It was a busy day, beautiful and amazing day today.
The weather was hot and humid, but at least it wasn't raining. It
is Mother's Day in Panama. They celebrate it twice a year!! Nice
tradition, but I was thinking once a month would also work!
The Sea Lion is the only ship allowed to interrupt the
Canal transit and anchor in Gatun Lake. It was a very calm night.
Bill woke me up at 6:15 when he got up. I
had showered last night before I went to bed, so I just threw on some clothes
and walked the 10 feet to the lounge for coffee. We had started moving
from our anchorage and soon were located fairly close to Barro Colorado Island,
the Smithsonian research center.
Yogurt, fruit, and muffins were out in the lounge for
early birds. The regular buffet breakfast was served at 7. One can
really go in anytime one wants to eat within a reasonable amount of time.
It was a buffet with fresh fruit, oatmeal, sweet bread, plain scrambled
and scrambled with tomatoes and spinach, bacon, sausage patties, juice.
For buffet food for 60 people, the food is really quite good.
We had to sign waivers for BCI to come take their walk.
At 8, a rep from BCI came on board to talk to us. His name is
Egbert Giles Leigh, and he wrote a book that I had seen before called The Magic
Web. He is a biologist with a special interest in botany and spoke
until 8:30. He is a much older gentleman, and I found him a tad bit
boring since I am not that big on botany.
At 9 we all split up with the group taking the longer
hike on the island leaving in the Zodiaks. We could see the dock easily,
so it didn't take long to drop them off and come back. I was in the
second group going on the not-so-long hike. Bill was in the third group
who were taking a 1.5 hour long ride around the island in the Zodiaks.
Our hike was led by Dr. Leigh. I should have given
my spot to someone who cared more about botany. The hike was fairly
difficult - about 2 hours of up and down in the woods in 90 degree weather in
100% humidity! I hung back with a couple of other people and Jose our Nat
Geo naturalist. We did see an agouti, but he kept ducking behind things
and finally ran away. We heard howler monkeys from all over the island,
and Jose and I finally saw one sleeping in the trees. I worked and
finally got a good photo of him. That was the only major animal photo I
took today. I got fun artsy photos and some of weird mushrooms.
As we were coming back, we ran into the other shorter
hike folks. Apparently they had a 'medical emergency'. An older
gentleman had underestimated the heat and steepness of the hike. Luckily
the boat doc (female ER doc) was on the island and was able to get him cooled
off and back to the Sea Lion.
I was totally soaked with sweat by the time we got back
to the boat at 12:15. I took a quick shower, and Bill came back to
the room. He had a similar trip on the Zodiac around the island - howler
monkeys and a croc were about all they saw. But it was interesting to see
some of the research projects that are being done on the island.
Lunch was a buffet with salads and pastas - Alfredo and
pesto - with a chicken parm. They also served a leak and potato soup.
I had a little of the pastas with some greens.
After lunch while we waited for clearance to continue
down the canal, we had waivers to sign for snorkeling and kayaking. Then
we all went up to the top deck to find masks, snorkels, fins for the next few
days. We are provided bags to hold them all in.
Then it was time to continue the transit of the canal.
It was a semi-overcast day which made for great viewing and photos.
It wasn’t long before we passed the Chagres River which feeds the Canal,
and then we were in the 9 mile long Culebra Cut - the narrowest part of
the Canal which is about 9 miles long.
A couple of crocs were spotted along the shoreline, but
Bill and I couldn't see them. Then we approached the Pedro Miguel locks
which only has one lock. An awesomely huge car panamax was in front of
us. It took us quite a while to get through this lock. I had been
waving all along the cut to tugs and canal patrol boats, and most waved back,
and a few even tooted their horns. Everyone around me soon got in to the
spirit of things and started waving, too.
In the Pedro Miguel lock, I smiled and waved at the
locomotive engineer who smiled and waved back. The locomotives don't pull
ships through the canal but just hold them tight in position - one or two or
even three locomotives on either side. Finally my engineer held up a sign
for me saying "Welcome to the Panama Canal" and then a sign saying
"My name in Angel". He hollered over to me asking what my name
was. It was cute!
We had another Panamax ship that shared the lock behind
us which took a while for him to get into the lock with us. Meanwhile, on
the top deck, the wait staff set up an hors 'd ourvres table with ceviche and a
cheese, cracker, fruit plate. The wait staff passed around decent margaritas.
We finally made it through the Pedro Miguel lock and
sailed the one mile through Miraflores Lake to the Miraflores lockes (3 locks).
This took a while to get through, and then dinner was served. I
stayed outside to see us sail through the Bridge of Americas. Everyone
else was at dinner, but Bill and I made it down in time to eat. There was
a nasty looking beet and potato salad. I don't like beets, so I didn't
try it. I did have some of the Central American roast beef which was
quite good along was a white sweet potato and corn salad. For dessert
they served an awesome Tres Leche cake - one of my favorites.
We sailed to just outside the Canal to anchor until
about 2am when they will sail to the Pearl Islands in the Bay of
Panama. We are now anchored in Panama Bay with a beautiful view of Panama
City. Since we are now in the Pacific Ocean, there is a bit more rock and
rolling!
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