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 22^nd May to begin our transit of the Panama Canal.