Panama

A few days before we headed to Panama from Colombia I got a call from my mother warning me that she had heard about anti-American riots in Panama, and suggesting we may want to change our travel plans.  It may just be me, but it does seem like these kind of headlines have been following us around Latin America this trip….

Luckily, the “riots” were no big deal, and the biggest effect of The Big Orange Baby’s threats seems to just be lots more Panamanian flags flying - especially in the neighborhood around the US embassy. 

The first leg of our stay in Panama was a week at an off-the-grid eco-scuba lodge, Ark Divers, located in Chiriqui province near a marine reserve known as Coiba National Park. 

 I am thrilled to report that one day shy of the 11-month anniversary of Melanie’s heart attack while scuba diving with bull sharks in Costa Rica last year, and  armed with a complete medical clearance from her cardiologist  (and a printout of her baseline ECG as recommended by her cardiologist ) she was back on the proverbial horse swimming with the fishes!!!!!  As one of her best friends said:  SHE IS ONE BADASS ROCKSTAR!!!!!

The diving was great, but not as great as seeing her conquer her fear and get back at it!

While we saw tons of colorful fish, octopuses (octopi?), lobsters, sharks, and the like, we never did see what the locals call “the riches of the sea” (bales of white powder occasionally abandoned by the submersibles that surface around Coiba).  Apparently, the owner of the dive boats we rode on used to be poor.  Now he owns 2 boats as well as 2 houses thanks to the riches of the sea…

After scuba diving, it was off to Panama City for a couple of days.  Not exactly “adventure travel”, but at least we found a bar to watch the Super Bowl (yawn….), and we stayed in a neighborhood, Casco Viejo, that was surprisingly charming (despite the overabundance - in more ways than one - of cruise ship passengers).  More importantly, it gave us a chance to check out one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World - the Panama Canal.

Built by the US and opened in 1914, after a failed French effort in the 1880s that cost the lives of  20,000 workers (mostly due to malaria and yellow fever), the canal is a remarkable feat of engineering.  Don’t ask me to explain exactly how it works (I still don’t understand how boats that big can float, or for that matter how airplanes can fly).  But for those of you who have not paid a visit to the canal, it’s impressive!  

Enormous cargo ships are escorted by tugboats or locomotives through locks with sometimes as little as 1-2 feet of clearance on either side.

While water is raised or lowered in successive locks (using only gravity) in order to get the boats to the right level as they move from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic, or vice versa.

And you don’t have to just take my word for it - we heard it explained directly from the mouth of God! (Ok, so it was actually Morgan Freeman narrating an iMax movie at the Miraflores Visitor Center, but close enough for me!)

With that, I think I’m going to declare an official end to this seemingly interminable Travelogue.  As those of you who have had the perseverance to stick with us over the last couple of months know, we’ve been to 6 countries and had a slew of amazing experiences.  Tomorrow we’re off to Costa Rica (country #7) for a little under a month to relax, recover and spend a bit of time with our son Ben and his girlfriend Alexa.  

I’m not planning on any new and exciting adventures prior to our return home on March 8th, though now that Melanie has gotten back up on the “proverbial” horse, it’s probably time to get her back up on a real horse!  (I think her ribs have fully recovered from her last Costa Rican horseback riding experience….)

Panamover and out!