In my previous blog page I wrote how we left Kuna Yala and sailed to Isla Linton in Panama. We anchored in a very busy anchorage and unfortunately this location had quite some surge so for the first time in a long time we were rolling. The rolling was not really bad but sufficient to be uncomfortable. The next morning we went around to find a better place to anchor, but could not find one. So we checked out the brand new marina and were offered a very good slip at a very reasonable price. To maneuver through the anchorage the marina manager took my dinghy and guided me through. We like the marina so we decided to keep the boat in this marina while we fly to the USA in the month of June to visit our children and grandchildren and receive the necessary annual health checks. We made the reservations including a 4 day stay in Panama City before we fly to Texas on June 1.

Isla Linton is about 35 miles from a town outside Colon called Sabanitas where the first ATM location is together with a large grocery store. So we took the bus to go to Sabanitas, which was more an adventure than we expected. The bus is an old American school bus and although it was Sunday I never expected that so many people could fit in a bus like that. When it rains what it does a lot at this time of the year, all the windows get closed and then it is like a sauna inside the bus. The trip took 1 ½ hour and in front of the ATM was a line of over 20 people. When it was finally my turn my bank blocked my debit card so I could not withdraw money. After a waiting time of 1 hour I finally could convince the customer service lady that everything was fine and she unblocked my card. We took lunch, did our grocery shopping and waited and waited for the bus that never came. So we took the bus to Portobelo and the last part to Isla Linton and the marina we took a taxi. During the entire trip the skies really opened up and it was raining cats and dogs. We came back on the boat like we had been swimming, we were completely drenched.

On Monday we left early to check-in with customs and immigration in Portobelo. This was the most confusing process we have ever had and we had to come back in the afternoon to complete the process. We used this “waiting” time to go with the bus again to the ATM in Sabanitas to withdraw some more money and the lines were even longer, since it was the 16th of the month which means “Pay Day”. Back in Portobelo we visited the old customs house, the San Fernando Fort Battery and the Church of San Felipe de Portobelo. This church is home to the Black Christ of Portobelo, a wooden statue of Jesus Christ. On October 21 the festival of the Black Christ is celebrated with a procession during which part of the participants crawl for miles to the church.

The bay of Portobelo was discovered by Columbus on November 2nd 1502 during his fourth trip to the West Indies and in 1586 the town was founded and became a transshipment center for all the riches stolen by Spain. Between 1574 and 1702 45 fleets of galleons where sent from here to Spain loaded with gold and silver. The ruins of all the fortifications are still there, but in a very bad condition. The only building from this time that is in a relatively good condition is the “Customs House”. This renaissance style building was built in 1644 and used as a trade warehouse and fiscal office. The building was several times damaged by attacks and an earthquake in 1882.

This wealth was a strong temptation for pirates like Henry Morgan who with an assault troop of 460 men took Portobelo. When the Dutch started a liberation war against Spain which lasted 80 years they needed money and the famous Dutch Captain Piet Hein captured one of the 45 fleets of galleons leaving Portobelo and with the proceeds an army could be paid to continue the war.

After we booked our tickets to the USA we started doing a lot of maintenance work on Island Girl, waited for days for a Canvas/Sail repair guy and when he finaly showed up he told us that he had to leave on a trip and had no time to do the work until after our return from the USA. Our chores did not proceed as fast as usual since we had to constantly interrupt the work due to heavy rain showers. Both Dorothy and I have lived in tropical countries with a very distinct rain season, but we both cannot remember any place that gives so much rain as we experience here in Panama at this moment. Since the rain, with exception of one evening, does not bring any cooling it becomes very hot and humid inside Island Girl and we are happy to have shore power to run a couple of fans during the night. We could use the A/C we have onboard but with $0.38 p/Kwh we are a little careful to use this system.

