Saturday, January 8, 2022

2022 January - Day 04 - Panama City - Monkey Islands

Saturday morning…neither of us slept good.  Not sure why.  But last night before bed, I found a tourist company that takes people in boats out to the Monkey Islands in hopes that we might see some monkeys in their natural habitat.  The trip started at 8 AM.  They picked us up at our hotel in a nice sized van that already had a family of 5 and another couple.  The family of 5 is traveling for a year.  The father is a young man who is a plastic surgeon for Kaiser Permanente.  The other couple was from Toronto.  The drive to the boat went along the canal to a town called Gamboa….I believe.  There we stopped at a small market to use bathrooms and get a snack or two.  We then drove nearby to a small boat launch where many boats were.  But one was waiting for us.  We boarded the boat, put on life preservers and off we went.  The  captain of the boat had his 5 year old son (Isaac) as his first mate.  It took about 15 minutes or so to get to the Monkey Islands that are in Gatun Lake….the lake made when they damed the Chagres River to allow ships to come into the area as they passed through the canal.  As we traveled to and from the islands, we went along large shipping ships that were traversing the canal.  It was pretty amazing to be in our very small boat along side such large ships.  


After arriving to the islands, we went around various islands.  Our captain would call out like a monkey…a howler monkey.  It took a while for us to finally come in contact with a family of monkeys.  The first set was not of the Howler variety though.  There were about 5 or 6 of them in the trees staring at us.  Eventually, though, we came across some known howler monkeys that knew these boat captains.  A couple of the monkeys came down into the boat trying to grab food from us.  The captain always had something to give the monkeys to lure them down.  Anyway, it was fun to see them interact with us all for a short time.  


We also saw dense vegetation, insects, many hawks real close and a Toucan in the trees with their colorful beaks.  All in all the trip took about 4 hours with a stop on the way back to an artesian market to get us to try and buy souvenirs.


In the afternoon, we decided to get our Covid testing done.  For some reason the video on my IPad would not function with the emed application.  But thank goodness my really old iPhone worked!  Both of us tested negative.  So one hurdle cleared to get home.  Flights look tight tomorrow.  And with Biden’s single day testing rule, puts a lot of stress on one if for some reason you can’t fly the next day.  If you don’t fly, you have to get re-tested before you can fly.  Just crazy this silly rule is.   Not sure what the difference is between 1 or 3 days.  They just want to make it tough.  And now United is asking for proof of vaccination.  Anyway…it is a real pain now to fly internationally.


After testing, we went out and swam and hung out by the pool.  This morning, by the pool, we saw two monkeys going from tree to tree.  I meant to mention that.  We eventually came in and got showered then went to the restaurant in the hotel to get some food.  We did not want to go out again.  I guess we are ready to come home.


Tonight, I think I spent two hours trying to get everything up loaded to United so I could pseudo-check in.  We’ve checked in to two flights…one to Houston and one to Newark.  We hope we get on one of them.  If not, we get to wait until 11:30 PM when the next flight to Newark flies.  It’s going to be a sleepless night for me and possibly a long day tomorrow.


Photos:



Look closely to see the monkeys in the trees…..


If you look closely, you’ll see a vulture perched on one of the balcony edges of our hotel.


Us passing one of the large container ships on our way to Monkey Islands.  We passed a number of these ships as we came and went today.


Our guide, Ariel, at the front of our ship.


Can we be any safer?  Head protected, eyes protected, can’t breath and a life preserver.  Fortunately the water cooled the air and it felt pretty nice.  The water was amazingly warm.


One of the cranes at the small port where we launched in the small boat for the tour.


This is the small port with our boat (green one) behind Denise.


Denise made a nice friend (Isaac).  He jabbered in Spanish and she blew him away with her English.  But in the end, they understood and became great friends.


Sunsets have been amazing here from our balcony.  This is one of many pictures of sunsets that we have.


There you go…one of the monkeys that came on to our boat.  At one point, I was nose to nose with one that came on my side but my phone\camera was in my pocket.  They did not stay long.  Once they determined there was nothing more to grab…off they went.


