Exploring Panama City

Christi was once again up very early with a sick tummy. She was worse than ever. She contemplated starting on antibiotics, but decided to give it one more day to pass on its own. The nice thing about being up so early the last few days is that she has seen some nice sunrises. Here is today’s.

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From where we sat, we could see four of the islands. They all seem to be itty bitty. We are directly behind the biggest of the islands at the end of the causeway, called Flamingo. This island looks to be mostly undeveloped with a lone guard tower at the top, at least from what we can see. The next island over has a shopping center with a Bennigan’s featured prominently. We know there is a marina behind the Bennigan’s shopping center that isn’t visible from here. The island next to that one also has a shopping center. The island farthest from us, called Culebra, also looks to be undeveloped, but it must be because we know the dinghy dock and a boat chandlery are there.

Today the wind was light and the bay seemed to be pretty calm, though, because the anchorage is so close to the shipping lane, it will never totally flat in here. We figured it was safe to go out, but waited to leave until after the local radio net. It is a good thing we stuck around and listened, because we picked up some important information. We found out that it costs $5.25 per day to leave your dinghy at the dinghy dock, which really surprised us. The anchorage is totally free, though. Unfortunately, this bay is really not suitable for water making. You can do it, but it is advised that you change your filter after each and every time you run the water maker. We also found out that the company that maintains the dinghy dock charges a tire disposal fee of $1.00 per tire, but usually you can find a cruiser heading to the Atlantic that is thrilled to take them off your hands. We offered our tires up, but had no takers. And, we found out a cab ride to town should only be $5.00. Many cab drivers will quote higher in hopes you don’t know better, but once they realize you know the going rate, will happily drop their fee down to $5.00.

Shortly after the net ended, we headed out. Our normal routine is that Eric gets in the dinghy and starts the motor. Once the motor is on, Christi and anyone else who may be with us jumps in, and then we cast off. Eric started the motor, Christi and Jeff piled in, and Eric put the engine in gear. The engine revved up, but the propeller didn’t spin. Uh oh. We all piled back out. We took the motor off the dinghy and brought it aboard for further inspection. Eric had assumed the propeller pin was damaged, so he checked that first. The pin was fine. Hmmm”¦. This probably means a transmission problem. Not something we wanted to deal with at that exact moment.

Eric retrieved the 6 hp outboard engine that we have on board for our inflatable dinghy. We keep it on the aft upper deck, locked to the railing. The super duper weather proof marine lock that we paid a lot of money for had totally rusted out and seized up. Eric tried all kinds of lubricants to loosen it up, but no luck. He finally had to cut the lock off using a Dremmel tool. He mounted the 6 hp engine to our little dinghy for the first time ever. It is a bit too big for the little boat.

Eric was worried it wouldn’t start because it has been a long, long time since he has run that engine. Much to his surprise, it started right up. He put it in reverse. It worked. He put it in forward. No dice. Eric opened the cover and wriggled the transmission wires around until transmission clicked in and presto! We had a working motor. Once again, we all piled in and headed to shore. Eric was like a kid with a new toy, all excited about how much power we have and how fast we can go with this bigger motor. And excited that we have reverse, which our little 2 hp motor doesn’t have.

We headed over to the dinghy dock, which is on the far side of Culebra in the most sheltered waters of all. There were lots of dinghies tied up there already, so getting in and tying up was a little tricky. Getting off the dinghy required climbing over all the other dinghies in our way.

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On shore, we found ourselves in yet another small shopping center. We went to the office to pay dinghy dock fee. We were kind of surprised that the door was locked and we had to be buzzed in. This seems to be an upscale part of town, not the kind of area you’d expect to see such security measures. We asked them about calling a taxi and were told to simply wait and one would come. They were right. Within about ten minutes one showed up and we were on our way.

The first stop was to the Port Captain’s office to do our check in paperwork. The taxi took us across the bridge and into an area that we are 99% sure this was formerly an American military base. The blocky, functional, no frills architectural style and the layout of the streets screamed American military. After a few blocks we came to an industrial container area and a guard waved us through.