The grocery shopping trips to Sabanitas, the closest town with an ATM and Supermarket take over 5 hours in total when we leave in the morning at 7:00, it takes longer if you take a later bus in the morning. The bus route goes from Colon Central Bus Station to La Guaira vice versa. The marina is about 4 miles on this route from La Guaira and to have a seat it is best to get on the bus on its way to La Guaira. La Guaira is the mainland boat slip for water taxis taking tourists and home owners to Isla Grande. This island is a very attractive tourist destination for people coming from Panama City and is the place where more wealthy people have their weekend house. So after a short stop in La Guaira the bus returns to Colon and passes the marina about 30 minutes after we got onboard. This probably will not sound logical to people who have not traveled the rural bus routes in Panama. The buses are overfull and if you donot have a seat you are a free for all for people who pushed themselves into the bus. When it rains the windows get closed and it is a steam bath inside with bodies pressed against you from every side.

The Panama Rey Supermarkets are as big as the American Supermarkets with a very large choice of food and convenience products. They have a lot of good quality fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, a bakery and a deli. They also have a lot of frozen meat and fish that we prefer to buy since we have a long trip back to the boat. We donot shop around but buy fast what we need and then we have to wait outside for the bus back to the marina. So a half hour in the store brings us back onboard of the boat around 12:00 noon, five hours after we left.

Colon
It rains and it rains and all our chores that can be done without being outside are done. So we took the bus and this time we stayed in the bus all the way to Colon. Colon is the capital of the Costa Arriba which runs along the Caribbean coast from Kuna Yala (San Blas) in the east to Veraguas in the west. The population is mainly of Antillean decent and culture and in many places it seems more Jamaica than Latin America. For us visitors used to the friendliness of the people in the Caribbean and Latin America it is disappointing. It is very hard to get a response from anyone you meet. If you greet someone they either look right through you or have the expression on their faces of “are you talking to me?” Even the employees in the marina who we see on a daily basis hardly acknowledge you. The Afro-Antillean people and culture is very much represented in Colon. The city has a terrible reputation for being dangerous, dirty and stinky and that is all true. But it is also one of the largest ports in the world and lately also a very large cruise ship port. There are many large stores and a free zone with its tax free shops attracts many shoppers and especially people disembarking from the cruise ships.

Colon has relished bonanzas and endured heavy depressions through its history starting with the California bound gold rush especially when the first cross-continental railroad was built in 1855. The Panama Canal was built and its adjacent port Christobal as the waterway’s terminal as well. But the depressions have also hit the city and new construction has never replaced the old city and the buildings are in the worst condition I have ever seen. The streets are dirty, broken up and it fulfills the expectation of every visitor as dangerous with a highly criminal level with gangs and drugs. But Dorothy and I had lunch during our short rainy stop in the city in a local restaurant were the food was not very good but the people responded to us in a very nice and helpful way. After we come back from the USA and transit to Shelter Bay Marina that is inside the breakwater to the Panama Canal we hope to visit the city a little more.

Panama City
To reach Panama City we needed to take the same bus as we use for our shopping to Sabanitas cross the express road from Colon to Panama City over a pedestrian bridge and take the express bus to Panama City. The bus has a/c but is crowded like all the other buses. Two nice ladies gave Dorothy some space. The amazing thing is that we crossed the continental divide in less than one hour before we arrived in Panama City. From the bus stop we took a taxi to our hotel, ate lunch and had a very much needed visit to the barber. Back in the hotel we took a long hot shower before our first steak dinner in a long time. I visited Panama City in the 1970th many times and I even found the hotel I used to stay in but for the rest the city is so much changed and is booming even seems to overtake Miami as the business center of Latin America. The world largest residential buildings with over 100 floors are under construction or recently completed. Business high-rises have reached these levels already for some time.

