Last adventure in Panama 16 August
2010
Up at 5 am-haven't done that for a
while! All to catch the Panama Canal Train from Panama city to Colon
on the Caribbean coast. We thought we may not make it as the cabs
were already busy taking people to work but we were in the right
place at the right time and a nice man who was just getting out of a
cab told the driver where we wanted to go and so we went -for $US3.
It was absolutely bucketing down with rain at the railway station and
by the time we had bought our tickets ($US22 one way) there was
lightening and thunder so loud I could feel it! The ride itself
lasted an hour and we were very comfy in the glass domed carriage
with wood panelling and squashy padded seats-free (terrible) coffee
as well. The aircon was a bit vicious especially around the legs! The
weather cleared as we got closer to the coast and we had good views
of Gatun lake and along the Canal. Colon is a miserable looking
place-very run down, dirty and slum like. It has such a bad name
visitors are advised not to walk around so we got a cab from the
railway station to the bus station-the driver wanted $US2 each but no
way-he got $US2 and that was a dollar too much-it was only a three
minute ride! So feeling ripped off already at 8 in the morning we
decided to go and check out the Gatun locks which are only 10kms from
town. This meant a local bus-the usual squashed in affair with
assorted locals-good fun and only 75c. The massive three tier Gatun
locks turned out to be the highlight of the day-so much more
informative and personal than Miraflores. There were only four of us
there and we were so close to the action. We had a very nice black
woman explain so much to us in excellent English. We learned that
ships are charged according to a scale for different types of ships
not on weight as we thought. Container ships are charged per
container - $US72 full and $US56 empty; fuel carriers charged
according to quantity; dry bulk loads on capacity as well. Although a
container ship may have to pay the average fee of $US33000 they save
three to five times that amount by not having to go around Cape Horn
and save 28 days-so much easier to pay and spend 8-10 hours going
through the Canal. Yachts up to 50ft pay $US500 -anything larger pays
$US1500 toll but if they require any extras such as tugs, locos etc
it costs more. Ships do propel themselves through but they require
the locos and tugs to keep them centred and stabilised and to get
them going and stop them quickly in the locks. The little 480 volt
locos are worth $US2 million each and there are 99 working in the
entire Canal zone and 43 at Gatun. The water fills the three locks
purely by gravity at a rate of 8-10 minutes-thats 26 million gallons
of fresh water from Lake Gatun! For every boat that transits the
canal 56 million gallons of water is flushed into the ocean-when the
new locks are operational in 2014 they will be more efficient and
use less water. The locks are a busy place and we could have watched
for longer -the ships we watched transit had very little margin for
error-there would have only been about a foot on either side between
the ship and the canal . This is all controlled by the Senior Pilot-
who is on the ship for the entire Canal transit and he is in radio
contact with the Lock Master who is in the Central Control Tower-who
is in radio contact with the loco drivers to give them instructions .
They can't talk to him but communicate via a system of bells to
indicate they have the message and adjust the ropes accordingly.
But we had to get moving as we wanted
to go to Portobello an hour away on the Coast-Costa Arriba. So
another bus ride back to Colon-a free one on the work bus- and yet
another bus to Portobello ($US1.25). This was meant to take an hour
but turned into two as we stopped frequently to pick up
passengers-lots of them school kids in their smart uniforms.
Portobello is famous for being one of the most important ports in the
Spanish empire-one attacked frequently by pirates and buccaneers as
the incredible Incan treasure stolen and shipped up from South
America by the Spanish was brought overland by mule from Panama and
stored here awaiting shipping back to Spain. There are ruins of
forts with rusty cannons -not too hard to imagine the likes of
Johnney Depp and co there fighting it out! There is also an old
church Iglesia de San Felipe, built in 1814 with a life size figure
of a Black Christ-Nazarene of Portobello. Apart from that Portobello
was a bit of a scruffy, impoverished letdown-not the tropical white
sand and warm turquoise waters we were expecting! So yet another bus
to get back to Colon. It was slow start The driver and his co pilot
had been tinkering with something under the bonnet for a
while-obviously something wasn't quite right and he was taking it
easy. So easy we thought it would be a three hour trip! But he
treated the gear stick gently and gradually coaxed it out of second
and eventually got all the way up to fourth-then the action started.
We went from a slow crawl and picking up every passenger in sight to
full throttle and to hell with stopping for anyone! He drove like a
man demented-passing a bus on a uphill blind corner and because he
did that so well passed a truck on another blind corner! Meanwhile
the co pilot, who is normally quite a busy person collecting money
and passengers,spent his time operating the front door with a long
lever-he had to make sure he shut it in time when we were passing
other vehicles so he didn't lose it! Meanwhile people waiting on the
side of the road were trying to flag the bus down with the limp
wristed flap of the hand which serves as a signal for a bus to stop
here-but the driver ignored them totally-he was obviously intent on
making up for lost time hooning along -airhorn blaring-plus the
throbbing Reggaetron music and a screaming child as well!
Off that bus and onto another one-this
time to Panama city-an hour and a bit away. Because we caught it at
Sabinita,10 kms out of Colon , it was full by the time we got on.
Lynn got a seat on one of the poufs in the aisle-obviously used as
seats when the bus was full and I sat on the seat by the door. Not
too bad-air con and a movie-Mel Gibson in a Spanish dubbed The Edge
of Darkness. $US2.50 later we were back at Allbrook terminal. UH
HUH!-we knew how to get back to the hostel on a diablo rojo now! But
there were long queues of people everywhere-not a good time to catch
a bus. By the time we had a bit of a look around the mall where the
haves shop and a cheap meal, the crowds had thinned so it was time
to catch a bus. And despite some initial doubts we did it-we made it
right back to our corner for the first time-only took us a week of
practise but we did it-high five!!
