December 29, 2023

Today was Colon, Panama which is on the Caribbean side of the country. It is definitely the poorer side.. Since we were last here 2 years ago they have built a beautiful cruise terminal but the rest of the city is pretty rundown and garbage everywhere. We will remain docked here until midnight when we will pull out and go around the corner to get in line to start our way through the canal first thing in the am. Since we are a smaller cruise ship we will be going through the older locks which we actually prefer. In the older locks the boats are side by side and easier to see the difference in height when the boat is next to you than one in front or back in the newer locks. It takes all day to transit the canal and this will be our 5th time through but always exciting.

Today we did the included tour which was a 90 minute bus ride to Panama City which is on the Pacific side. Our guide found a few wild sloths up in the trees. We got lots of info on the canal and most of it we have heard before but always fascinating. Some of the interesting facts is that you have to book your transit through the canal a year in advance. They only accept cash or direct bank transfers and payment must be in full 48 hours before transit. The most expensive transit was one of the huge cargo ships that carried more than 16,000 containers and the transit cost was 1.2 million. Panama makes an average of 12 to 15 million dollars a day from boats transiting the canal. Not sure where all the money goes because they should be one of the richest countries in the world.

We drove around Panama City, which rivals New York with its high rises and then we walked around old town for about an hour before boarding the bus to drive back to port. We walked around the port some and found a grocery store that actually had diet Sunkist which we probably will not see again this trip so we bought a 12 pack.

Local dancers greeted us an we disembarked the ship

Colon Panama and this is what most of the city looked like.

Gatun Lake

A sloth up in a tree

Panama City skyline

Local church Starbucks is everywhere

We loaded back on the bus just as the storm was coming in. Perfect timing.