We dropped anchor in the Gulf of Panama, off the shore of Panama City. We are situated near the entrance to the canal. The Panama Canal holds some interest for me since my great uncle, Sumner Stubbins, worked on the construction of the canal as an engineer. In fact my grandmother gave me some Panamanian coins that I still have.
I must say that I was somewhat surprised by the skyline that greeted us on our arrival. It appears to be a modern city with contemporary high rise buildings that rival many American cities. I have attached a couple of pictures we took from our ship. We had planned to go ashore today but after Chris spoke with a gentleman who used to live here we decided to wait until tomorrow. Our interest was in going to “Old Town” but were advised that it was not worth the effort. That decision was reinforced when we learned this evening that some of our shipmates who went there were stuck in traffic for over an hour and a half.
We are scheduled to go ashore in the morning on an excursion that will take us to the entrance of the canal and we will see the first lock.
The area where we are anchored has many boats which are likewise anchored. I don’t know if they are waiting to go through the canal or why they stopped here. Maybe you have to get a number and get in line or “no soup for you.”
Wow, Panama doesn't look like I thought it would. It has the look of Auckland or Sydney, much more commercial.
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