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

While we wait for our transit day to come around we have changed from pirate uniform of shorts and t-shirt to our land warrior garb of cotton pants and "Ex-Offico" quick dry shirts with vented panels and extra large pockets. Thanks Larry is staying put in Colon until our transit day so K2 and I are heading out for parts south namely: Panama City. We are going to traverse the continent by land. If fact we are going to do it less then one day.

Our day starts early (for us) in the morning when we wake Dean and he takes us ashore at 8 am. We walk over to the bus stop about ¼ mile from the Panama Yacht Club. We stand around waiting for the right bus to stop. We are told its an air conditioned motor coach, you know the kind the Greyhound uses. After standing around for 15 minutes or so we watch one of these shinny babies roll by with the banner "Colon - Panama" over the windshield It does not even break for us. Bewildered we look around and the security guard that we passed on the way to the bus stop is wildly gesturing that we should walk down the road a bit. After assuring ourselves that he was truly motioning to us, we head up the road 300 yards to an open building. 20 or so old school busses painted in the most colorful ways surround it. Finally we come to the end of he building and a shiny air-conditioned coach awaits us. We tentatively start to board and as we do an older woman assures us that this is the express bus to Panama City and that we pay the fair after boarding. The fare is US$2. We have no idea were we are going in the City, population 2 million, but we are going to find out.

Shortly, the bus is full and we head out on the open road. In less then 15 minutes we are stopped dead. The traffic is just inching forward. The view that K2 and I share for he next hour is one an 8 foot high pile of rock and dirt that two men are hauling away with a wheelbarrow one painful load at a time. One man shovels dirt in the wheelbarrow, and then stands around for 10 minutes waiting for his wheelbarrow to return from someplace that is out of our view. For all we know there is another guy at the end of trip making another pile of rock and dirt from the contents of the wheelbarrow. In this way the rock and dirt is transported down the road pile by pile. Because they do have massive dump trucks and front-end loaders to move this stuff around we can only guess that it is a make work project. After visiting the city of Panama I am convinced that construction is a slow business. In fact some projects look like they are falling apart faster then they are being built. This could be another example of that method, but instead of a building they are working on the road to Panama.

Finally we are free from traffic and are motoring at good speed except for a few stops. Didn't they say this was the express bus? About 14 km from Panama the bus stops briefly at a ticket booth and now we are on the Cur de Norte. It's a modern 4 lane divided highway that skirts the northern edged of the city until it plunges in to it's core. We will later learn that a Mexican company manages the concession. What this probably means is that a few dollars are paid to Panamanian workers to collect the tolls and the remaining money leaves the country in the bank accounts of a Mexican company, save a few dollars (or Balboas) given to politicians for consideration of the concession. The US Dollars is the official currency of the county, but they are called Balboas. Panamanian coins share the same size and shape of the US coins, but US coins are accepted as well.

Soon we are off the modern four-lane highway and working our way through suburban Panama. We pass many landmark stores of North America, Radio Shack, Texaco, Baskin and Robins, Sears, MailBox Etc, Block Buster Video. And of course the fast food is well represented with KFC, McDonalds, Burger King and even Wendy's and Subway. There is not a Taco Bell to be found however and that is minor disappointment to us. A few more stops and we are at the end of the line. We pay our $2 each and step out into the heat and humidity of the midday. The street is lined with wide sidewalks and two-story buildings with awnings nearly as a wide as the sidewalk. The sidewalks are crammed with folding tables filled with cheap goods of all kinds. Denim jean for $8, underwear for $.50, a set of 3 Teflon pans for $3.50, shoes for $10. There is barely room to walk by for all the stuff. I can't imagine were it all goes when the shops close.

This is not only a sightseeing trip, but we need to find a travel agent to book some tickets fro a flight from Paris to Perpignam France. We were able to book "E-Tickets" over the Internet for the other parts of the flights but carrier for this leg does not support them. So our fist stop is the American Express Travel Office in Panama. We are standing at corner looking a little lost when a disheveled man approaches us and asks us what we are looking for. A little surprised to hear him speak fairly good English I tell him the Amex office. He rattles off directions of which I am a little skeptical of, but I give him a Balboa anyway. We head off in that direction anyway because it is the neighborhood of the major hotel chains. After a bit week look in the phone book and get the real address. We walk a couple of kilometers, but when that turn out to be something other then a travel office, we take a cab to where they suggest. The office is closed until 2pm, for a nice hour and half lunch hour - don't try to make reservations during yours! So hoof it down Calle 50 and discover a Hagen Daz Ice Cream store that just begs our indulgence. Back to the travel agency and with our ticket and rooms in Paris booked we are tourist again.

The travel agency suggests a place called "Los Puebletos", where there are three recreated villages from times past. Back in cab we stumble through the Spanish to communicate this. Luckily it was written down on paper for us so we just hand it to the taxi driver. We have learned that this it the best way to communicate with taxi driver in a foreign land where you don't speak the language. Half way to there he turns around and locks our doors and says "Very hot area", I counter with the word "dangerous" and he responds "Yes, dangerous". With that area behind us we arrive at "Los Puebletos" and pay the princely sums of $.50 each to enter the recreated Colonial village with a free English-speaking guide. The most interesting display is a museum of traditional Panamanian dress that women wore for parties and ceremonies. The dresses are quite elaborate, being made from fine cotton and cross-stitched with elaborate patterns. Other villages were for the African and native people. The native peoples villages were quite interesting too. With palm-thatched roofs with either dirt or raised platform bamboo floors the construction showed simplicity in style but sophistication in design with truss and ring frames in the roofs.

With the sun setting we head back to the Colonial village for diner at a traditional Panamanian restaurant. I have filet megnon, $7 and K2 has a green salad $3 - the total bill plus drinks and tip $14. It's dark now and we consider our options for returning to Colon. The locking door thing is a little spooky to us so we opt for the easy way home and take a cab. The driver is a bit surprised when we ask him to take us to Colon. We have to get out our tourist map and show him where. He gives us price and without squabble we agree. It's 85 kilometers from Panama City to Colon, we are tired and don't wish to find out how safe Panama City or Colon are. So it worth it given the possible out comes. We are back to the boat at 9 and our 13-hour adventure to Panama City is over.

Kim and Kim