AMORE IN PUERTO AMADOR

Happy St. Valentine’s Day!! Sunday, February 14, 2010 cloudy with some sun, hot—90s F

We are very near the equator and the sunrise was at 6:38 a.m. and the sunset will be soon at 6:25 p.m. Twelve hours of night and twelve hours of day, 365 days a year! We made sure we were up this morning at 6:15 a.m. to prepare for our tour in Panama City. We saw the port pilots board easily from a moving boat to the moving ship. In the area we could see at least 35 ships and boats of various sizes waiting to enter the canal (from our port balcony—more could be seen from the starboard side). There are tankers, a huge yacht, cargo/container ships, fishing boats, and more.

Since we are waiting until tomorrow to enter the canal, we anchored out from the port. This is a tendering port, so we had to take one of the ship’s small boats to the two mile long causeway built in 1914 out of the “spoil” from the canal dig. Princess has a very good system for tendering.

Our van was very tiny and cramped. TK and I are not tiny people and neither were other passengers. The streets are narrow and the van could negotiate them. Panama City is the capital of Panama. The country looks like a laid down “S” and so the sun rises over the Pacific. Since 1904 Panama has used American paper currency, except for coins. D Gas is $3 per gallon and is imported. We are 9 degrees north of the equator. The guide said there is no army in Panama, but TK told me there is a National Guard, which used to be very powerful (think Noriega who is now in jail in Miami). The rainy season is 9 months long and children go to school during that time, March to December.

Panama is the 2nd largest duty free port (Hong Kong is the largest). $18 billion moves through the Panama banking system a year. The guide talked about five U.S. Presidents who felt that the Panama Canal shuld be returned to Panama, both Democratic and Republican. That finally happened in 1999.

Panama City was the first Spanish city on the Pacific / est. 1519. Sir Francis Drake destroyed the city in 1671. Some stone walls still remain from the first city. (another source talks about buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan—the facts in most of this blog are from various guides and the lecturer aboard the ship, unless I have mentioned David McCullough’s book)

Our first stop was the old capital city and we saw the remains of the stone walls. A church bell tower still stands and I climbed to the top of that. There were fabulous views of the port and the modern city. Panama values its heritage and a lot of work is being done to preserve the artifacts. We saw some artifacts and a miniature recreation of the old city in the National Museum.
From this area we went to the colonial city (Casco Antiguo) built after the destruction. Here the streets are original cobble stone and very narrow. We could see where much work is being done to preserve the buildings. Some would be reminded of New Orleans and the wrought iron balconies.

We stopped at San Jose Roman Catholic Church nearby—this church from the old city has been moved to the colonial area. This church had a pure gold altar and when the city was being ransacked, the priest painted it black and hid it. The invaders came after the altar (they had heard about the gold altar) and the priest told them that the church was too poor to have such an altar. The invaders gave the priest some coins and said that they expected that to help pay for a gold altar for the church, or so the story goes!

In this area we also saw great architectural wonder, Arco Chato or “Flat Arch,” built from 1670-1760. When areas of Central America were being studied as a site for the canal, including Nicaragua, this arch was shown as proof that Panama was appropriate with no earthquakes.

I was disappointed in the opportunities to shop-the Panamanians make beautiful handicrafts, but there was no market by the ship and few vendors in the areas we visited. If we were ever in Panama again we would do the following: 1. Next trip--sign up for the Panama Canal Railway Journey in a deluxe 1938 vintage observation car (we were too late for this popular tour) 2. Trip after that: sign up for the visit to the Embera Indian Village tour. 3. take the Old Canal Zone & Miraflores Locks tour. In other words, we are really interested in this area.

After our tour we returned to the ship via tender, had lunch (yes, I found the cheeseburgers again and the fresh french fries), and then sat by the pool for awhile. Before dinner we went to the theater to see “A Man, A Plan, and A Canal,” scripted and narrated by David McCullough. We did not realize that film of the American work was available. This was our Valentine’s Day date.

Italian Dinner: dry cured San Daniele ham with sweet cantaloupe, pasta e fagioli, veal scallopine in Marsala sauce, Cassata all Siciliano (van, choc, strawberry ice cream with candied fruits), and tiramisu.

I am finishing the blog quickly as we need to get up about 5:45 a.m. EST–we do not want to miss our entry into the canal.

If anyone wants to see the Coral Princess’ transport through the canal, it can be viewed at Pancanal.com. As far as we know the time will be approximately 6:30 a.m. EST to 7:30 p.m. and between 1:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. EST. TK says you can’t miss a cruise ship.

TK’s Takes: He does not want to live in Panama. He wishes we had taken the rail tour—next time. Every day there is a “Cookie Girl” pushing a cart on the Lido deck offering cookies and milk. (JK: she is so cute with a hat and an apron that say “cookies and milk.”)