Day 141 - 147 (August 2 - 8) Panama...third time's the charm

Day 141 - 147 (August 2 - 8) Panama...third time's the charm

Monday I met up with some friends from Boquete (Rob and Debbie from Dallas) to take the train to Colon and go see the Gatun

locks. The train was cool if a bit pricey ($22 one way) and is about an hour maybe a little more. Its a cool old train, there are a couple of glass top cars and then the dining cars feel like you should be in the old west playing poker (wood paneling and green glass light fixtures...). After the train we took a cab to the bus and went to the locks. We got there in time to

see the last Pacific bound ship and one of the largest allowed through. It had about 2 feet of clearance on ether side and actually had to unload a fair amount of cargo to be able to pass and not exceed the draft... This particular ship pad about $300,000 to pass the canal and will take about 8 hrs or so. At Gatun the locks are all together so you can watch a ship go from Lake level to Caribbean level through all three stages. Then we saw several ships go out to the Caribbean. Afterwards we took a bus back to Panama.

So Tuesday was my birthday... I am 30 again. Well ok 31. Rob, Debbie and I went out to Isla Taboga for the day. It was an hour or so ferry ride from Playita on the Causeway. Taboga is cool little isand with a small village on it. There isn't much to do but hang out on the beach (which is also pretty small). But we had a sunny day and it was a fun time. You could walk out on a sand bar to smaller island just ent to the beach but once the tide went out the beach was really big and you could have driven a bus (albeit its only like 50 yards) to the other island.

Most of the week I took it easy and one day I met a few people from Couchsurfing for some drinks in Casco Viejo, nothing crazy just a beer or two. I also went with Ica and Guillermo out to El Valle to see Margarita. We had a good visit but the main point was to pack a few of her things and bring them back to the City. I went around the City a little and went out Saturday with friends from Bocas and more people from Couchsurfing. It was a fun night and good to meetup with some friends and meet some new people. Sunday I visited with family and had a good afternoon. The only thing left was to get my things ready for Colombia so I could leave in the morning. Well good bye to Panama, at least for next 8 weeks.