6 October 2011 Ride: Panama - Day 1

Welcome to Panama.  Sunrise from the hotel window.  Where is the rain forest?

This will have to be quick as I have limited access to the computer since Carol needs to whisk it away for work down here in Panama.  Priorities! Plus, since the days have been full of activities, not much time in the evening either to update.  The most time consuming part of updating the blog is sorting through the pictures and then uploading them. 

Carol did have the day off yesterday to see the sights.  A former student of hers, Kadhir, from 1990 who lives here in Panama, also took a day off to drive us around.  First stop, the Metropolitan Park, a rain forest that has been preserved just on the edge of Panama City, whose population is about 1.5 million.

 

This is the rainy season in Panama and the clouds looked threatening from early in the morning.  Sure enough, it rained during our hike.  We could hear the rain coming down but because of the heavy canopy, it took several minutes before the water made its way down to us and we started getting wet.  Even then, it was more like a light sprinkle than the heavy dousing we would have incurred if we were out in the open.  No luck spotting any sloths.

 Hmm.  I thought I had rotated the picture below.  No time to do so now.  Just tilt your head or turn your computer sideways.

We did see the farmer ants, the ones that travel in long lines along the forest carrying bits of leaves.  They always amaze me.  In one spot, they traveled back and forth so much that they had actually created a narrow packed down path.  I could watch them for hours. 

 Soggy,  but in love.

After the Park, Kadhir took us on a driving tour that included a look at the canal, The City of Knowledge, a technology and educational park where Carol will be teaching tomorrow.  A couple of other stops and then to the Causeway where we had lunch and, finally!, to the bike shop for a ride.  After all, why did I come down here except to ride?!

 This is not a hippie bus but rather what the old public transportation buses from the bus system look like in Panama City.  They are being replaced by a modern fleet of air-conditioned buses.

 My main squeeze for yesterday's ride.

 On the Causeway looking north.  Or is it South.  Maybe East...or West.  A bit tricky getting one's bearing down here on an isthmus that curves in upon itself so that a ship traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific through the canal actually moves from north to south and even slightly west to east.

A couple of shots from the restaurant we ate at last night which overlooked the canal. 

What I like about this picture is that the small objects seem like a miniature model of the real thing.  Note the small tug railcar that moves along a track and pulls the ship through.
Rachel noticed Hebrew writing on the containers and then I noticed the name of the ship was Hebrew; I didn't know Israel had any container ships. 

Companies make ships to fit exactly in the canal but length and width.  It can cost $400,000 - $500,000 for a ship to pass through.  And, they need to make a reservation or else they may have to wait a couple of days to get in.

October 6 Ride:  1hr.  11 miles.

No time to figure Miles YTD or proof read.