Panama City, December 13 to 17th, 2012
We spent some days in Panama City. Pete & Gayle flew in from NJ, and Yogi, the awesome harbour master at Green Turtle Cay Marina, drove Tony & Jane to the Wyndham Tryp hotel in Panama City — 2.5 hours from the south east coast where we left On Delay.
I wouldn’t call Panama City a destination city, and I wouldn’t recommend it to a tourist. However, it was a decent place to do shopping for the boat supplies and parts we needed; it has a wonderful chart store and a good chandlers and a Yanmar engine parts store with the part we needed in stock (sort of/almost — we had to make two trips and a bunch of phonecalls but did get the part in the end).
After months on the Atlantic ocean side of the continent(s), it was fun to see the Pacific again.
Panama City is not a foodie city. Restaurant meals averaged on mediocre. But, I need to give a shout out for the New York Bagel Company owned by Laura B’s friend Jon. Our bagels and coffee were very good, and it was conveniently located within walking distance of our hotel; I went there twice for breakfast. We tried a fancy place in the Bristol hotel but it was so not-right that Tony gave it a one-star review on Trip Advisor.
The highlight of the time in Panama City was our visit to the Miraflores Locks and Visitor’s Center. What was really exciting for us was that we saw sailboats going through the locks. When we first arrived, they put five sailboats through. Two catamarans tied together and then a catamaran sandwich: two monohulls with a catamaran in the middle. Tony and I hung around until mid-afternoon to see a couple of container ships go through the locks. That was very impressive.
We enjoyed the visitors center too. I was amazed to learn how critical the public health and sanitation effort was to the Americans’ completion of the canal. They paved cities, drained swamps, and fumigated every building to eliminate yellow fever and greatly reduce malaria. Interesting Wikipedia links on the subject: Health measures during the construction of the Panama Canal and Walter Reed.
Here are some pictures from the locks.
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- All the lock doors are the originals made in 1913. The gates are hollow and float. They are so light and well-balanced that a 25 hp engine is all that is needed to open and close a gate.
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- Here are two catamarans tied together entering the Miraflores locks. There are four line handlers on the boats and four line handlers on land.
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- Here is the “cat sandwich” in the lower locks.
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- A view of all five sailboats in the lower locks.
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- Jane at the upper viewing area. It is a nice facility. There is voice commentary (in Spanish and English) whenever there are boats in the locks.
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- Here is a Maersk freighter coming into the locks. Helped along by the tug boats.
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- Tracks run along the sides of the locks. Small locomotives run on the tracks. The lines from the freighter are tied to the locomotives which then pull the freighter into the locks. The locomotives are more like rollercoaster cars than train carriages; they are locked onto the track so that they don’t flip over.
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- This is the Maersk freighter in the lower locks, viewed from ground level.
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- This freighter was riding high in the water. Our theory is that it delivered Christmas presents from China to the Eastern Seaboard or Europe and is now returning empty.
Food isn’t everything, is it??
I was hoping you’d do a post on the canal since we only saw it from above. So interesting, and a great job Jane!