Panama and Neptune Day

Happy 4th of July!!!!! Sooo much has happened!!! Panama is wonderful and I could absolutely live there…only problem I still don’t speak Spanish.

Ok we had to tender to port….what’s that you ask? We anchored in the bay and had to use the lifeboats to “ferry” in to the actual port. What a crazy experience. We were having enormous swells the first day, at the exact time we need to get people off the ship to go on various trips. The ship was rocking side to side thus making it damn near impossible to hop off the ship and into the little life boats. Eventually they called off the tendering b/c the ship would rock in one direction and the tender in the other…the platform would crash on top of the tender hard enough to knock people down on the platform…then the ship would rock back to the other direction and the platform would be submerged under the water 3 or so feet. The Captain called the whole thing off and we just hung out on the ship until it was safe to leave.

So I knew this tendering thing was going to be a pain in the butt…not that bad but whatever. So I slept in had lunch took a shower and caught the last tender to shore…as I was stepping on to the tender I was able to experience first hand the rock and collision of the ship and tender…whoa…crazy! I spent a very fine day with Taina parading around an artisan market and seeing some ruins from the 1500’s. Then to a tapas dinner!!!

Day two…ohmygoodness. Well it started out fairly benign shopping with friends and having a fabulous lunch. Then Doug and I wanted to go to the restaurant that over looked one set of locks on the Panama Canal. So we shower and get ready to go out. We take a cab which heads out to the middle of nowhere, left, then through a security gate, down a scary road and viola we’re at the canal and the restaurant….way under dressed. The meal was fabulous and Doug having taken the canal cruise the night before so he was just a mountain of information!!! OH I failed to mention, we had negotiated with our cab driver to come back and get us at 9:30 to take us back to the ship…b/c there is no one and nothing for miles near the canal the least of which cabs. So we finish are meal…and 9:30 passes, 9:45 passes and it’s apparent we are not getting back via cab. So we go to the upper level to talk to the security guard and see that there is a cab in the parking lot. We head over there to speak to him and he’s actually waiting for someone else so he cannot take us. The security guard informs us that we are best off walking to the street to catch a cab there. So he shows us the staircase to head out! Off we go following the road past a huge damn and a very muddy lake…past some kind of plant then towards the gate. A very nice security guard wishes us a good night and we’re still walking. There are two men in front of us and one is tip-toeing across the street towards a place in the woods where the other man was aiming the beam. Come to find out a few days later the animal they were after was a bush dog…whatever. So we make it down to the road say hello to the very sketchy guy waiting at the bus stop. I hop immediately on to the road and start flagging anything with headlights hoping for a cab. We got a bus. Whatever. We both hop in hand hope for the best. The bus at least is headed in the right direction. It takes us to the biggest bus/transit station I have seen…and it seems half of Panama City is there. The bus was free…score. We grab a cab and get it to take us back to the pier and only after we get out does Doug look and me and say “My heart rate is finally calming down”. I was laughing my ass off I had no idea he was so nervous. Too funny.

The next couple days were great but not nearly as eventful. Oh but I did take a day trip up-country and we were in this cute village in a crater of an extinct volcano. THEN we went on this canopy tour where we got to use zip lines and swing all over the forest!!! So fun.

The short sweet version of Neptune Day is the ritual everyone goes through when they pass the equator the first time. It involves getting stuff dumped on your head, jumping in the pool, kissing dead fish and King Neptune’s ring. Some people shave their heads. Hope you’re enjoying the summer.

Cheers,
Rasa