Thursday, January 16 — This morning, we untied and traversed the few hundred feet over to the fuel dock, which was located directly underneath the marina office.
Fueling up was uneventful. We took on 750 gallons at $3.54 per gallon, then returned to our slip. This fuel dock is unusually high.
We had lunch in the second strip mall up, at a middle-eastern restaurant named Beirut. We ordered baba ghanoush (which is eggplant blended in a blender with lemon and tahini so it has a texture similar to hummus) and chicken shawarma sandwiches (marinated meat cooked on a vertical spit, shaved off in thin slices, and served in pita bread). The food was okay. No complaints. We’re kind of spoiled because in San Diego we usually eat middle-eastern food at a restaurant called Alladin’s that is incredible.
In the afternoon/evening, we prepared for the canal transit. Eric had assigned specific job duties/locations for each crew member, and Christi and Keith practiced performing their respective tasks while Eric yelled at them in broken Spanish to hurry up and move faster. Christi and Keith also brushed up on some nautical skills, such as knot tying, which had become quite rusty since Eric usually does the lion’s share of the nautical tasks.
This was taken just before the sun peeked over the horizon on Friday, January 17
Our canal transit crew had flown in from San Diego last night and had stayed in a hotel downtown. Eric and Keith took a taxi and met them at the Panama City sign near Casco Viejo to do some sightseeing. Christi stayed aboard Kosmos to work on her land life project and to get the boat cleaned and organized for our upcoming transit.
Eric and Keith were excited to see our long-time family friends Mike, his wife Kim, their daughter, Brianna and another friend named Jan.
They walked along the shore towards Casco Viejo. They made a treacherous crossing along the main highway near where the causeway connected to the mainland — later they found out there was a footbridge they could have used.
They toured many of the same places that Eric and Keith had visited on Wednesday. They did go inside Iglesia de San Francisco, where for $5 per person, you could walk up to the tower and see views all around the city.
They went inside the Cathedral Metropolitana, though they didn’t go up to the tower.
They also went to El Arco Chato & Church of Santo Domingo, which we’d missed seeing on Wednesday. This church was one of the original structures of Casco Viejo, but it burned down in 1756 and was never rebuilt. The fact that the mason work is still standing is considered an engineering feat.
After finishing at Casco Viejo, they took a taxi to the Cerro Ancon viewpoint. The taxi dropped them off at the base of the hill and they walked up the road.
They didn’t make it all the way to the top, but they did get high enough for beautiful views.
This was a monument at the bottom.
After they walked back down hill, they hailed a cab. They asked to be taken to a good restaurant near their hotel. The taxi driver dropped them off at a very fancy restaurant, which was expensive. They decided to find something more casual, and went to a place called Manolo restaurant, café and churriera. The food was good, and the churros were the best Eric and Keith had ever had in their lives. Churros are like long, skinny donuts rolled in sugar and sometimes cinnamon. These churros had fillings in the middle, which we’ve never seen before. The fillings were apple-cinnamon, dulce de leche (sweetened condensed milk only partly caramelized) or vanilla cream. Eric and Keith bought some extras to take home.
In the evening, the crew came to Kosmos for canal training.
Our agent also dropped off the long lines and fenders that were required for the canal transit (we are happy to report that they don’t really use tires as fenders anymore.)
After training, we went to Mi Ranchita for dinner. The band was playing soft rock classics. It was a lovely night with good food, good music and good company.
