Today is our "buffer" day, the extra day we like to build in for unplanned weather delays or missed connections before the start of our tours. Good thing because a big snowstorm is hitting Boston today and flights have been canceled. Meanwhile, we had a smooth travel day yesterday, arriving for a late dinner at our hotel last night, able to sleep in this morning (the last time we can do that once our tour starts!). I had a swim this morning, then this afternoon we had a private tour (for Covid safety) to historic Panama City and the Canal.

Because of some Carnival celebration this weekend (though nothing official because of the virus), traffic might have been a problem. So we started on the opposite (west) side of the city to catch ships at the Panama Canal moving north to south, from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. At the Miraflores Locks we watched three large tankers, a medium-sized vessel carrying soybeans, and a private catamaran navigate through two lanes of the older, narrower canal and the wider new Cocoli Locks finished in 2016. We visited the Canal in 2011 as they had begun the canal expansion and only saw one tanker. Today's parade was interesting as we watched water levels change over an hour or so. A ship's deck that towered over the side of the lock dropped gradually some 36 foot to almost be lost from view below the lock.

The Canal provides 6% of Panama's GDP, exacting fees for transit that range from $1000 for the small catamaran to more than $1 million for a container ship of 15,000 containers! 35 ships might move through the Canal a day, 24 hours a day.

We stopped for ice cream at the end of the Amador Causeway, a hot spot for restaurants and shops that used to be off limits when the Canal Zone was controlled by the US military. The US presence guarded the Canal until final handover occurred in 1999.

We then walked through Panama's Old City (Panama Viejo), 19th century buildings dating from the French occupation. Reminiscent of other old cities in the Americas, its charming narrow streets, nicely painted stucco buildings with ironwork balconies are a stark contrast to the rows of skyscrapers on the other side of the bay.

We met up for dinner with Jesse, our guide, and the one other trip participant, Ben. We're going to have a nice small group.