A brief stop in Panama

Sunday, December 03, 2023
San Felipe, Panamá Province, Panama
Saturday was a travel day.  Our flight to Panama City wasn’t until 12:23pm, so we weren’t in too much of a rush, or so we thought.  We called an Uber with plenty of time to get us to the airport 2 ½ hours before our flight, but the route that the driver took went past Mercado Central, which is apparently a zoo on Saturday morning, so we got stuck in gridlock there for about 15 minutes and traffic all over the center was slow, so we ended up getting to the airport about 2 hours before our flight time.  Still should have been plenty of time BUT… It took well over an hour to get through the COPA check-in line and then there was a huge single line for passport control (I still don’t understand outgoing passport checks) during which time we saw that the flight had been officially delayed by 20 minutes.  Anyway, after hustling (not quite running) almost the length of Terminal 2 to get to our gate, we ended up getting to the gate at exactly the original departure time, but of course there were still lots of people behind us.  But we didn’t get to spend our extra Chilean pesos, or even get any water.  Anyway, the flight ended up landing in Panama on its original schedule and the taxi ride to the old town was smooth.  Lots of great Christmas lights in parks along the way, as this is the weekend for light-ups.  When we got to our apartment (same building we were in last time but different unit), around 7pm (but 9pm in our heads), we headed out for dinner at the Snack Shack, just up the street, which we knew had very good salads and bowls.
On this quick 2-day stop, our only planned activity was a Partial Transit of the Panama Canal.  Our pick-up time, at the American Trade Hotel in the old town was 9:45, so we didn’t have to get up early.
The timing of the cruises is controlled by the Canal Authority and is dependent on the schedule of ships in the canal, water levels and tides among other things.  We were doing a southbound transit, which meant that we drove up to Gamboa, which is near the top, though not the middle, distance-wise, of the canal and headed back towards the Pacific, and Panama City.  Very near Gamboa is the Gaillard cut, where the Chagres River, which supplies most of the water for the canal, flows into it.  We boarded the Pacific Queen and headed through the twisting Gaillard Cut, to the Pedro Miguel Locks, the first set of locks we would encounter.  This is a single lock, with a drop of 9m.  We had to wait a long time, well over an hour, at the lock for the big ship, the Overseas Martinez, behind us as the locks won’t be activated for ships as small as us and our 2 power yacht “lock mates”.  This is the nature of travel through locks—hurry up and wait.  Each of the original sets of locks are actually “two lane” locks, but they are not used for 2-way traffic now (the Gaillard cut is not wide enough for 2 way traffic), but rather to spill half of the water from one lock into the other, rather than downstream, in order to conserve water, as water levels are very, very low now.  There are also separate sets of locks, in the Panama Canal Expansion, that are parallel to the original locks and handle bigger ships.  Ships are guided into the locks by tugboats and once they reach the locks, electric locomotives, “mules”, keep the ships centered.  This is important because, for example, the Overseas Martinez is 106 feet wide and the canal is 110 feet, so there is 2 feet of clearance on each side.
After leaving the Pedro Miguel locks, it was a short trip through Lake Miraflores (a man-made lake), to the Miraflores Locks, which are a double lock, with a drop of 18m in two steps.  Miraflores is also home to the Miraflores Visitor Center, which has exhibits and viewing platform to watch the operation of the locks.  There was quite a crowd when we went through, as we were the first southbound transit of the day.
Once out of Miraflores, we were at Pacific Ocean level and it was a fairly quick run out, under the Bridge of the Americas, to Panama City and our dock at the end of the Amador Causeway.  A much shorter ride in our van back to Casco Viejo.  Then we got to see the Christmas lights in Plaza de la Independencia, which were just lit that night for the first time.  We played it safe after a long day in the sun and went back to the Snack Shack for some good sandwiches for dinner.  Then home for a movie.
Monday, we are heading home but the flight isn’t until 6:30pm
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