They would just jump on the canopy over our boat and look in.  This is a good shot of one of the howler monkeys.  They can sure make a large sound if they want to and can be heard from quite a ways away.


Proper way to end our trip….testing negative for Covid.  They look like lollipops!


Friday, January 7, 2022

2022 January - Day 03 - Panama City - Pool Time and Casco Viejo.

Today was an interesting day.  We told ourselves that we would not get up and hurry our selves out the door.  That we would relax at the pool and then go in the afternoon to ‘Casco Viejo’…the old town in Panama City.  And guess what…that’s what we did.  We spent a couple of hours at the pool swimming and relaxing.  The sun felt good.  We watched many different bird species flying in and around the area.  Two vulture looking birds hung out on what of the room balconies.  That would be weird to look out and see an ugly bird like that on your balcony!  Anyway, around noon, we can up to our room, showered and then took an Uber to the old town.  


We went to the Panama Canal Museum that was on the main square where we wanted to do a self guided walking tour.  The museum was nice…very interesting.  It was more about the history of Panama and little about the actual engineering of the canal.  It showed how Panama evolved and the role the canal has played in Panama’s history.  The US officially turned over the canal in 1999…not that long ago.  I was surprised by that.  The Panamanians did not seem to like the society that the Americans brought to Panama since the canal’s beginning around 1903.  They created a ‘Canal Zone’ that the US owned and managed.  This zone was 10 miles wide and ran the whole length of the passage way from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  But, the canal was built by people from all over the world.  The greatest number of workers came from Barbados believe it or not.  They were treated poorly though…like slaves..  So sad what humanity can do to humanity.  Anyway, the time in the museum was very interesting.  We were there for about an hour or a little more.  


After the museum visit, we started our walking tour that took us to many plazas close by, many churches and various structures that were built a very long time ago.  It was kind of hot, a bit humid but worth the time and the energy.    At one point we were headed to a plaza and passed through a line of street vendors selling stuff.  I kinda wanted a Panamanian hot.  So we started bartering with a guy to buy not one but two hats, one for each of us.  But unfortunately, the hat I wanted did not have the word ‘Panama’ on it very straight.  So I decided to not buy one.  But Denise did buy one because it had a loop that she could use to keep it on her head.  Well, we paid full price…a whopping $10…. and off we went.  We then stopped to get a shaved ice, a pineapple one.  It was yummy.  We stopped by the edge of a wall that had about a 30 to 40 foot drop when a wind surge came up and blew Denise’s new hat over the edge and down to the waters edge below.  The people around us could see Denise’s dismay and started saying someone would go get it.  It turned out that the guy that sold the hat took off running.  He disappeared for about 5 minutes.  He ran the whole time around the point and to where Denise’s hat was!  He grabbed it and then went a different, shorter way, back to where we were.  At that point, I decided to buy the slightly flawed hat that I had passed on previously as it would be a good memory of this event and the KINDNESS that all the people there showed to us in retrieving it.  They were so concerned and so kind.  I gave the guy a few more dollars to say thank you.  He tried to reject them but I was not having it.


After our walk, we were hungry.  So we ended up in a Panamanian restaurant named ‘Fontana Sí Qué Hay’.  It was interesting.  We had to show our vaccination card, which we had on our phones, to get in.  It was a very nice place and our young waiter was very excited to tell us that THIS was true Panamanian food.  Anyway, Denise bought fried chicken and mashed potatoes.  That did not seem to be so Panamanian!  But in the end, the chicken coating was quite different but her mashed potatoes were nothing like we’ve had before.  I had a porridge of beef, rice and a variety of who knows what in a large bowl.  It was very good.  Very tasty but different.  Our starters were fried rice cakes with a smoked tomato sauce.  It was all very good and….we had our Panamanian meal we desired.


We have no plans for tomorrow.  So it is going to be interesting to see what we come up with.  Maybe we will just chill out again at the pool and then figure something out.  Check back tomorrow to see what Denise comes up with!


Photos:



A fruit cart on the streets of old town.  Fresh fruit anyone?


Happy campers in the pool!  Nice to get some warmth!


