Thursday – Christmas in Colon

If you missed yesterday’s Christmas Eve in Cartagena, it’s here.

Aside from Christmases in Melrose and Scottsdale (and I think one in Albuquerque), we spent three Christmases in Dingle. Now we are spending our warmest Christmas ever in Colon, Panama. By the way, we both read the book The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough before we began our trip. Tomorrow we will be on the canal to experience what we read about.

Early morning arrival in Colon:

Today we had a six hour excursion around Colon. It was really just two stops plus one for lunch. First stop was at the Agua Clara Panama Canal Visitor Center at the north end of the canal where we will enter tomorrow. Since we’re going from the Atlantic to the Pacific, you’d think the canal ran east to west. But it doesn’t. It runs from north (Atlantic side) to south (Pacific side). There’s yet another geography lesson for you.

The visitor center is very well done. After being greeted with Christmas candy canes and cookies, we watched a huge container ship entering the first of three locks at the north end. After the locks, ships traverse man-made Gatun Lake (which is mostly fresh water) before entering the three locks at the south end of the canal emptying into the Pacific. Gatun Lake, when it was created, was the largest man-made lake in the world. Now there are a couple in Africa that are larger. These locks at the visitor center are the new locks (opened in 2014) to allow much bigger ships to use the canal. The original locks are still in use – they opened in 1914. I believe we will go through the original locks. The locks operate 24/7. The new locks are one directional – ships alternate going north to south and south to north. The old locks are two way – ships pass each other going in opposite directions. In one picture you can see the Atlantic Bridge off in the distance.

Next we went to the Shelter Bay Marina located in what once Fort Sherman, an American military base in the Canal Zone, the portion of Panama that was run by the United States until we handed it back to Panama when Jimmy Carter was president.. We had lunch at the Shelter Bay Yacht Club. We had nice fish and local beer.

Then it was off to the Castle and Fort of San Lorenzo at the mouth of the Chagres River, the source of all the water that produced Gatun Lake. You can see the Chagres in the first photo as it hits the sea. The Fort and Castle are now a UNESCO world heritage site and restoration has begun.

Then we headed back towards ship by way of the Atlantic Bridge and a view from the bus of the Gatun Dam that allowed the creation of Gatun Lake. The second picture is taken from the Atlantic Bridge and shows the old and new lock channels as they empty into Gatun Lake.

Then it was back to the ship for Christmas carols, Christmas cocktails, a turkey dinner with stuffing, and a good time had by all.