Subscribe in a readerUp and Down and Through the Panama Canal
Tattooed tribeswoman selling woven bowls
Rough seas delayed our passage down to Colon, Panama. Colon’s reputation for crime and muggings is infamous, driven by high unemployment, poverty and the easy pickings in a port city. Though no longer as dire as it used to be, we were barred from walking outside the port area. So, what to do? There was the option of taxiing to the Zona Libre, the world’s second largest tax free ‘island’ where the multinationals and banks of the world have a presence inside 4 metre high security walls. (By the looks of it, very little of that wealth ever reaches the city outside those walls.) We could’ve stayed confined in the port shopping centre, or hook up a taxi tour and head out for the afternoon. Phil, Gabi, Julia and I were the only ones game. Our drive out to Portobello village an hour away, was well worth it.
Portobello Fort
This was the world of pirates and Caribbean treasure and once the richest place in the world. From here gold plundered from the ‘New World’ of the Americas flowed back to the ‘Old World’ on Spanish Galleys. Forts, defended with cannons and made of strong cut coral (lighter yet just as strong as granite), protected the treasure. But this was little more than deterrence for the most determined plunderers.
Panama Canal, Gatun Docks
The town of Portobello was too small to say much about and the Black Christ was closed. But the forts were interesting and were set in a picturesque harbour. All around us was beautiful, lush rain forest. We moved on to a thatched restaurant hut looking out to nearby islands while we ate seafood selections, and drank coconuts and a few cevecas.
The next day we passed through the Panama Canal which was more exciting than you might imagine. It began with a 6:00am wakeup call over the intercom announcing our approach to the Gatun lochs. When the canal was cut in the 1850’s partly fueled by the Californian gold rush, the French had problems over sections of the 80km long canal cutting through 30+ metres deep of hard rock. Their solution was to build lochs to float vessels up to a different height removing the need to cut so deeply though the rock. The process of being raised in your vessel is fascinating, especially with other massive tankers being floated up and down all around you.
Rainforest
The interior of the Panama Canal was just as interesting, lined for miles by dense rainforest. And true to its name, it rained and it poured. We were refloated back down to sea level and exited the canal against the vista of Panama City. A salt water croc swam out of our course.
We’re now headed for Ecuador!