One of the podiums in one of the Catholic Churches.  We could only get into one of the many churches we passed.  One was open but having either a wedding or a baptism.  So we did not to in.


This is Denise standing under a Christmas present that lights up at night.  They still have lots of Christmas stuff still up in all the plazas.


This was a Christmas town presentation in the lobby of the Panama Canal Museum…if I remember correctly.


Interesting map that shows all the countries that use the Panama Canal for their movement of goods throughout the world.


Our street vendor who made us this yummy shaved ice drink.  You can see the large block of ice that he uses for his shaving of ice.


My bowl of porridge with so many good things in it.  It was a yummy dinner.


The streets in the old town are narrow but very colorful.


There were lots of old buildings, churches, that were left standing that you could walk through.  They talked about this one and the so called arch that was not quite an arch that they had created.


Yummy rice cakes as our appetizer.


If you look across the water to the white building on the point of the land, that is where Denise had her hat blow off her head and down to the waters edge.  The water was out so it landed on dry ground.  It was a nice experience of people being kind.


Our pool.  That might be me out there swimming some laps.  It’s not an orca…I know that much.


I think this might be the Panama Canal Museum building.  But not quite sure.  There were lots of very nice architectures down in this area to see.  They are trying to make this area really nice.


One of the nice rooms in the museum.  It was interesting that in the beginning we watched a film that was so USA biased towards the 1964 uprising here in Panama.  But as we walked through the museum, you could tell that they were not very fond of the USA a few years back.


Our hat vendor who did the run to retrieve Denise’s new hat.  What a nice guy he is\was!


Panama City actually has quite the skyline of tall buildings in the downtown area.  You can see that we are a ways away from there.  We passed the downtown area when we drove from the airport at night and it was really nice or so it seemed.  But we don’t plan to go downtown at all.


Thursday, January 6, 2022

2022 January - Day 02 - Panama City - Miraflores Locks and Panama Temple

 We were quite tired last night after eating a late dinner at the TGI Fridays restaurant.  So it was not surprising that crashed hard and then woke up later than normal (8 AM).  We had a lazy day pretty much.  The problem with our hotel’s location is that there are no food options nearby other than the TGI Fridays.  So after getting up, we got dressed and went for a walk to see if we can find something to eat.  Well, we ended up walking on a pretty busy (and dirty) street.  We passed under the freeway that leads to the American Bridge, one of three that cross the Panama Canal.  We did find a ‘Super Mercado’…which was not so ‘super’…that had some basic supplies.  We bought a few things that we could consume which we did at a closed museum (‘Museo Libertad’) that was on our way.  It is warm and pretty humid here.  It is the warm time of the year for them (and for us!).  


After getting showered and ready for the day, I made a reservation to go to Miraflores Locks where one can watch ships go through the Panama Canal locks that lower and raise ships from the lake that the boats pass through and the seas (either Caribbean or Pacific).   We are on the pacific side of course.  But to get to the Caribbean…it is only 50 miles away.


The Miraflores Locks was pretty amazing.  We took an Uber to the locks which are about a 10 minute drive from our hotel.  Unfortunately the museum and theaters were closed, yet you could pack people up (outside) on the 4th floor to watch the locks work.  I just scratch my head.  Nonetheless, it was amazing to watch a ship be led through the locks and see the boat be lowered from one level to another and then head out to the Pacific Ocean.  The engineering is amazing.  We were able to watch a ship from start to finish go through the locks.  And I swear, they only have about 3 feet on each side.  Little tractor like machines are cabled to the ship and use a track system to pull the ships through.  We were there for about an hour or so watching the process unfold.


The previous Uber driver gave us his telephone number and asked us to text him to see if he was in the area.   We talked to him about our temples and that we needed a ride to the temple.  At the locks, on the 4th floor, you could see the temple spire with angel Moroni a top.  It was not far.  Anyway, Melvin, our Uber driver did return and take us there.  The temple, as are all temples, is beautiful.  Denise has an amazing picture of it that I’ll share below.  The President and his wife greeted us.  They are from Midway, Utah.  They have been here through the pandemic although they were ‘evacuated’ out on one of the last planes out of Panamá before they closed the borders.  I guess missionaries went out in military planes.  President Smith and his wife were home for 11 months before returning and re-opening the temple here.  Our session was at 4:30 PM.  We arrived around 3:30 PM and walked around and talked to some of the folks here.  They have a nice place here where people can stay if they are doing temple work and have come from far.  Anyway, going to  our temples is always a highlight when traveling and they are available to us.


