Old Panama City is an area of extensive ruins from the original settlement. This city was burned by the pirate Henry Morgan in the 1600's. Instead of rebuilding the city here, Panama City was re-started at Colonial Old Town for defensive reasons. Old Panama City extends through several neighborhoods and is not walled off from the people. Anyone can walk through parts of it. We saw a soccer game where the fans were sitting on the old walls and people were enjoying picnics on the grounds. On the way home, we spent over one hour in traffic on the Amador Causeway due to a well attended rally for a Presidential Candidate. As in El Salvador, there are party posters and flags in great abundance and the parties are very involved in turning out the vote for the 5/3 election.
This is the guy from the ACP who measured our boat (he is called an admeasurer). Rates are figured based on the length of the boat with the category under 50' being charged less than the category over 50'. We had to stow the dinghy on the deck and fold in the davits to stay in the under 50' category.
Whenever a boat enters a different country, rules dictate that it fly a yellow quarantine flag for identification. After the officials process your boat into the country, you fly that country's flag, called a courtesy flag, in addition to your home flag. In Panama, not until after the admeasurer completed his work, were we able to take down the yellow quaratine flag and put up the Panamanian colors.
We went to dinner at the visitors center overlooking the Miraflores Locks the night before our transit of the canal. Here is a Panamax (built as large as possible in order to still transit the canal) ship. The Panamanians are building larger locks to accommodate larger ships. The original locks will remain in operation once the larger ones are open.
Old Panama City is an area of extensive ruins from the original settlement. This city was burned by the pirate Henry Morgan in the 1600's. Instead of rebuilding the city here, Panama City was re-started at Colonial Old Town for defensive reasons. Old Panama City extends through several neighborhoods and is not walled off from the people. Anyone can walk through parts of it. We saw a soccer game where the fans were sitting on the old walls and people were enjoying picnics on the grounds. On the way home, we spent over one hour in traffic on the Amador Causeway due to a well attended rally for a Presidential Candidate. As in El Salvador, there are party posters and flags in great abundance and the parties are very involved in turning out the vote for the 5/3 election.
This is the guy from the ACP who measured our boat (he is called an admeasurer). Rates are figured based on the length of the boat with the category under 50' being charged less than the category over 50'. We had to stow the dinghy on the deck and fold in the davits to stay in the under 50' category.
Whenever a boat enters a different country, rules dictate that it fly a yellow quarantine flag for identification. After the officials process your boat into the country, you fly that country's flag, called a courtesy flag, in addition to your home flag. In Panama, not until after the admeasurer completed his work, were we able to take down the yellow quaratine flag and put up the Panamanian colors.
We went to dinner at the visitors center overlooking the Miraflores Locks the night before our transit of the canal. Here is a Panamax (built as large as possible in order to still transit the canal) ship. The Panamanians are building larger locks to accommodate larger ships. The original locks will remain in operation once the larger ones are open.
No comments:
Post a Comment