Panama
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Sat 25 Jun 2011 21:30
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We are now in our 4th full day at Shelter Bay
Marina. We have engaged an agent to assist us with the transit and things are
progressing well. Today our boat was measured by an officer from the Canal
Authority. Tomorrow we pay the money and by tomorrow night we should know our
transit date. There has until now been a large backlog of boats wanting to
transit but we are told things have now settled down and it may only be a matter
of days before we can go.
We have met some other Aussies here and they are
berthed right next to us. Terry and Elaine from "Virgo's Child" and John and Sue
from "Five Islands" have been very generous to us and have even offered to come
with Daniel and I on our transit, to assist as linehandlers. Each vessel in
transit must have a minimum of 5 people aboard to handle the lines that keep the
boat central in the lock as it is either filled or emptied. I have heard some
horror stories of things going wrong but I am sure we will be fine.
Had an interesting time taking Robert to the
airport. We finally cleared immigration after some real issues late on Monday
and caught the Bus to Panama City about 5.30pm. We had an overnight stay at the
Costa Inn and took their shuttle bus to the airport at 5am. I was very sad
to see him go but was pleased to hear from him that he loved the trip and he was
determined to do some more travelling.
Instead of taking a cab back to the main bus
terminal I decided to mix it with the locals and take the bus. I walked for
about 5 minutes and then jumped onto one of those old long nosed
school buses you see in the USA. There are literally thousands of them here and
they are painted up a little like those taxi cabs in Manilla. The buses are all
clearly from the 50's and 60's, are not air-conditioned, and have huge V8's to
push them along. Our driver treated the 20km trip to the station as his own
personal rally course. This guy drove like he was was auditioning for the V8
Supercars. I'm not sure what speed we were doing but it had to be 100kmh, in
traffic, downhill, on a bend, in a rusted 1960's school bus. Yeeha!!! The
trip was around 20km and it cost just 25 cents.
It is incredible how low prices are here in Panama.
The local beer "Panama" tastes a lot like Corona and you can buy one for 35
cents. In a large department store in Panama City I bought 2 pairs of jeans
for $12 each and 3 t-shirts for $2.99 each!! A brand new house
overlooking the lake will cost you $40,000.
The downside to all of this is that Colon is not
such a nice town. Rob and I had to go to immigration right in one of the bad
areas and were not altogether comfortable trying to get a cab to stop in the
pouring rain after we had finished. Colon also has no road rules, it is
survival of the fittest. At intersections cars, buses and trucks all just keep
pushing forward until they force a gap in the traffic.
Where we are staying at the Marina is very slick
compared to colon. The marina's restaurant overlooks the yachts and above it is
an air-conditioned lounge with a plasma TV and leather lounges. Daniel and I
take a break from the heat there from time to time and watch some of the tennis.
The staff have been very helpful and went out of their way to assist us overcome
the isue we had with immigration.
Looking forward to going now though and will spend
the next few days preparing the boat.
Andrew.
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