Saturday, March 4, 2006

I love palindromes.

I would have waited til Monday to call about my blood test results, but we're planning on getting that sailboat to Colombia tomorrow, so I called today. I tried the hospital first, but Dra. Bermudez had just left. The receptionist told me she'd call the doctora on her cell and give her the results so that she could call me.

We'd had to go across to the hospital to find a pay phone, so afterwards we just stayed there at the Bypass Cafe for coffee and meat pies. We've been going there in the morning every day since we discovered it. The coffee is good, the meat pies are good, the chairs are comfortable... you'd never know you were in a hospital lobby. And there's nothing else so close by our hotel.

I called the doctora on her cell phone later and she told me my tests were fine, asked me about the medications she'd prescribed, and wished me a good trip to Colombia. She was really nice. And I'm so amazed that I could call her on Saturday and actually talk to her. I'm just too impressed with the service I got at Panama's Hospital Nacional. Is that what I would get if I paid full price at a private hospital in the U.S.?

That over, we went to see the Panama Canal. I'm going to have to reveal a little (more) of my ignorance in this entry. I have never known much about the Panama Canal, but always vaguely assumed that on its way from the Pacific to the Caribbean, it ran right through the middle of town. Like the Seine, or the Thames, or the Mississippi. I imagined we'd lean over the wall (because in my vague imaginings there was a nice, rustic stone wall) and watch boats merrily plying their way through the canal all day.

Well that's just all wrong. The Canal is way out of town, and you can't just view it at any old point anyway. The closest viewing point, Miraflores Locks, is about thirty minutes away by bus and twenty by taxi.

We went out there late in the day because the LP said the best times to see action are between nine and ten in the morning and between three and five in the afternoon. And you know we were not about to get up at the crack of dawn. What are we - employed?

It's not a terribly long walk from the bus stop to the Visitor's Center, but long enough in the heat. And then we saw a ship! Or rather, Michael saw it. I had just thought that giant mass of gray was the sky or something. Once I knew it was a ship, I was so afraid we'd miss it that I broke into a run. The running didn't last too long - Panama City is hot- but we kept up a brisk walk.

We bought the deluxe package tickets using the old "when's the next time we'll be back at the Panama Canal?" logic. It wasn't until way later that we found the ticket lady had sold us children's price tickets ($5 as opposed to $8 each). Aww. That was nice of her. We went through a metal detector and bag search and then went tearing up to the top level observation deck that our expensive tickets entitled us to.

It turns out it take a ship a really long time to navigate through the canal. The same ship we'd seen from the road, the Rhein Bridge, was still tentatively creeping through when we got up to the viewing platform. It was a Panamax, meaning it was built to be as large as possible while still fitting through the canal.

Ships all over the world are built with the dimensions of the Panama Canal in mind. You really want to be able to make it through the canal, because having to go around South America will take months and tens of thousands of dollars more than taking the canal shortcut.

So we stood in the blazing heat and watched the next lock fill so that the Rhein Bridge could move into it. Down on the ground a man with a microphone was narrating the whole process, alternating between English and Spanish. He was speaking so slowly and clearly and simply that I understood almost all the Spanish. That was very cool.

It was very exciting watching the process. Michael was not so happy because the light was bad. He said if only the ship had been coming the other way, or if it were morning light instead of afternoon, everything would be so much better.

That's the thing about traveling with a photographer. You think you're going to get photos of everything you see. But if he's a professional, unless you prod him you'll only get photos of things that are in the good light, though they will be good pictures.

And also? If he catches you shaving your armpits in the sink, he doesn't apologize and leave the room, he blurts out, "Oh, let me take some pictures of you, I'll use black and white, they'll be so tasteful." Anyway, I felt bad for him because he really likes the good light and it wasn't happening, at least not on the side of the canal where the ship was.

Some canal superlatives: The lowest amount ever paid to transit the canal was $0.36 by Richard Halliburton, who swam through from August 14 to August 23, 1928. The highest was $200,000 by a French cruise ship, the Infinity. The fastest transit through the canal was two hours and forty one minutes by a US Navy hydrofoil.

We took a taxi back from the canal. I could really get used to all these taxis. And tomorrow we really are getting up early, so we can get out to Portobelo and meet our sailboat, Captain P. from Denmark, and his Venezuelan girlfriend, M.

 

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Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal.

The Rhein Bridge approaches.

Fellow looky-loos watching the canal process.

In the lock.

Shipping containers.

Mikey at the Panama Canal. He is trying to teach me to use his fancy cameras.

Bad light in this photo, but the ship is called New York! Yay.