We thought that
we would do our own clearance into Panama and sort out our canal transit
but the taxi driver took us to the wrong customs office and charged us $5 (about
2.5 times more than the going rate) for the privilege. Colon is not the sort of
place where you want to be wandering the streets looking lost. Following the
advice of the French cruisers who were anchored near us, we enlisted the
services of Tito Ng. Tito sent Francisco to take care of us. Francisco was in
the US army in Iraq and later
worked as a body guard in Colon. He ended up being our taxi driver,
tourist guide, font of local knowledge and body guard. He even helped with the
heavy lifting when we bought seven new batteries and had to take them out to the
boat in the dinghy.
Francisco and his taxi.
Transferring batteries.
Doing the heavy lifting.
On Thursday
morning, we had to call the admeasurer’s office to see when we needed to go to
have the boat measured for our transit. We were told to go to the anchorage
called “The Flats” between 0800 and 0830. The measurer would come some time
between then and 1330. As we were bringing up our anchor, the storm that had
been threatening got under way and we motored around to The Flats in pouring
rain accompanied by wind, thunder and lightning. We waited around all morning
until he finally arrived at 1315. He managed to make the boat a metre longer
than it is but in the end, it made no difference to the cost as we were over 50
feet anyway.
Francisco took
us to the bank on Friday to pay for the transit and then we had to ring the
scheduler’s office after 1800 to find out when we were going through. We had a
10 day wait. The French sailors near us were delivering a charter boat to
Papeete and were
anxious to leave. They rang the scheduler every night and were put forward a
week. When they left, we rang and were put forward one day to their original
time. The delay occurs because yachts, or handlines as the canal authorities
call them, have to have a transit adviser on board. These are people who work in
some capacity for the canal authority, for example, in dredging, and act as
advisers in their time off. As the wet season had started, the dredges work more
regularly so there are fewer advisers available.
During our
travels with Francisco, we went to a large shopping centre where the guard
outside the supermarket looked to be better equipped than the soldiers in
Afghanistan. Some buildings in town
and some sections of the street had armed guards. There was even an armed guard
in a flak jacket at the gate of Club Nautico and it is a fishing club. Houses
near Club Nautico had walls topped with large metal spikes, broken glass, razor
wire, electric fence or some combination of the above. Even the cathedral had a
chain wire fence topped with razor wire.
Guard at Club Nautico
One thing that really impressed us was the immaculate
presentation of the school students of all ages. Their grooming and neat and
clean uniforms would put some Australian students to shame. Needless to say, the
schools also had security fencing. We don't think it was to keep the students
in.
The day that we
went to order the batteries, we thought that we would walk to the train station
to look at the train that travels beside the canal to Panama City. On the way
back, we were about to turn into a street that would lead in the direction of
one of the supermarkets when a taxi driver told us to keep going towards the
main road as the area that we were about to go into was too dangerous. Many of
the buildings look as though they were once quite beautiful but are now decaying
and derelict but are home to many people.
Buses are painted with all sorts of
decorations.
There is no way
that Colon could
be considered to be a top tourist destination. In spite of this, many cruise
ships visit and the passengers go to the Colon Free Zone, which is the second
largest duty free zone in the world after Hong
Kong, or take the train to Panama City or go to the Miraflores visitor
centre at the Miraflores Locks to watch the ships go through.
We left
Colon on Sunday
22nd May to begin our transit of the Panama
Canal.