Panama Day 12 - leaving Panama

Wednesday October 10

Going home!

Octavio told us we could go with the bus at 5:30 am. We were ready and in the lobby at 5:15 and so were some others. The hotel had already provided a coffee station but I could not be bothered to make some tea. Besides, my cup was in the suitcase. Octavio was there to take care of everybody. I think of the 23 participants we were 12 leaving at this time. One couple had to leave even earlier.

There was not that much traffic yet so the drive to the airport took not long. 

Checking in, security etc etc not a big deal but a bit more then we are used to. Shoes off, patting. Unfortunately I had forgotten about the corkscrew in my backpack so that is gone. I never had trouble with my little folding scissors in my tatting bag. You could not hurt anybody with that but it’s gone too. 

When we were through all of it we had plenty of time of course. We decided to have a little bite. Having a coffee con leche and sharing a pastry hit the spot.

James again like with the long flight to Panama hat picked 1 aisle and 1 window seat hoping the middle seat would stay empty. A risk but it worked out again. Makes it a little bit more comfy.

Lift-off at 9:24 am. The weather looks so nice. But we all had heard about the looming hurricane Michael. We hope nobody has to cope with that.

The photo says that this is Colon, Panama. I think it's great that "the gadgets" give you information like that.

Oh, yeah, airline food. Ha-ha.

I like it when the plane has the flight tracker. 

Atlanta. Through immigration and customs and security again. 2:30 pm and hungry. Japanese soup.

Leaving Atlanta at 5:36 pm.

And since we are at home now a week later I need to share this with you too. James' sister Jane gave this to me at her last visit. She reads my blogs. Do you think she noticed something?

And another trip is history. How fast the time went. I knew what a canal was and had been through locks before but didn't have an inkling about THIS canal, the country and the people. 

Surprise, surprise.

Again we were very happy with our tour guide. Octavio was a very nice young man who tried hard to make us all happy, all 23 of us. He was fun and helpful and very knowledgable. It was not his fault that James and I and several others had been under the impression that the group size was maximum 16 people. He was unbelievably organized to make the most of the short time. It was nice of him to also take photos for/of us and share them. You probably saw several in my blogs "shared by Octavio". That was beyond the duty of a tour guide. We wish him and his family the best for the future.

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On October 11 we all received an email from our Tour Director Octavio and here is an excerpt:

Dear friends,

I hope you had a safe journey.
I miss you all and sending you my summary.
In name of Overseas Adventure Travel I will like to thank you for your visit to Panama and “THE PANAMA CANAL & PANAMA, A CONTINENT DIVIDED, OCEANS UNITED, ”
We took local and unique transportation: Local Fisherman Boat ride to Isla Iguana, Panga Ride on the Discovery and most of you tried the Kayak experience in Canal Waters

• Colonial Quarter´s Squarer’s.
• Our Controversial Topic at EL CHORRILLO neighborhood.
• La Chorrera’s Fruit Market.
• Home-Hosted Lunch at Edita’s and her delicious food.
• Belkis and William the Pollera (National Dress) artisans.
• Randof Drum carving .
• Samuel’s hand made pottery.
• Darios Mask Making and Dirty Devil Dance.
• The Grand Circle Foundation and School visit at the Embera Drua Village
• Embera's Baskets and Cocobolo wood Carvings.

In 12 days we visited 6 provinces of Panama: Panama, West Panama, Cocle, Herrera, Los Santos and Colon.

Visit 5 Nature Reserves: Isla Iguana, Sarigua National Park, Chagres National Park, San Lorenzo Protected Area and part of the Panama Canal Watershed.

We visited 3 important UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Old Panama City, Panama City's Colonial Quarters and Fort San Lorenzo.

We travel around the Panamanian communities of Panama City (Old Panama, Central Avenue and Colonial Quarters), La Chorrera, Chitre, Guarare, Las Tablas, La Arena, Parita, Coronado, Fort Clayton and the Embera Drua community.

Learning and Discoveries are what makes GCCL special, so let me share with you some of the learning and discoveries:

We were able to go across a the Panama Canal on the 3 possible ways there are: Bridge of The Americas, Centennial Bridge and the Ferry System at the Atlantic end bypassing the New Atlantic Bridge under Construction.

Learned and saw the Largest Earthen Dam on the Panama Canal (Gatun Dam) and how it holds back the waters of Gatun Lake to supply it into the Locks.

THE PANAMA CANAL.

Transiting on a Small Vessel made it special. Being able to see all different angles. The First part was the Miraflores Lock crossing, than the Pedro Miguel Locks. We got from sea level to Gatun Lake level that morning. We sailed on the Culebra Cut and Continental Divide into Gatun Lake.

That afternoon we were able to do kayaking and boat ride activities on Gatun Lake where a delightful closure with the monkeys and sloth around us.

Following day, we had the experience to drive over the New Locks Gate and went to see the Agua Clara Locks live operation. we continued our northbound transit together with the Bulk Carrier on Gatun Locks to reach sea level at the Caribbean side.

To wrap things up, we visited the Panama Canal's Headquarters and some of the American memorial monuments.

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