Panama!!

Sunday, 22nd January, 2023

As mentioned in the last post, we docked at Colon, Panama and Val and I were taken off to a local hospital for a specialist to have a look at Val’s neck and shoulder after her stumble in the bathroom. It went well, though it did not look all that promising when we were driven through the grid-like streets of Colon, which looks distinctly rough in places. The city has a huge free trade area and was one of the original termini for the cross-Panama railway, before the canal. It was founded by the Americans in 1850 and seems to have been prone to burning down – 3 times over the years.

It also has the housing for many who worked building the canal or running it (more on that later). Right now it looks very rundown and poor, so we were a bit sceptical about how good the hospital would be.

In the end it was fine. They took an X-ray and prescribed Val some muscle relaxant tablets and some gel, which we purchased at a local pharmacy for a small fortune (not sure we were not stitched up there, but hard to dispute it when your Spanish is restricted to Ola and Gracias). We did get a discount for age!!!

We were then taken back to the ship and managed to get on a tour at the very last minute. We didn’t actually know where it was going, but it turned out to be good fun. We went to one of the very ancient forts on the Atlantic/Caribbean coast that guards the River Chagres entrance, called Castillo de San Lorenzo. The current version of the fort is not the one that was captured over the years by Francis Drake, Henry Morgan and Admiral Vernon and is being restored.

We had an excellent, amusing and informative guide and had a chance on the way to cross the latest bridge (of 3) over the canal and to view some of the flora and fauna. The former is very lush with dark and rather forbidding jungle. The fort was much of a muchness, but it did offer stunning views over the river and coast.

Monday, 23rd January, 2023

Today we transited through the Panama Canal. This is the second time that Val and I have done this, so we were not up at 0500 like some to see us through the first locks, but woke up to find we were already in a lock as evidenced by the view out of our window.

All went smoothly and it is still impressive to see the amount of work that must have gone into building the canal in the first place. There is now a second canal that has been built for the bigger ships, which was under construction when we came through 3 years ago. the cost of going through the canal are pretty impressive. I am told, though it has not been verified, that for our relatively small cruise liner to go through will cost about $300,000 and for the big ones it id closer to $1 million. The cheapest cost is $0.38 which is for a swimmer! Mind you, they would be brave as there are crocodiles in the canal!

And so, here we are in the Pacific and it is living up to its name with waters like a mill pond. The weather is warm to hot and we have 2 days at sea before we hit Guayaquil in Ecuador.

Tuesday – Wednesday, 24th – 25th January, 2023

Yesterday was a normal sea day with our usual round of activities. My cough has not let up and I went and saw the doctor who told me that it was basically a cough and that there was not much they could do, which was much as I expected. it is mostly fine during the day, but is really bad at night and is keeping me up. So I am taking it a little easier, though that still means lots of table tennis, darts and dancing.

Today we crossed the Equator, so King and Queen Neptune held court and various members of the crew, including the Captain were found guilty of nefarious crimes and had to kiss the fish or ‘Queen’ Neptune and get hurled into the swimming pool. Lots of fun and taken in good part by all concerned.

And, of course, it is Burns’ Night and we seem to have more than our fair share of Scots on board, dressed in all their finery. So plenty going on. We have had some quite good acts each evening. The ship has its own company of performers who largely do song and dance acts and then there are visiting singers, magicians and comedians, some of whom are very good.

So a snapshot of life at sea there. Tomorrow we land at Guayaquil, Ecuador, which will be our first venture in South America. There is a shuttle bus from the port to the city, so no doubt I will be reporting to you from a bar of cafe when I can finally publish this via their Wi-Fi.