{"id":38713,"date":"2018-04-25T17:11:49","date_gmt":"2018-04-25T22:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=38713"},"modified":"2018-04-26T07:02:57","modified_gmt":"2018-04-26T12:02:57","slug":"our-trip-to-panama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/?p=38713","title":{"rendered":"Our Trip to Panama"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I told you about our trip to Nicaragua (here <\/a>and here<\/a>), and we went to Panama while we were on that trip.\u00a0 After our volunteer trip ended on Saturday, Mike, two friends, and I boarded a plane on Sunday and flew to Panama City, Panama.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

I can’t tell you what I was expecting PC to be like, but I can tell you that it was a total surprise.\u00a0 I guess we were expecting something somewhat rustic and were blown away to discover a very modern city loaded with skyscrapers, good hotels and restaurants, shopping, and of course, the Panama Canal.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Panama\"<\/p>\n

We stayed in the old part of the city where all of the top rated restaurants are located.\u00a0 The old city has been neglected, but building by building, it is being rehabbed and is making its way back.\u00a0 There were areas that looked as if a bomb had exploded, and there were beautifully restored buildings, parks, and squares.\u00a0 There are gorgeous historic hotels that have been modernized, and there are lots of boutique hotels.\u00a0 Our hotel was a funky little place with lots of concrete, a good view, good bar and restaurant, and a convenient location.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

Panama Canal<\/h2>\n

The main goal for our visit was the canal.\u00a0 We wanted to see it, ride on it, and learn about it.\u00a0 So, the first day, we did something we often do when in a new city.\u00a0 We bought tickets for the\u00a0 hop on\/hop off bus and saw the city and its surroundings while someone else did the driving.\u00a0 We have found on many trips that taking one of these bus rides on the first day helps us get acclimated to the lay of the land.\u00a0 Some people frown upon them, but as seasoned travelers, we highly recommend them.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

Canal Museum<\/h2>\n

We spent several hours at the Panama Canal museum, which was one of the bus’s stops.\u00a0 It is located on the Miraflores lock.\u00a0 The canal is 50 miles long, and there are three sets of locks.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

We learned about the history of the canal and got to watch ships travel through the canal while we stood on the observation deck.\u00a0 The old canal is fairly narrow, and so, they built a wider\/newer canal right beside it that can handle bigger ships carrying more freight.\u00a0 I read this book<\/a> which helped me understand the whole process and how difficult it was to actually get the canal built.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Travel on the Canal<\/h2>\n

On our second day in Panama City, we took a boat ride on the canal and traveled through the locks. We worked with a tour office just a few doors away from our hotel, and they were so helpful.\u00a0 It really wasn’t necessary to book all of the day trips in advance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

The canal system works very slowly, and our boat, which had 90 day passengers, was at the mercy of the lock captains.\u00a0 Because the lock system is complicated and expensive to operate, we had to partner up with a two smaller boats and a huge ship.\u00a0 Each ship, no matter how large or small, pays to travel through the canal.\u00a0 It is based on the boats’ sizes.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

No ship passes through the canal before it has paid the fee, and it must be in cash.\u00a0 There are boats just sitting in the water waiting to travel through the locks and get to the other side.\u00a0 Some are ahead of schedule and have to wait their turn and others are waiting for their payment to be processed. They can sit there for days, if necessary.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The lock fees are quite high, but when they factor in the amount of time it lessens in traveling from the Pacific to the Atlantic and vice versa, the fees seem somewhat reasonable.\u00a0 The highest fee ever paid was $1,400,000. for a huge freighter that had 14,000 containers on it.\u00a0 Cruise ships’ fees are based on the number of beds they have on board, even if they are unoccupied.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

Colon, Panama<\/h2>\n

For our third day, we took a fun train ride to the Atlantic\/Caribbean side of the canal.\u00a0 Then we had a van meet the four of us there with three tour guides.\u00a0 What a difference this side of the isthmus was!\u00a0We drove through the city of Colon and only got out of the van to visit a once-beautiful hotel that has fallen into disrepair.\u00a0 It was a cloudy day.\u00a0 According to my book, Colon was a\u00a0 “shanty town” (their words\/not mine) when the canal was being built.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

After a lovely lunch at a country restaurant, we visited another small town in the area.\u00a0 They, too, were loaded with poverty, dirt, falling down houses, and sadness.\u00a0 There was an old fort and a purple and white church that had a black Jesus statue that had a story to go along with it.\u00a0 There were tons of people just sitting around, and I have to tell you that I felt strange walking around on their streets while they sat idly and stared at us.\u00a0 I was happy to get back in the van.<\/p>\n

\"Panama<\/p>\n

We had three very full days in Panama, and we felt as if we had done everything on the “must-see\/must-do” list.\u00a0 We saw the sites, ate the food, walked the streets, explored, learned, and enjoyed.\u00a0 That’s a perfect vacation stop in our book.\u00a0 Everyone is always asking me where we are headed next.\u00a0 Mike and I are flying to Europe in May for two weeks of bicycling in Provence and then in the Netherlands.\u00a0 We are hoping that things go smoothly on our remodeling project<\/a> while we are away.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take care.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Affiliate link included.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I told you about our trip to Nicaragua (here and here), and we went to Panama while we were on that trip.\u00a0 After our volunteer trip ended on Saturday, Mike, two friends, and I boarded a plane on Sunday and flew to Panama City, Panama. I can’t tell you what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38713"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38713"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38774,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38713\/revisions\/38774"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/the2seasons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}