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Location: Panama Canal - Atlantic Side - City of Colon - Republic of Panama

We are one of two-dozen yachts anchored in the "flats" waiting our turn to pass through the locks. With customs and immigration complete and visa stamps in out passports we are now ready for the process of registering to transit the canal. The first part is to have the necessary lines: 4 150-foot lines for securing the vessel through the lock. Dean solved this by hiring lines from a local. The second part involves an inspection or measurement of the boat. Once this done, you can pay the transit fees, and then and only then do you get a transit date. Dean hired an agent, also a taxi driver to get through the process successfully, and so far it has worked out well. We suppose that you could do this all without some local assistance, but it seems to help having someone to drive you to all the right places, at the right time and walk you to through the process. We were inspected today, paid our transit fee and found out our transit date: April 11. It will be a 7-day waiting period.

Colon is not the most beautiful place in the world, but the people are helpful and friendly and the taxi drivers are the ambassadors to the city. Many speak English well. For a dollar, they will take you from the Panama Yacht Club to downtown Colon to the laundry or the Internet Cafe. The trip is not more then 1/2 mile, but it is trough some pretty run down looking neighborhood. Not someplace that you would want to go at night, but in daytime it seems safe enough. There are schoolgirls running around in blue-skirted uniforms so it can't be that dangerous.

For a little adventure K2 and I went to an area called the "Free Zone" - it is tax-free wholesale distribution area. It comprises about 5 square blocks of the city where business are setup for international trade. It is sort of a compartmentalized Costco. You can buy case lots of nearly everything, but most will sell single items as well. The trick to this area is that you have to have the goods shipped out of the country for delivered to the airport. Of course we are in Central America and there is a way around almost anything.

So while we were signing into the facility an enterprising fellow introduced himself as and for a tip would show us around the 1300 shops and stores. He could also get any goods we acquire out of the free zone for the consideration of a tip. K2 and I travel like turtles right now - with everything on our backs. There was nothing in particular that we needed, other then a little vodka and gin for the boat. So we agreed to have our guide give us a tour and if we bought anything he would get it out of the compound

As we walked up and down streets he would point out various shops and stores that were "very American" - mostly clothing and housewares. We went into a few computer stores but the pickings were slim and the prices were not all that interesting. I think though you are supposed haggle over the price, but since we were not really buying we never got into bartering. Our search was really about two things: Blue Sapphire Gin and Stolichnaya Vodka. The first liquor store had Stolichnaya but not Sapphire. So on we go. All this time our trusty guide is giving us a store-by-store commentary of the area. The next store, same story, but they had Tanqueray Gin. A close second in the Gin department, but we still had one more store to go. The last store had no Tanqueray, so we went back to the second store. Bought 1/2 gallon bottles of Tanqueray and Stolichnaya for $20 and $15 respectively.

So with that done we headed back for the exit - a security gate bared our easy way out from the compound. Our guide was carrying our goods for us, so as we got close he set the bottles down and asked us to stay put. He looked genuinely nervous as he left and when he returned he had a friend in tow. They each took a bottle wrapped in small black plastic bag and headed for the gate. The guards did not stop our guide but wanted to see in the bag that the friend was carrying. We followed them past the guards and into the street. He hailed a cab, and I slipped him a tip for his troubles. I still don't know if I was being scammed or not, but it was worth the entertainment value alone.