Well we figured we had better get this written before it gets to far in the past and we forget what happened. We had a wonderful stay in Panama at the Balboa Yacht Club in Panama City. We did lots of boat projects including hauling the boat to paint the bottom (an interesting experience, more later), doing all the exterior wood work which was looking very shabby and in need of love and attention, and now looks quite nice. We also replace our fresh water foot pump and did some interior varnish work, so our visit was not all playing and fun and games and we left with a great sense of accomplishment. We also bought LOTS of food as we needed to provision for the 10 day trip to the Galapagos, for the 20 days we would be there, the upcoming 30 day crossing to the Marquises plus to have things once we are there. We have been warned that there is not much in the way of shopping besides real basics until Tahiti and then everything is very expensive. It was a bit intimidating to provision for such a long period of time and we hope we have done okay but only time will tell. We were very glad we had made our trip to Panama in 1998 as we did saw a great deal of the country that time so this visit we could focused on seeing people and doing some of the things we missed in Panama City the last time.
When we arrived there were a group of Paul’s friends from his youth in Panama that were in town from the states so we hung out with them quite a bit the first week and a half. It was nice for Suzette to be able to spend so much time with this group and to really get to know them. She can now go to the big Canal Reunion in Florida and know more than one or two people. We had lots of great adventures including riding all over back roads in jeeps and going the Napoli for pizza not to mention all sorts of stories from the past. The group visiting from the states included Scott Parker, Rod Snyder, Winship Dowell, Sam Kredell, Terry and D LaPorta, and John Beal. We also visited with people still living in Panama including Richard and Loly Dowell and their son Charlie, Wally and Vilma Snyder, Stephanie and Barkley Hayes, Jill and Skip Berger and Ed Sollas. We especially want to thank the Dowells and Snyders for letting us use their laundry rooms and email; and to Stephanie and Barkley for letting us use her Miami address to receive mail. Plus all the great dinners and overall incredible hospitality shown to us during our stay. You are all wonderful people and helped to make our stay fantastic.
It was great to celebrate Jill and Skip’s birthdays with them. They live in the Herrings old house in Margarita on the hill across from the “barn” (Steve Herring was Paul’s best friend from high school). It sure brought back many memories. Standing in the kitchen eating empanadas and drinking Ron Cortez. They had a band under the house and 25-30 friends came to dance and party. It was great fun.
Being in Panama was a change as we have started to meet boats coming through the Canal from the Caribbean. This new groups includes people from the East Coast, Europeans, New Zealanders, and Australians etc as opposed to Mexico where the cruising population is made up almost entirely of Americans and Canadians from the West Coast. One evening we had drinks with three gentlemen from France aboard their yacht, Suzette got to practice her French and Paul discovered that French is not as difficult as he thought it might be.
There are lots of changes in Panama since we were last here three years ago. As the Canal properties and military bases (housing, office buildings, etc) were turned over to the Panamanian government, the houses have been sold to private citizens. There is lots of remodeling going on and it is amazing what you can do with your basic military housing in term of remodeling. Some people have bought both sides of a duplex and have remodeled it into one large house. They are also building new houses in some of the areas. Canal employees living in a house were given the first opportunity to buy them and frequently were able to purchase the houses for less than the going price.
The only disadvantage of these areas is that there are no stores and services as everything was provided by the PX or commissaries in the past. Some services are starting to be built. There is a Niko’s restaurant in Balboa now, across from the old commissary, cafeteria style food with many local dishes, inexpensive and actually pretty good. We ate there several times as you could get a full lunch for $2.50 and the whole place is decorated with lots of old photos of the military bases and Canal Zone from the period 1910-1930 or so. It was great for the history if nothing else. Paul’s favorite table to site at was the one with the photo of the old Coco Solo Naval Base which was at the site where he used to live.
The domestic airport is now at Albrook, and the name is now Aeroporto Gilbert, but everyone still seems to call it Albrook (this is the old Air Force base). There is also a huge new bus terminal on one side of the field (not connected) that handles all of the bus traffic around the country. Incoming buses come in to the upper deck and outgoing buses leave from the lower deck. We came into the terminal coming back from Colon from our Canal transit and the place is huge. But very new, clean and expansive.
The economy of Panama is in a bit of a down turn at the moment. The Canal jobs all still exist for the most part, but the military used to employee lots of people and those jobs have been lost now. In addition the business generated by the people here with the military has also been lost. The taxi drivers really seem to miss the Americans. They are building the railway across the isthmus (actually rebuilding it as they are using the same railway beds, just upgrading it and laying new track). The originally railway built in the 1850’s has not worked for about 20 years and this new railway is mainly being designed to take containers across the isthmus. It will be high speed with the new continuous track, is being built by a Kansas company (we believe) and should be operational by June of this year. There is a huge new container port out neat Coco Solo (where Paul grew up on the Atlantic side) and the train will run from here to Balboa. There is talk that it may make 60 trips a day!!! The train will also carry passengers but that will not be the main purpose of its existence. We saw a surprising amount of new construction, some looking like only promises like the mall that is supposed to be built at the old domestic airport site, Patialla. All this was surprising when everyone we talked with said Panama was in the midst of a recession.
