Panama Canal & Puerto Amador

Well, yesterday was so full of the wonder of going through the Panama Canal, that I was a bit lax in my blogging. So here’s a little more about the “Ditch”.

What I’ve heard about the ships going so close to the walls of the canal is true. If you have a balcony cabin on certain decks you can indeed reach over and touch the walls of the canal. In this photo the blue is part of the ship’s deck, the white is the hull and you can see that it clears the canal by only a very few inches! The ships are pulled along by “mules” (I suppose originally they were real mules?) through the locks and, as you can see, everyone is quite friendly.

It was fascinating watching the Antwerpen Express as she went through the locks alongside us. Cost for a ship such

as the Coral Princess to

transit the canal is about $330,000 and reservations can be made up to 1 ½ years in advance; all payments are due at time of reservation. If your ship misses it’s reserved time, it must pay again to go through - no refunds. Ouch!!

Today was on to Puerto Amador, to the “Old” Old City, and to the “Colonial” Old City. The Colonial Old City had largely fallen into ruin, but families whose ancestors trace back to the Colonial City are now purchasing the old buildings and renovating them. It’s q

uite a status symbol to live in one of the restored colonial homes.

Amongst the many sights in the Colonial area is the “Golden Altar” - sorry I can’t recall the name of the church, I think it's San Francisco, but all these saints have me in a muddle. Anyway, in addition to being a spectacular piece of artwork, it has an interesting

history.

When Henry Morgan (pirate to Central and South Americans, knight & explorer to North Americans and Europeans) successfully raided Puerto Amador, the priests got advance word that an enemy fleet was coming. Some of their gold they sank in the ocean with buoys just below the surface. This altar was whitewashed to look like it was just made of plaster or wood. After 10 days of raiding Henry Morgan left with his riches, and made a large donation to the “poor church”!

The “Old” Old City was destroyed by pirate attacks as well as fire and only ruins remain. The Cathedral Tower is one of the icons of Panama.

This is one of the arches in the tower.

Panama is probably best seen on a pre-arranged tour. There are taxi drivers at the port who will take you into town, but their integrity is somewhat lacking. Bargaining is possible in all the shops, and there are souvenirs to fit all tastes and budgets.

Today’s somewhat weird souvenir is the following.

I’m sure it has some sort of meaning, but I’m not sure I’d want it in my living room!! There were some other weird souvenirs, but this is a PG rated blog!

Heading for Costa Rica, but first the bloody gym!