This morning we had booked in the tour that I think every tourist that comes to Panama City books in..... a transit through the Panama Canal.
I mean, can you really come to panama and not take a trip though the canal??
So we were picked up at the crack of dawn.... Literally!! It was a 6.15 pick up.... so again my elusive sleep in evades me!!
We were sitting in the hotel foyer. We were told anytime between 5.45 and 6.15. So we were all down there at 5.45. Of course the bus never comes at that time. Then some random older gentleman appears... and asks if we are going on the tour? We said yes and then he just as randomly walked off. Ok!!
So the bus arrived and we all excitedly jump on. Off we go.
We arrive at the marina, which coincidently is near where the scarily fast taxi driver mistakenly took us last night!!
It was like a bus terminal. Bus after bus arrived, dropping more and more tourists off for the tour. So it was to the back of the queue for us. It was the slowest moving line as well. More and more people joined the queue.... gees how many people can this boat fit???
Then out of no-where, random guy cuts the queue and just starts standing with us. He just says the obligatory one question to look like he knows us and he's in. What???
Finally, we got our ticket to board, and then joined the next next huge queue to get through the gates to the jetty where the boat is. Inch by inch we move. I heard the guide doing his sound checks 'testing 1, 2, 3, 4'. And it was loud. And we were still at least 100m from the boat. I should have brought my earplugs!!!
Eventually we get to the boat to find ourselves a prime viewing position. Bingo...we found seats on the lower deck, right at the front on the right hand side. So happy with our seats. I don't think a lot of Latinos were too happy that the gringos had found and secured such good seats. Oh well, you snooze you lose!!! Then out of nowhere, random guy appears.... he finds a spare seat and drags it up next to us. What the hell??
We sat and we sat, listening to the screechy microphone of the guide boom through the air. He provided us with a lot of safety information. I think my ears will be ringing at the end of this, that is if I can still hear!!
An hour later I reckon we were ready to go. I now see why we get picked up at 6 for an 8.30 departure. This was organised chaos at its finest!!
We start moving along through the canal. Then the announcement... Breakfast is served. It was like a stampede of elephants. If you want to know how to get a Tourist, especially a Latino tourist exited mention free food. We were smart and took it in shifts... First wave went to get breakie, the rest of us stayed to beat people off with a stick (these were prime seats). Then the second group went.
The way everyone was piling up their 3 plates that they grabbed was crazy. You would think that they had never eaten before.
Fed and content, we could now concentrate on taking in the tour, and becoming a Panama Canal pap!! We cruised down the canal... Snapping photos of boats and bridges!! We found ourselves being descended upon by Latino tourists from all angles. Now we had some serious territory to defend. We weren't going to back down!! We had our big guns on the end seats as well... Elena and Kim... And persistence paid off as eventually they got back our prime viewing!!
So here's a little bit of information for you, every boat that goes through the canal, the captain must surrender control of the boat to a Panamanian pilot. Even US naval boats must do the same. So the announcement went over.... 'The Panamanian pilot is in board. Give him a big round of applause!!' I actually didn't understand the announcement as it was in Spanish, however I did see the majority of the boat stop shovelling food in their mouths for a second to clap excitedly!
We came up close behind a big container ship and manoeuvred in behind that boat into the first lock. We were attached to a huge tug boat, just to stabilise our boat as the lock filled up. The two big steel gates close behind our boat and we are off. The lock started filling, and the container ship and our boat slowly floated higher and higher up the lock with the rising water level. Within 8 mins our first lock was complete. We had been raised up about 20m. We waited as the cargo ship slowly made it's way through the gate of the first lock, and straight into the second lock. Once the cargo ship was through, the tug boat released us. Our Panamanian pilot then proceeded to drive our boat straight into the side of the canal. Ooooops. I don't think that was supposed to happen. As bits of brick fell into the canal, the pilot tried to correct the situation, however just managed to scrap along the canal for a few metres. The tire that was supposed to help protect the boat looked like it was about to explode. Needless to say, the canal ropes men up on shore were so not impressed.
So off we go.... We follow the cargo ship into the next lock, and the whole process repeats itself. Within 8 mins, again we had been lifted another 20m.
We watched as another huge cargo ship lifted in the lock next to ours. This really is an engineering feat.
We sailed for a while longer, and then went through our third lock. It was so hot, steamy and sunny that it was starting to take its toll on a lot of people. The need of air conditioned seats inside soon became the prized seats, and many people flooded the enclosed air conditioned cabin to try and find some relief. Not us tourists though. I think we can credited our non-air conditioned buses and tours that felt like we were on the sun, for the fact that we have acclimatised to the heat. We managed just fine where we were!! (Although a few of the girls were a little pink by the end of the trip). We all just made sure that we drank a lot of water!!
We finished the final lock, and we continued to sail over the lake to our drop off point and bus pickup. Lunch was served and again the stampede occurred!! We ate our food, taking in the sights. Although, the novelty of cargo ships soon wore off.... Yep, another cargo ship. Then an announcement came over.... ' this is a special day everyone, it's not everyday that you see a submarine going through the panama canal'. Everyone drop what ever it was that they were doing and ran to the front of the boat. Again, our prime viewing position meant that we were able to get a good look and some great photos.
Eventually the tour came to an end, and we disembarked our boat and jumped on our bus. Some people were staying on the boat to do the full transit (including random guy).... All I can say is thank goodness we were only doing a partial transit. A full day would have been too much!! I'm yawning just thinking about it!!
We dropped off person after person at their inner city hotels. It was great to see some of the city. But you could tell by looking around where everyone else was being dropped off that our hotel was in a dodgy area!! Everyone had been dropped off, and then the bus driver came up and asked us where our hotel was... We told him and we set off again. It was clear to see the exact moment we crossed over from the inner city hotel zone, to the lower socio economic area that we were staying in!! It was as if there was a line. We were dropped off at the hotel, and Barry, Kim, Penny and myself all made plans to meet in half an hour to head back out to investigate 'old panama'.
Within that 30min, the heavens opened up and a really heavy thunderstorm rolled on through!! I only have 1 afternoon left in Panama so no matter what I have to have a look at the city somewhat.
So we met, and decided to wait a little until the rain settles down, which it did.
I then negotiated with a taxi driver to take us to the old panama. It did take the trip advisor map and some mean negotiation skills to agree on the destination for only $5.
It was still slightly raining when we arrived in the heart of town, but that wasn't going to stop us. We walked around, doing our own walking tour of old panama. I loved it. This place had so much character. There were a lot of buildings in a pretty bad way, but they were all so charming!! We found some great views of the city, and beautiful old buildings and churches!! We then found a little restaurant/bar that we sat and shared a few drinks and stories. Jeff and Sue managed to find us and joined us for a couple of drinks. We said our final goodbyes to Sue and Jeff and we went back to take some photos of the city all lit up at night!!
I then tried my hand at negotiating another taxi back to the hotel, and managed to get one back to the hotel for a reasonable price.
Back at the hotel, we said our final goodbye to penny, whilst Barry, Kim and I tracked down Joyce at the hotel restaurant. We had our final dinner with each other. Some of the other girls returned from their afternoon of shopping and joined us for a final drink as well. Then the time came..... Time to say good bye to these amazing people who I have spent the last 7 weeks with. It was hard to say goodbye to such great friends!! There were a few tears!!! Tomorrow's going to be different, not seeing these beautiful faces in the morning!! I wish them all safe journeys home!!! Thanks for the great times that we have had!!