Category Archives: General

Default place where things go if they are not categoried or are of general interest.

More Exploring the Ruins of Ft. Sherman

Posted on by
Reply

On Saturday, February 22, the sun was about to peek over the horizon when the giant black cloud to the left blew in front of it and blocked the sunrise completely. 

This morning, the water was still not working. The dockmaster assured us that this time, he was being more proactive. He was making arrangements for water trucks and working on a strategy on how to get the pressure up enough to ensure that the water made it to the boats. However, the plan didn’t need to come to fruition because water was restored  in the mid-afternoon.

In the afternoon, Eric led another kids D & D session. Afterwards, the kids went to the pool and Eric joined them. 

While they were playing, Christi decided to explore more of the ruins that we’d seen along the road to Gatun Bridge. We’ve already mentioned that the marina was directly northwest of what had been the military air strip, which was now used as a Panamanian Coast Guard base. The majority of the Coast Guard Base was set back from the road, and there were several ruins along the road that were not currently utilized by the Coast Guard.  

Where the road turned south, Christi spotted some birds walking around. What made the species noteworthy were the red, beady eyes, which made them look a little zombie-esque. We’d seen some of them at the beach on Wednesday, and as they walked amongst the trash near the derelict buildings, they’d only added to the creepy feeling of the beach that day. 

Continue reading →

Keith’s Perspective on Site Seeing in Panama/Le point de vue de Keith sur les visites touristiques au Panama

Posted on by
Reply

This week it feels like not a lot of stuff happened, even though a lot of stuff happened. On Saturday, a bird pooped on mom’s arm. After that we got on the bus and went to a really good pizza place. We had gelato for desert. On Sunday, I did D&D, but one of my friends was DMing. He made his own version of D&D (which isn’t really D&D because it made no sense). On Monday, I convinced my friend to have dad DM. In the evening we did Civ VI. 

Gelato in the suburbs of Colon

On ne dirait que rien ne s’est passé cette semaine mais beaucoup de choses se sont passées. Samedi un oiseau a fait caca sur le bras de maman. Après ça on a pris le bus et on a mangé à une très bonne pizzeria. On a mangé une glace pour le dessert. Dimanche, j’ai joué à Donjons Et Dragons, mais un de mes ami était le Maitre Du Donjon. Il a fait sa propre édition de Donjons Et Dragons, mais c’était pas vraiment du Donjons Et Dragons parce que ça ne faisait pas de sens. Lundi, J’ai convaincu mon ami de laisser Papa être le maitre du donjon. Le soir, papa, nos amis et moi avons joué à Civ VI. 

Coffee and smoothies in Panama City
Continue reading →

Breakfast at Rume and Lying Low at Shelter Bay Marina

Posted on by
Reply

Sunrise on Thursday February 20

The day that we’d gotten pizza and gelato, we’d stopped by the three bakeries to see what they stocked. We’d gotten a loaf of bread from the one called Rume. It turned out to be one of the best sourdoughs we’d ever had. We’d also noticed that they opened at 0730 for breakfast. 

Since the car didn’t have to be returned until 0930, that left us just enough time to get breakfast at Rume. The food was great, and we were thrilled to be able to get out of the marina one more time. 

Continue reading →

Portobelo, Colon Province, Panama

Posted on by
1

Thanks to cloud cover, the sun itself was not visible on Wednesday, February 19, but it was still a colorful sunrise.

We decided to keep the car for another day to go to the town of Portobelo, which was about 80 km (50 miles) away from the marina. Portobelo was a small town with a nice bay and protected anchorage that was popular with the cruisers. It was a pivotal part of Spain’s colonial rule, so it was historically significant. Since we wouldn’t be going to Portobelo by boat, we thought it would be fun to go by car. 

On our way out of Ft. Sherman, we decided to make a quick stop at the public beach. Since we’d driven by it so many times, we felt like we should at least stop and see it up close. It was a man-made beach, south of the Coast Guard base, along the road to the bridge. It was usually packed on the weekends. The US military had put in, and it was lined with more of the same housing structures that we’d seen at the loop… except these were in much worse shape. 

We parked in the small parking lot and ventured in. Maybe it was the gloomy weather, but the beach felt sad. There were dilapidated buildings, sunken ships and a lot of trash strewn around. Someone had put up a series of palapas, but most of them had fallen apart into hunks of debris that added to the trash.

Taken from the south end of the beach, looking north. The buildings at the tip of the peninsula are the coast guard base
Continue reading →

Running Errands in Panama City

Posted on by
Reply

The half-full moon was visible in dawn’s glow on Tuesday, February 18

While the marina was nice, it was isolated. Getting out was expensive, and given that Colon was a notoriously dangerous city, there weren’t many safe places to go within a reasonably close distance. Just as in Chiapas, we were feeling trapped and anxious to be free. So, like we did in Chiapas, we rented a car just so we could get out. 

The mini-mart in the marina doubles as a car rental agency. The rental paperwork had to be done the day prior, so Christi did it on Monday while Eric and Keith were playing D & D. We were supposed to pick up the car at 0830, but because the mini-mart was busy, the clerk didn’t have a chance to finish up the last bit of paperwork and hand over the keys until closer to 0930. That delay actually turned out to be a blessing in the end. 

Continue reading →