Despite the downturn in the economy there are some amazing new hotel and resort properties that have been built in Panama recently. The Meila Colon was built by the Melia hotel chain (Mexico and South America) in the building that used to house the School of the Americas. It looks nothing like the old “school”. This is where the US used to “train” generals from other countries, many of whom later lead coups and became their countries leaders, people like Noriega. It now has a great lobby with an atrium and a two-tiered pool. The hotel sits on Lake Gatun and you can take tours of the lake, they even have installed a group of Kuna Indians from the San Blas Islands on one of the nearby islands in the lake and you can go out to watch them make molas etc, and of course have the opportunity to buy some. They have also constructed a huge resort at Gamboa called the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. A large main building with atrium and indoor waterfalls and most of the rooms in 16-20 room buildings, each with their own balcony facing the Chagres River and complete with double hammocks on each deck. A bit pricey at $300 a night without the “local” rate. They have also fixed up some of the old wooden housing in Upper Gamboa (three story four-plexes) and incorporated them into the Resort. We had a look in on of the 2 bedroom units. Very traditional, just like Paul remembers. There is even a tram that takes guests to the top of the hill to a lookout up through the rainforest canopy! Overall it’s a very impressive resort in a beautiful setting.
We had wanted to do a canal transit while we were here, or more specifically Suzette as Paul had done several when he was here in 1983/84 plus gone through in a cayuco when he was in high school. We were able to go as line handlers on Deliverance, a boat that was also in the Baja Ha-Ha this past fall with a mother, daughter and son. It was a fun trip, we thought we were going to be able to make it in one day as we were making good time across the lake (Gatun) but there was no ship for us to lock down with so we had to spend the night on a mooring bouy off the Gatun Yacht Club. We washed the boat with buckets of fresh water and then went swimming in the lake. It was a bit strange to swim off the boat in fresh water but felt great. And no crocodiles came by while we were in the water as we have since heard that there are quite a few in the lake now. There used to be Bush Police that worked for the Canal Company that would keep the crocodile population down but they were one of the first jobs to go over 20 years ago so there is now no “control” on the crocodile population.
The Canal transit was lots of fun and interesting. In many ways the same concept as the Ballard Locks only much bigger and the ship you may be locking through with is enormous! I think people from Seattle are very fortunate when going through the Panama Canal as we at least understand the basic concept and only need to remember that the loads are much greater. We were fortunate in that we were able to side tie to a tug on the three up locks from the Pacific (two at Miraflores and one at Pedro Miguel). The tug goes in first and is secured to the wall and then we came in and tied to them. This means that we do not need to adjust our lines at the water fills the lock chamber and the boats rise. If you are tied to the wall you are constantly adjusting your lines, either letting them out or taking them in depending if you are going up or down. As the water enters the lock chamber to fill it up it almost looks like it is boiling there is so much turbulence. As you motor through the Gaillard Cut and across Lake Gatun the sail boats move at their fastest speed to try to get through in one day and the boats actually sit lower in the water was they do not float as high in fresh water as in salt water.
On our down locking at the Gatun Locks the next day we went “center chamber” in front of a freighter. It is a quite strange experience to get secured in the locks and then have this huge ship come in after you. Center Chamber is where the workers on the sides of the Canal throw you the monkey’s fist which you tie your 125 foot line to and send back to them. You have four of these lines on the boat, bow port and starboard and stern port and starboard. The monkey’s fist is a knot tied in a square shape and each canal worker has his own line and monkey fist. The line is not very big, perhaps quarter inch, and you either need to catch it, but especially make sure it does not hit you as it would really hurt. The canal worker then puts your line around the bollard at the top. As you down lock, you constantly let our your line as the boat drops with the water level. At the bottom of each lock chamber, the canal worker takes your line off the bollard and you take it back to the boat, but their line stays attached. They then walk with the boat as you move forward into the next lock chamber and pull the line back up when you are in the correct position.
Each boat or ship must have a pilot aboard to direct you as your transit. We were luck and had two really nice guys, George and Alex, both very good at their jobs and attentative to the job at hand. Bigger ships may have more pilots. They have the scheduling of northbound ships and southbound ships all worked out and larger ships can only go through the Gaillard Cut in day light so there is a lot of coordination that goes on and the pilot is in somewhat constant radio contact all the way through with the Traffic Control. (For those of you with a real working knowledge of the Canal we hope we are getting this somewhat correct.) While we were at the Balboa Yacht Club, on the channel to the entrance on the Pacific side, we saw all types of ships go by from enormous cruise ships to small freights and tankers, to the tall ship from Ecuador which we saw come up the channel with all hands up in the yards. It was a very impressive sight!!! We never knew there were so many types of ships.
The Balboa Yacht Club has built a “temporary” open-air bar/restaurant and there is talk of rebuilding the old yacht club, they are just waiting for the permits. The yacht club was a nice place to gather with friends, have a cheeseburger or ceviche and watch the canal traffic go by. The yacht club has also taken over the pool from Fort Amador which was certainly a nice addition on the hot afternoons. Next to the yacht club they are building a Courtyard Inn and Suites hotel and it will have a TGIFriday’s.
Hauling the boat to paint the bottom was a bit different than in the states as they use a railway/slipway system instead of a Travel Lift. They slide a cradle down a railway into the water at high tide and you then motor your boat into the cradle. There are three guys on each side on platforms that tie the boat securely (you hope) to the cradle. Once secured, the cradle with the boat are hoisted up the slipway so the boat ends up sitting on it’s keel at about a 45 degree angle, but with the bow higher than the stern which seems a very unnatural position for a sailboat. Fortunately we were able to stay with friends that night. All went well and we were back in the water the next evening, 24 hours after going out of the water.
All told we had a great time in Panama. We just hope that care and planning are taken as Panama absorbs the old Canal Zone and military bases. It is really a beautiful place and has great potential.
And a thought to close this log: Next time you are feeling a bit blue remember that a “brisk 30 minute walk is just as effective as relieving major depression as antidepressants according to a study of 156 elderly patients.” Really think that this applies to anyone actually and not just the elderly. So get out there and go take a walk.
Cheers for now – Suzette and Paul S/V Altair