Day 5 - Earlier this summer, we had seriously considered booking a cruise from Vancouver to Florida. At the end of the Alaskan cruise season, Holland America always has a few ships to transition to a Caribbean winter schedule. They travel through the Panama Canal; however, after scrutinizing the itineraries, we found they do not make a port of call here. We figured we could, instead, squeeze in an entire week's stay in Panama in October. Hence, I'm typing this from Panama City right now.
We have already had the chance to see the amazing urban environment. The first set of locks for the canal are really close to the city itself, so today we went to the Miraflores Visitors' Center.
We got going about an hour earlier than has been the norm. Apparently, the ships generally enter or exit here early in the mornings or late afternoons. We didn't make it for the 6 o'clock cruise ship. Actually, we took the subway out to Albrook but couldn't find where the exact bus left. So, we paid $10 for a taxi to take us at around 9:30 AM.
After looking around on the decks, watching the intro movie in both Spanish and later in English, and looking through the museum, we found that a ship at 3 PM might be a little too late. I guess we'd already gotten our value for the $20 each for the tickets. It was enough to see the location and get a feeling for where Panama City lies in proximity to the beginning of the canal. Perhaps the next time, we can see all the locks as well as the lake, and both oceans from onboard a cruise ship.
We did wait just a few minutes for the Metro bus which brought us back to Albrook Mall for lunch. In the evening, we just walked around close to our section of Vía España.