We spent our first night in a hotel and went out for a great dinner. I have no photos because I got over hungry and was hangry.
The view from our hotel the next morning was stunning. Our included breakfast included some Colombian specialties.
Hot chocolate for breakfast. Yum.Bunuelos are good but not quite a doughtnut. More like cornbread.
After breakfast we did a quick walk before packing up and leaving town.
We rushed to catch a bus to Jardin the small town we were spending mid week in since it gets crowded in the weekends.
Sheryl: I just love leaving my hair curly. So quick and easy. Jeff: We can take a later bus if you need time to work on your hair.
Our bus trip was three hours on a tourist bus. We were a bit frazzled from the traveling the day before. But no problem we’ve done bus rides before.
Sheryl: We are cool! Jeff: We are adventurous.
The bus ride was fine. But by hour three we were feeling our age.
Jeff: My back hurts. Sheryl: My self esteem hurts.
The stop for the bathroom was 3 1/2 hours into the ride probably the longest I’ve gone without peeing in a decade. It cost 500 pesos which is the equivalent of eleven US cents.
Best 500 pesos I’ve ever spent.
Jeff was delaying getting back on the bus.
There’s got to be an airport around here somewhere.
But then 4 1/2 hours later at arrived in Jardin and it was worth the trip.
Jeff and I are still hanging out in Panama. But now we are finally doing some exploring.
We rushed to get this book sent from the US. I still haven’t opened it, hopefully Jeff has.
First trip is to Colombia. We are taking a two week vacation to a country we’ve wanted to see for decades.
Sheryl: We are 22 yrs old and just started dating, but want to go to Colombia? Jeff: Sure but let’s wait 23 years until we are old and a bus ride will hurt our backs.
It’s been so long since I’ve packed for a vacation I forgot how.
Most important is Sven, my stuffed support sloth.
We flew on an airline called Wingo. The name sounds a bit too silly for an airline.
Jeff suggested I start blogging again.
Thirty photos later he wasn’t so psyched for me to blog
I hate the internet.
Our flight was great we got to Medellin and got an Uber. Well one of us got the Uber. The other one was busy “taking selfies for the blog.”
It feels weird to be posting during a pandemic. But, blogging is keeping me from going crazy while stuck inside. I hope everyone is staying healthy both physically and mentally during this crazy time.
We were extremely lucky that my parents were able to visit in early March and get back home to Georgia before things got really bad. They were here from March 1 – March 7 so the things we did in this post are from a few weeks ago. It seems so long ago. Just a few weeks ago the world was a very different place.
In my last post, I talked about seeing the Panama Canal from the Pacific side.
After seeing the Miraflores locks we went out to happy hour and dinner. Immediately several things became abundantly clear:
You can’t actually swim in Panama City’s highest pool bar. The pool is just ornamental. But the views and drink specials at Panaviera make up for it.
Shoot I was going to get really drunk then dive in. What could go wrong?
2. Two for one happy hour drink special takes the sting out of not swimming in a pool on the 66th floor.
Drinking is more fun that swimming any day.
3. Everything tastes better when your table glows green.
Do I look like a Lepracon?
4. Personal coat racks at your restaurant table are an amazing invention.
Who needs to hang up their cooling tie?
5. But most importantly, we needed more canal! The Pacific side was nice and all, but we needed to see the Caribbean side too.
We can’t rest until we see the ENTIRE canal. map from Wikipedia
We found a guide and scheduled a tour for the following day. The only catch, we would start super early in the morning.
Dad: I can’t wait to see more canal. Sheryl: We have to leave the hotel at 6:00 am. Mom: Wait, what?
Getting picked up before the sun rose was difficult.
Jeff: Whose idea was this? Mom: Don’t look at me. Dad: Not mine Sheryl: I had three cups of coffee! I’m going to swim the canal!
Our guide Estaban picked us up at the hotel, and drove us to the Panama Railway station. The train was built in 1855 which was even before the canal . It was first used to take people across Panama from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Once the Americans took over building the canal they used it to move workers, equipment, and dirt across the isthmus.
Sheryl: This is the original train car. Mom: I sure hope they updated the bathrooms since this was built in the 1800’s. Dad: I hope they cleaned out the dirt.
At the station where we bought our tickets, I found this one bag of coffee on a lonely shelf all by itself.
I appreciate the marketing, but really? This coffee was grown 700 miles away, nowhere near the canal or the railroad.
The train only makes the trip once a day. It leaves Panama City at 7:15 am which is why we had to get there so early.
You couldn’t run this train a little later in the day?
The really cool car that was all windows was full. But the car we ended up in was still really nice and mostly empty.
We rule this train car! Photo credit to my Tom Cutilletta (my dad)
We were still pretty tired even as the train got on its way.
If we smile Sheryl won’t notice that we’re sleeping..