After our temple session, we hailed another Uber and went to the Albrook Mall to find some food.  President Smith and his wife recommended Paul’s, a restaurant in the mall.  While driving there we mentioned to our driver that we’d like to find a SuperMercado to buy some groceries.  I think I made his day as there was a SuperMercado at the very far end of the mall.  So he whipped us over there and dropped us off.  Unfortunately, it was a BIG mall and we had to do some hiking and discovery to find Paul’s.  But we found it after stopping a few innocent bystanders and asking them if they knew where it was.  It really was a bakery.  But, it also had a nice menu of many nice things.  Not cheap.  Not Panamanian food.  But good nonetheless.  I had a nice sandwich on great bread and Denise had a yummy pasta.  The sauce was divine.


After dinner, we meandered back through the mall to the SuperMercado where we spent 30 minutes wondering what to buy for our breakfasts the next few days.  We always end up with chocolate milk, some juice and PASTERIES.  I think we have enough now to get us by for a while.  It better be enough as Denise says she is not going back to the SuperMercado.


It has been a very nice day.  Tomorrow, I think we’re going to lounge by the pools and then head into ‘Casco Viejo’…the old Spanish quarter in downtown Panama and do a self walking tour.  We’ll eat down there too then come back to our hotel.  That’s the plan.    Hasta luego entonces!


Pictures:



This is the path we took on our walk out of our hotel.  We walked for maybe 30 minutes max to get to a little mercado where we bought a few things.


This is us with a picture of the boat going through the locks.  It is almost out and into the Pacific Ocean at this point.  The boat goes through two points where the water recedes and the boat lowers until it is level with the ocean.


We stopped at a museum where we ate our ‘sweet bread’ and I drank some chocolate milk.


Us with the Panama City Temple behind us….


This is why I’m glad I’m using Uber to get around here.  There are man holes all over that don’t have tops on them.  If your car hit one of those you’d lose your front end!  I’m always amazed by such stuff.  Pretty dangerous it is also.


Me waiting to get into my room.  The lady that was cleaning rooms asked if we wanted to have our room cleaned.  So we let here and just waited outside.  We eventually returned while she was there and went out on our balcony.


Miraflores Locks….the main station is behind us and you can see the locks behind us with high water in one (behind me) and low water (behind Denise).  Eventually the low one rises while the high one lowers until they are equal.  Then the boat passes.  They do this twice.


The welcome sigh a Miraflores Locks.


This is our hotel where we are staying.  The guy in the road is re-painting arrows that direct traffic.


Isn’t this a beautiful evening picture of the temple after we came out and having completed a temple session there?!?!  Denise got a great picture.


The lock is lowering when we took this picture.  To the far left, this lock is raising the water.  Eventually the two doors open and the boat is pulled through.


In this picture you can see how close the boat is to each side.  You can also see the tractors at the front and at the rear that are pulling the boat through.  They are almost done and the boat is almost launched into the Pacific Ocean bay here.


Hasta la vista boat!  It is off on its journey in the Pacific.  This boat is transporting cars from Europe apparently.  That is what I overheard a Guide tell someone.


Sorry that these pictures are out of sequence…it takes too much time to arrange them.  Anyway, this is when the boat is beginning its journey through the locks and when it is at its highest point.  Anyway…it was really cool to watch this!


The placemat at Paul’s restaurant.  The food was yummy but my companion, mask and all, was better!




Wednesday, January 5, 2022

2022 January - Day 01 - Panama City - Travel Day

 Today is January 5th, 2022 and Denise and I are off flying again even though the Covid world would have us idling in our homes.  The Omnicron version of the Covid virus, per the news, is catching on pretty good.  However, it appears that with each new strain, the symptoms become less and less problematic.   Anyway…we are off and hope to get back home Covid free.

