Waterfall inside the Volcanic Crater at El Valle

Los Mandarinos and Casa de Lourdes

So, the photos here aren't too exciting but we found the most lovely hotel in El Valle, La Casa de Lourdes. It had great service, a nice spa, and a fabulous restaurant. Definately check out Lourdes if you visit Panama. http://www.lacasadelourdes.com/

Sailing from the Pacific to the Atlantic in only 15 Hours

In April, Jim was able to transit the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the Coast Guard training sailing ship, Eagle. The Eagle was a Nazi ship confiscated at the end of WWII that the Coast Guard uses for training.

So, on my birthday, we were able to transit the Canal the other way - from the Pacific to the Atlantic side. The trainees on the boat had been up to Vancouver with several stops in California and were headed back home to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. The ship didn't only include trainees - they had also invited many tall ship enthusiasts and parents of crew - some of these folks had been with the Eagle for weeks or more, others, like us, were with them only for the day.

We met the ship at 6:30 in the morning at the Rodman port about 20 minutes from our house, and then waited about 90 minutes for the fog to clear. We transited the closest set of locks (Miraflores) about 10:00am or so. It was interesting to see the ships headed the other way in the "pass lane" of Gatun Lake. The last transit was a bit tough - sunny and hot and the Eagle ran out of food - not this time. Everyone came prepared and we were lucky enough to have good cloud cover most of the day. We got hit by a fierce storm in the afternoon which drove us all below decks, where our Coast Guard Attache had a cake for me and his daugher, who also had a birthday on Sept. 13.

We saw great birds and jungle and amazingly big ships. We were tired when we finally returned home at 10pm after leaving home at 5:30 that morning, but we are very glad to have had the chance to cross the Canal in such a cool ship.

Now the photos:

1) This is inside the Miraflores locks - we are transiting one way, the the ship you see above us is transiting the other way (their lock is full of water, we're just entering ours). The guys in orange are "Pasacables" - the Canal Authority folks who board the boat with the captain and handle the lines throughout the passage.

2) These aren't necessarily in order. The sunset on the Atlantic side, as we waited at the Colon port for the Panamanian Coast Guart to offload us from the boat and put us on buses for transit back to Panama.

3) This is the ship waiting for us in the morning at Rodman. Here is a link to the history of this ship: http://www.uscg.mil/History/WEBCUTTERS/Eagle_1946.html

4) Us on the Eagle, waiting to go.

Gatun Lake - monkeys galore

Kel went on an Embassy-sponsored tour of Gatun Lake this weekend. She saw lots of monkeys (not sure what is the name of the monkey pictured here), crocodiles, birds, turtles, and dredging machines. Gatun Lake is the second largest man-made lake in the world after Lake Meade in the U.S. - it was created to provide water for the locks of the Canal and also provides some drinking water to Panama. They are busy dredging Gatun Lake to make room for the Post-Panamax boats that will cross the Canal once the third set of locks is completed. We cruised the lake looking at the wildlife and then spent the afternoon at the ghetto-fabulous houseboat operated by an American guy who runs the tour operation. We swam in the lake (despite the crocs!) and did some kayaking. All in all, a fun day.

Gatun Lake - turtles

These big turtles in Gatun Lake just hang out under this fruit-bearing tree all day waiting for fruit to fall off of it so they can eat. Jim B says that is what I'm going to do in my next life.

Gatun Lake - Capuchian Monkeys

These cute little monkeys are Capuchian or white-faced monkeys. They are used to tourists and will eat anything that isn't nailed down. Some people gave them red grapes and they spit out the skins.

Going to the RODEO

So, we attended a rodeo about an hour outside of Panama in the small town of Santa Rita. There was one big arena (about 20 yards x 100 yards) and apparently only one event - a guy on a horse chases a calf, reaches out and grabs its tail, twists the tail until the calf falls down. You get 20 points if the calf has all four feet in the air, 10 points for two feet in the air, and 0 points for a miserable failure. We ran out of steam after about an hour and a half of this particular event and drove another 30 minutes down the road to check out Gatun Lake. When we drove back a couple of hours later, they were still twisting calf tails.