The great thing about the train is that you have jungle on side , and the actual canal on the other.
This is nice and all, but it’s 7:25am I could go for some potato chips.
It was at this point in the train ride that even though I had snarfed down half a loaf of banana bread , I was hungry. Lucky for me, they passed out coffee and little snack boxes.
I knew I had a fever for the flavor of something.
Crackers, nuts,, raisins, a piece candy, and best of all Pringles! And it was all housed in a commemorative box with a really helpful map on the bottom. As soon as I saw the potato chips I knew what I had to do.
Train Attendant: I am going to pretend I don’t see that. Mom: Oh, that was cute. Dad: Are you sure she’s our kid?
After about an hour, the train pulled up to the station in the town of Colon.
Sheryl: There already? I didn’t even have time to take fifty selfies. photo credit: Tom Cutilletta (my Dad)
It was a small station with many tour guides waiting to do tours. We looked through the crowd and found our guide, Estaban. While we were eating snacks on the train, he was driving to the other side of Panama to meet us at the station.
Hope you relaxed while I raced over to meet you.
From the train, Estaban drove us to the Agua Clara locks on the Atlantic side of Panama. I’ll talk about them in my next post.
Wait, THAT’S the Panama Canal? It looks like the Ballard Locks in Seattle.
My parents came to Panama City this last week for a visit. I’m pretty sure they came to see the Panama Canal, but we just happened to be here too.
Sheryl: Don’t look, but the guy behind you is doing the YMCA dance. He’s on the letter C.
Our building has both apartments and a hotel. Since our bathroom doesn’t’ have walls, and sometimes smells weird, they stayed on the hotel side. We did have them up to our balcony for appetizers and to see the boats waiting to enter the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal version of the cell phone waiting lot at the airport.
Mom: If I knew about the bathroom, I wouldn’t have drunk all this water? Dad: Maybe there is a gas station nearby.
On the first day of their visit, we went to Casco Viejo which is the old part of town with lots of doors.
Mom: Why do we have to stand here? Jeff in the background: Just ignore Sheryl, she’ll make you stand there all day to take photos.
Since I didn’t read the guidebook first, every church we went into I thought was the cathedral. This statue was particularly interesting.
From the sign in front of the statue: “St. Hedwig founded monasteries along with her husband. On his death, Hedwig became a nun and continued to serve the poor and sick. Panamanian devotees come to her to request the grace of a home; for this, they offer houses at her feet.
After walking around town, two things happened.
My hair became extremely crazy.
I became a cooling tie user
Maybe the tangled hair on top of my hair will distract from this jaunty little scarf I’m wearing.
The cooling tie is a product (I bought mine from REI) that you soak in cold water and wear around your neck. It stays cool for hours, and so do you. At least this is what our friend Brian and my parents have told us. I have mocked them for years for their cooling tie usage. But when it’s 101 heat index, it was time to don the cooling tie. And I have to say, it really did work. Jeff still had some dignity and refused to wear his.
It was around this time, that Jeff may have become nervous about the upcoming week.
Are they going to laugh like this for seven days straight.? Also, should I lend them a comb?
The next day we got up early and took an Uber to the Miraflores locks. This is the locks on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal.
Bet those people are hot without cooling ties.
The viewing platform was crowded but we found a spot to watch a ship filled with windmill blades transit the Miraflores Lock.
Here we are, ready to be amazed at the Panama Canal.
Ships take a LONG time to get through the locks.
Can’t they speed this up?
Like a really long time.
Don’t tell Dad, but I’m only watching this for his sake. Don’t tell my parents but we’re only watching this for their sake. Don’t tell Mom but I’m only watching this for her sake.
The boat was still in the locks when we realized we would all have heat stroke if we had to watch it go through completely. Inside the visitor center, they had a great museum that explained the history and workings of the canal.
Mom: I’m about to pass out from heatstroke. Dad: I’m so hot, I’m taking a short nap standing up.
But the best part was where we could pretend to actually drive a ship through the Panama Canal.
I can’t believe how good I am at this. This is going to be my new profession. Sheryl: Go left go left! I better give him more instructions on this walkie talkie.Hello, welcome to the Panama Canal. Press one if you would like to transit. Listen, buddy, this is 2020, you answer your own damn phones.I really like what you’ve done with your hair.
This is what this guy’s hair looked like six years ago when Jeff and I visited.
Next, we went to the IMAX theater for a really good movie about the canal that was in 3D. Morgan Freeman was the narrator. Between his soothing voice, heatstroke and comfy chairs it was hard to stay awake.
I’ll sleep through the beginning, Mom, you sleep during the middle and Dad, you sleep during the end.
And then we were all canaled out and headed back to Panama City via Uber and went out to dinner.
Let’s get up even earlier tomorrow and see the Atlantic side.
Other interesting things:
There is a really fun website that shows the boats going through the canal, and ports around the world.
