores Lock which is the gateway from the South into the Panama Canal and which we shall transit tomorrow morning. This is the very first time that any P&O ship has berthed at Fuerte Amador - in the past it’s been a tender stop - and the state of the port authority reflected that - still, always good to be a first!

As we disembarked for our trip, stamped passports were the order of the day … or were they? We queued to get off Aurora and then, on the quayside queued again to approach the passport tent. The line grew and grew and we were just getting restless when the front of the queue was turned around and we were marched back past the gangway to the buses. Passports couldn’t be dealt with as only crew needed the stamp and in addition Internet was cut off from the passport team by the arriving Azamara cruise ship which blocked the signal! You couldn’t write it. Oh I just did! Welcome indeed to South America - the land where chaos reigns and officialdom bumbles its way for years to a peaceful retirement. 

Our guide on the bus was Anna Frogge and we were on a very fancy bus which was comfortable and didn’t rattle. It also featured tasseled pelmets on each window. This was such a great and refreshing change. Anna on the other hand was quite aggressive and she insisted on wearing a mask while speaking into the microphone. Her voice was not clear and she held the microphone around the sensor unit, partially blocking the sound. We were ok, near the front, but the people near the back got frustrated. She was rather unapproachable so I think most folk tolerated her and then didn’t give her a tip at the end.

Panama as a city was founded in 1519 by the Spanish and it was the first Spanish city in South America. The canal came later - obviously - and was built to remove the need for shipping to go around Cape Horn in order to access the Pacific or the Atlantic. It was also a licence to print money! Currently, you’re looking at over $1 million per transit for a large container ship to use the canal. We have not yet found out how much our cruise ship will be, but human cargo rates highly on the tariff of charges, apparently.

There are three bridges over the canal at various points - essential for keeping land-based trade flowing and for access between North and South America. Before the Panama isthmus formed, there was clear water between North and South America and that meant that currents that came up either coast could come across the two land masses through the gap. When the isthmus was formed, Europe became warmer because the currents flowed up the Atlantic coast and around the west of Europe. 

The Canal Zone was occupied by the Americans for many years, while the canal was built and first in use, but it was decided to hand it back to Panama in 1999. Remnants of that US occupation of the Canal Zone include military barracks, housing and administrative buildings for the canal development workers, and many of these buildings now stand empty and others have been snapped up by private enterprise. 

Looking across the control tower to the bridge behind

Why are there locks at each end of the canal? Essentially, your transit across Panama involves going into Gatun Lake, the centre of the canal system, which stands 26 metres higher than sea level. To transit the canal a vessel enters in one set of three locks either North or south, rises up to the lake and then uses the other set of locks to descend to the opposite ocean. The River Gamboa provides two thirds of the water for the canal’s operation and feeds into Gatun Lake. 

The Seri Emperor in the locks

We drove from the ship to Colon in the North of Panama and near the locks that lead into the Caribbean Sea. At the Agua Clara Locks visitor centre, we watched a big tanker - the Seri Emperor out of Singapore - entering the locks as we arrived. 

The closing lock gates

It was pulled by one tug and guided by another as it nosed in and then the two gates slid closed behind it.  The tunnels that transfer the water from the locks use a pipe so large that two shuttle trains could travel through it side by side. The lock uses 60 million gallons of water per transit, all of which comes in from the water network feeding Gatun Lake - no pumps required.

The control tower and canal lock

The visitor centre provided excellent views across the whole process and we then walked down to the viewing platform near the locks. In some ways the view was less good although you saw more of the control tower from here.  It was then a very hot walk back to the top, up through the tropical rainforest environment. I was as hot and wet as the undergrowth when we arrived at the top. 

The Panama Canal is undoubtedly another wonder of the modern world, up there with Christ the Redeemer in Rio. It was quite a sensational experience but we had only an hour and a quarter in which to enjoy it. As we prepared to depart a vast container vessel was preparing to address the locks - it’s a 24 hour operation. 

We then stopped at a motorway services and Gabrielle and I had cheese empanadas and some really great coffee - the best one in six weeks. As we left, there was an “Ahem ahem” incident, as Gabrielle waited for me to realise that my rucksack was hanging on the back of the chair. 

We then drove through the Parque Nacional Soberanía to Gamboa and its national park and the waterways that feed the canal. This is secondary rainforest and has a huge visitor centre and protected wildlife park complete with indigenous people, the Embera. They originate from Darien on the borders with Colombia and there are around 125 people in their community. A very large lady in the party fainted and had to be revived. She was not built for jungle life - unlike us! 

Bark used for making garments

The daughter of the only female chief welcomed us and told us of local things they make. She demonstrated the fibres and materials they use from the plants in the jungle: grasses, leaves and bark, which they then colour with saffron and dyes from soil, rocks and plants. 

Cloth drying in the sun

Instruments too were made from natural materials like wild boar leather for drum skins - interesting fact: female boar skin makes a different sound from male skin. 

A girly chat in the communal hut

We then had a display of dancing from the girls, then the families and then of course they wanted people from the audience. 

Embarrassing dancing

I didn’t “look busy” enough and danced with a beautiful smiling girl who thanked me very sweetly at the end. We learned that to say thank you in Embera language: Bia bua - which Gabrielle made sound like it was spoken by Ant and Dec! 

Very photogenic - and the keeper of the cash!

They waited for the tourists to pass by and photograph them

We toured the stalls and bought a beautiful cloth and then headed for the boats to zip across the lake once again. 

The Wild Star transiting the Panama Canal

Heron

We began with slow wildlife spotting, seeing a heron and an iguana and then headed, at speed, under the railway bridge which was just then carrying the observation train for the Panama Canal and we emerged into the canal itself where we immediately saw a large four masted schooner called Wild Star on its way through the waterway. 

The Panama Canal Railway Bridge

We turned back under the bridge, built in 1907, and headed back to the quay where we saw more wildlife. We were informed that the Americans used the park to train for the Vietnamese War and astronauts also came there for training - presumably because it was like the Moon? 

The launch, at speed

Having disembarked the launch, elegantly (of course), we headed back to the coach for a warm banana and some water before the bus headed down the highway to Fuerte Amador. We have decided we like this part of South America. The contrast with the rest of the continent is massive: it’s clean, prosperous and evidently well developed with modern buildings and infrastructure. 

Tomorrow we transit the Panama Canal which is going to take from 7am until around 3:50pm.