Panama Canal – January 10

Panama Canal – January 10

I honestly can’t tell you how many times we have transited the Panama Canal or driven across the Bridge of the Americas and the Centennial Bridge. We have seen the Panama Canal from all sides since we lived in Panama for 3.5 years. Definitely missing the friends that we have made here. 

I did get up early this morning and was rewarded by seeing 8 Keel-billed Toucans playing amongst the trees from our balcony. Greg was up even earlier and saw Howler Monkeys. We saw the boats that go to Monkey Island and the captains were calling for the monkeys, but we didn’t see any. They left right away so I imagine they went to other areas to find them. 

We had breakfast outside and chatted with a mother and a daughter from San Francisco. I walked the track for an hour and it was a bit overcast and a light breeze so it was quite nice out. We showered and then watched from the balcony looking for birds and critters. It was lunch time and the buffet upstairs was Panamanian. Not really anything we ever saw in Panama, but the food was good. The Yucca casserole was authentic, but the fried fish wouldn’t have been a filet, but a whole fish deep fried. The sancocho soup was way too thick and they had empanadas which really aren’t Panamanian. They were tasty however. They had beef ribs that were way tastier and more tender than anything found in Panama. We sat with a nice couple from California and we chatted with them for quite a while. 

We didn't take many "normal" photos of the transit since we have done that numerous times.

 early morning start of the transit

 parrots flying overhead

 Frigate birds

 Howler Monkeys 

 me waking the track

 these boats take people out to see monkeys on some of the islands (Scott & Sonya you'll remember that)

 Cara Cara

Then, back to the cabin and the phone rings and it’s Bob & Phyllis who upgraded to a suite and invited us and 2 other couples to join them for the next set of locks. Very nice perspective of the canal. We actually saw a ship in the new locks. Bob’s suite is up front so it really did make for a nice place to see the transit from another perspective. 

 ship next to us in the new locks

We left after a short time as we both really needed some time on the computer and trying to use the free internet via our phones as hotspots. For uploading pictures it went fairly fast and for banking on the ship you need to be able to get a text from the bank and you can’t be logged into more than 1 device at a time, so this way he was able to catch up on some things. 

We passed the Visitor’s Center which always is packed. They wave and shout as the ship goes through. 

A shout out to Betty, Jim & Jennifer, Adam & Mary, Rick & Francine and everyone else there. We miss you all and we miss much about life in Panama. 

It seems that afternoon ice cream no longer exists. We went up again today and nothing was set up. We went out back to watch us pass under the Bridge of the Americas. Another couple was asking a lot of questions amongst themselves about Panama and Greg answered quite a few for them before they asked if we lived there or something. Once we said yes, then they had a lot of questions. Nice couple and they were very interested in our crazy lifestyle. We finally left to get ready for dinner. 

The food continues to be very good on this voyage. We noticed that a table next to us hadn’t had people at it for a  couple of nights and there are 6 of us at a table for 8 and it makes it hard to hear people on the other side of the table, so DK asked if we could move there for the rest of the voyage so we can all hear each other better. We were told we could do that, so tomorrow we will sit at the table next to where we currently are. Hopefully, that works better for us. The other 2 couples at the table are very nice. 

Tonight’s show was Linda Gentile, a pianist we have seen before and she is very good. After that we went to watch karaoke. Only a couple people wanted to sing and even the assistant CD sang a couple songs, but it was over early. 

Panama Canal Transit photo link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1wMJ6KJWKTeGoh1j9

We have one more sea day until our next port of Puerto Quepos, Costa Rica.