We left for the SLC airport at 5:15 AM.  Our first attempt at a flight out of SLC was at 6:45 AM to IAH (Houston).  Unfortunately, a crew member did not show up for work and suddenly this flight became delayed.  The next flight to Houston was to leave at 9:15 AM.  In reality, this delay turned out to be a blessing.  I don’t think there were seats for us to get on the 6:45 AM flight.  And the same was true for the 9:15 AM flight.  So people started re-routing off of the 6:45 flight. Around 8 AM, after thinking that it was going to cancel, they announced that it was going to leave at 10:15 AM.   The good news, there were now lots of seats.  The bad news, it was scheduled to land when our flight to PTY (Panama City) was to leave.  We’d miss it.  So we went to the gate of the 9:15 flight and had the agent move us to that flight in hopes there would be 2 seats.  It turns out….there was only 1 seat.  So we told the agent to push us back to the delayed flight.  But as we were walking to the gate, we noticed that it had been moved up to 9:45 AM for departure…which gave us some life in making our connecting flight.  We’d have 30 minutes to do the OJ sprint through the airport.   And that’s exactly what happened.  We arrived at the gate in IAH at 1:40 and then we sprinted a very long ways (with a train in between) to go from Terminal B to Terminal C.  We arrived at our gate, they handed us two seats on the same row with no one between us and we got in line and boarded the plane.  I’m now writing this on the plane going ‘Whew…another travel day adventure!’.   We are supposed to land in Panama City around 7:30 PM their time (Eastern).   We plan to use Uber to get to our hotel on the Panama Canal.   More to come once we arrive as hailing cabs\Ubers at these Central\South American airports can be an adventure sometimes.


Well, hailing an Uber was a bit of an adventure.  As is the case in most of these airports, you are bombarded by Taxi Drivers.   They always start high and then go down a bit.  But this time I showed one of them what Uber was going to cost…which was about half.  So I went ahead and hailed an Uber.  The app says to meet them at lane 15 in the parking lot.  However, the first guy never arrived there and kept saying #5.  Well…I don’t think he was in the parking lot as I went to aisle 5.  I think he was at the arrival door 5.  Anyway, he canceled on us.  The second one did show up fine and we ended up finding him.  It was a good 25 minute ride to get to our hotel which is on the opposite side of the downtown area of Panama City.  It was fun conversing in Spanish with the driver as he explained why the city was still lit up in Christmas lights.  Apparently they celebrate the holidays until January 6th.  This has something to do with the wise men coming to see the baby Jesus.  He also said on the 9th of January, it is a national holiday to honor those who died in building the Panama Canal.  At midnight the night before, all bars must close and no alcohol can be purchased (and drank) until the 10th mid-day.  Also, no loud crazy music can be played…only soft ‘romantic’ music.  The 9th is the day we want to come home.  He says it will be an easy ride to the airport that day as no one is out doing anything.


Our hotel is right on the Panama Canal (Radisson Hotel).  We have a lovely view of it and the 3 swimming pools below us.  But it is away from the city and many of the necessities we might need such as a market for food and stuff.  But we will figure it out.  After getting checked in, we went to the TGI Fridays restaurant that is attached to the hotel for some food since all we’ve had is plane cookies and some cheese and salami that I brought from home.


Tomorrow, touring begins.  We hope to go to Miraflores Locks and the museum there that gives a good overview of the construction of the canal.  We then have a temple appointment scheduled for 4:30 PM.  So we’ll need to figure out how to navigate around since we do not have a car.  The Uber driver said the traffic in Panama is horrible.  So we’re going to find out tomorrow.


More to come….here are a few plane pictures:



Nice sunset as we approached Panama City.  It was dark by the time we landed.  But this was a good view at 35k feet in the air.


I’ve always wanted to be in the ‘Blue Man Group’!  Kicking back on the plane.


Looking from our balcony.  Across the street is the Panama Canal where it is all dark in the picture.   Looking forward to daylight tomorrow.


A couple of the pools below our room.  We’ll hit those a few times while here.