The guy behind the wheel was a pretty bad driver. Nowadays, we are pretty thick skinned to bad driving, but at one point he did manage to terrify us when he blatantly ran a red light with oncoming traffic approaching. We were relieved when he made a turn and came to a stop in what looked like a back alley, then pointed to a door and said “there”. The alley looked like it was straight out of the port scenes in the “Usual Suspects” where the criminals unloaded contraband off boats in the cover of darkness. We’re sure it is perfectly fine by day, but probably a little scary at night. Since taxis don’t normally come around here, the driver waited for us.

The Port Captain staff is amazingly nice and helpful. The clerk asked to see all our paperwork that we have gotten while in Panama, then filled out all our forms for us. All Eric had to do was sign. Of course, with such good service, the line moved slowly, so it was a long wait before we were served.

Once we were done, the taxi driver took us into town. His driving continued to terrify us. If the line of cars waiting at a light was too long, he’d just go around them by driving on the wrong side of the road. He also cut people off like crazy, tailgated incessantly, and ran more red lights. We tried to not to let it bother us, reminding ourselves we have been with worse drivers. The areas that comprise the former military base looks to be well maintained overall. There is a clear line where the base ends and regular Panama City begins. Beyond this line, it suddenly became very third world and poor. But the farther we drove, the more first world and upscale looking the city became.

When our water proof/shock proof camera that we got in Gibraltar broke, we emailed Olympus about it. They replied with a list of service centers in the entire world that we could take the camera to for repair. We had been pleased to see that Panama City was on the list, and getting our camera fixed was priority number one. Even though he had the address in hand, our cab driver had no idea where this place was. We had been warned by our friends on the Grand Banks that in Panama City they don’t use addresses, nor do they use maps, just major markers. Along the way, the cab driver stopped twice and asked people where to go. He tried to drop us off at a Panasonic facility, then again at a Samsung facility. The people at the Samsung place gave him directions to where we needed to go, which was a tiny shop in an office park literally around the corner.

Christi and Jeff took the camera in while Eric waited in the cab. Again, the door was locked and they had to be buzzed in. We suppose the door locking is standard operating procedure here in Panama City. Christi and Jeff were told that this service center doesn’t repair underwater cameras, but offered to send it to the US for repair. It would take 3 4 months to get it back. That wasn’t going to work for us. The lady was nice and confided that this particular model is defective and since the model’s release, they have gotten a flood of them back for repair.

Next, we asked the taxi driver to take us to a restaurant that Lonely Planet recommended in Bella Vista, the nicest part of Panama City. We are not sure where the part of town the camera repair place is in, but it has a lot of factories and looks like an average blue collar area in the US, with middle of the road quality construction that is well maintained. Bella Vista wasn’t far away. Bella Vista definitely looks newer and nicer. It is a mix of swanky, new looking hi-rises, low commercial buildings, and pristinely kept, charming single family houses. There is a lot of construction going on here, too. The streets are lined with trendy restaurants.

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Eric showed the driver where the restaurant is on the map and gave him directions. But the driver clearly isn’t comfortable with maps, and after driving around a particular block a few times, dropped us off at a Chinese food restaurant, instead. The Chinese place happened to also be recommended by Lonely Planet, so we didn’t balk and ate there, instead. The food was pretty good. Our meal included lychees for dessert. Lychees are a fruit indigenous to China. They are grown in Australia, too, but we never had any there because it was out of season while we were in Aus. Lychees on the tree look something like a strawberry. They have an inedible rind and the fruit inside looks like a white raspberry. They taste pretty good.

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After lunch, we caught a different cab and went to an airline office to get Jeff a ticket back home for tomorrow. Then we went to a grocery store our friends on the Grand Banks recommended called Riva Smith. Once again, it was mostly American products on the shelves, but they had a good selection of all-natural and organic foods, including a couple of our favorites from back home. We stocked up with as much as we could carry, then went back to the boat for the night. Because this anchorage is so rolly, we will probably never stay out after dark on purpose. Getting back on the boat in the roll is tricky, and in the dark it would even harder. Oh, and as an FYI, none of the other cab drivers were scary. It looks like our first driver was an anomaly, not the norm.

Once again, we were all in bed early.

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