Old Panama City which is now nothing but ruins was founded in 1519 and was the first European settlement on the shores of the Pacific Ocean and through it all the riches stolen by the Spaniards from mainly Peru passed to Portobelo and “Nombre de Dios” for shipment to Spain. In 1671 the city was taken by pirate Henry Morgan after the officials ordered to set fire around the city to prevent that the pirates could enter the city. But the city burned completely down and thus an easy take for the pirates. In the 1673 the new city was founded on the outskirts of Cerro Ancon that is now mainly restored and it is a very nice area to visit and see all the old buildings, visit the Canal Museum and eat in one of the nice small restaurants. We all did this and it was great. Most of the city is very safe to walk around in but the city sidewalks and streets are definitely not ‘pedestrian friendly’ due to the lack of or very bad maintenance. The exceptions are the boulevard along the bay and the old city called “Casco Antiguo” or district San Felipe.

The city has a very nice sightseeing bus called “Hop On – Hop Off”. The bus departs every hour from every stop location and if you stay on board you pass by all the locations in about 2 hours. This tour gives you a very nice impression of the city and the location of all the major destinations. We took this bus and only got off in the old city “Casco Antiguo” at lunch time. We had a great lunch and enjoyed strolling around in the city until the rain started and then we spent a big part of the afternoon in the “Museo Del Canal Interoceanico”. After briefly visiting the “Multi Centro” shopping mall and the “Hard Rock Hotel” we walked to the metro station and took the metro back to our hotel.

The next day we took a private city tour which was centered on the “Panama Canal”, but since we already visited the “Museo Del Canal Interoceanico” we took the allocated time to visit many other places. Our tour guide Edgardo drove us around in a very nice comfortable new Nissan Xtrail SUV and started the tour by driving us to the top of the “Cerro Ancon” were in the past the basketball court size American Flag and now the same size Panama Flag is flying.

Panama Canal
During our trip to the top of the “Cerro Ancon” we passed the monument memorizing the flag pole incident on January 9, 1964 in the Balboa High School. This was all the result of the fact that Panama Canal Zone Governor Robert J. Fleming, Jr. issued a decree limiting President John F. Kennedy’s order, which was not made official before the President assassination to fly Panama's flag alongside the U.S. flag at all non-military sites in the Canal Zone where the U.S. flag was flown. As a result of this incident President Johnson agreed to start negotiations to turn over the Canal Zone to Panama.

The United States wished to build a canal in Nicaragua. However, the Frenchman Philippe-Jean convinced them to build it in Panama because Nicaragua was unsafe due to dangerous volcanoes. He then sent Nicaragua postage stamps with a smoking volcano on them to each senator to persuade their vote. Panama was in that time still part of Colombia and this country had no interest to build the canal since they had already sufficient income from the cross-continental railroad. But President Roosevelt started to support the independence for Panama and the new independent nation returned the favor to Roosevelt by allowing the United States control of the Panama Canal Zone on February 23, 1904, for US$10 million.
When the canal opened, it was a technological marvel. It was an important strategic and economic asset to the U.S., and revolutionized world shipping patterns, as its opening removed the need for ships to travel the long and dangerous route via the Drake Passage and Cape Horn (at the southernmost tip of South America). The canal saves a total of about 7,800 miles (12,600 km) on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea. The anticipated military significance of the canal was proven in World War II, when the United States used it to help restore their devastated Pacific Fleet. Some of the largest ships the United States had to send through the canal were aircraft carriers. These were so large that, although the locks could hold them, the lamp-posts alongside the canal had to be removed.

We visited the Miraflores Locks and its visitor center which allows you to watch from a very close distance the operation of the locks. During our time in the visitor center two tankers and a sailboat passed the locks and it was very impressive. It was for both of these tankers the last time that they used these locks as on June 26, 2016 the new locks will be opened. We drove to the new site, but the site around the locks is still under full construction. We also visited the old US Army and Airforce bases and the residential areas of the military working in the Canal Zone.

We visited the largest mall in Panama City called the Albrook Mall and used the Metro to return to our hotel. The Metro is a relatively new and very modern and efficient transport system through the city. We had a great lunch next to the fishermen harbor while sitting outside and watching all the activities in this very large facility.

On our way back from Texas we have to pass through Panama City again and hope to do some more sightseeing in this very impressive city.