November 24, 2022: Thanksgiving Day Through the Panama Canal

The Oosterdam slowly sailed from the Caribbean Sea and under the Atlantic Bridge. Mary Margaret made her way to the bow at 5am to fully experience the beginning of our sail through the Panama Canal. Ships were lined up on the starboard side, navigation lights on, awaiting their turn through the locks. The pre-dawn sky allowed a view of the constellations while we chugged along, waiting for arrival at our first destination. It took the Oosterdam an hour to reach the bridge and head to the Gatún Locks, the “original” locks of the Canal. Parallel to these locks are the Agua Clara Locks, created by the Panama Canal expansion in 2016, which doubled the canal’s capacity. While waiting for the Oosterdam to make its way to the first set of locks, the crew distributed Panama Rolls and coffee. Delicious!

Once in the Gatún Locks, the Oosterdam was raised 85 feet to the level of Gatún Lake. This is a man made lake, formed in 1912 by damming the Chagres River. We rose through the last of the 3 locks and sailed onto Gatún Lake along with container ships and other cruise ships.

The “islands” in the lake are actually the tops of hills. The largest of these islands is Barro Colorado Island, with a distinct red color. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute is located here as the entire island is a nature reserve.

We sailed along, admiring the tropical landscape and hoping for a glimpse of wild life. During the transit, the Oosterdam provided ongoing narration on Panama Canal highlights. The ship’s speed was about 6 knots for the entire transit which made viewing and photography ideal. We finally reached the 8-mile long Culebra Cut, located at the Continental Divide.

During the canal’s creation, this narrow, short waterway was the most treacherous section to excavate due to the unstable clay-like soil. It is also where most of the digging occurred. The engineers had to contend with multiple landslides causing injuries, deaths and delays. We noted several areas along the shore where there is evidence of landslides, terraced shorelines and abandoned equipment. It is estimated that this section of the Panama Canal cost $10,000,000 per mile! 

Cruising through the Culebra Cut, we approached the Centennial Bridge, noting what we thought was a dredging operation on our side of the ship. The Canal Pilot stated it was actually a repair operation due to a subterranean landslide. Yikes! There is continuous maintenance to the Panama Canal making the $328,000 (plus another $50,000) transit fee seem fairly reasonable.

The Captain gave us another thrill by issuing a very long, loud blast of the ships horn while sailing under the Centennial Bridge. It echoed around the Culebra Cut, possibly giving the vehicles on the bridge heart failure! 

Through the bridge and toward the Pedro Miguel Locks that will lower the Oosterdam 30.5 feet on our way to the Pacific. This is the first of 3 locks separated from the 2 Miraflores Locks by Miraflores Lake, about a distance of a half mile. The reason for this is that a tectonic fault lies beneath the lake, necessitating the lock separation.

Onward through the Pedro Miguel Locks and the Miraflores Lake, the Oosterdam headed to the Miraflores Locks that dropped us down another 54 feet, reaching sea level on the Pacific side. The weather seemed to be closing in on us while waiting to go though the locks. Fortunately we remained dry, leaving the Panama Canal after cruising under the Bridge of the Americas, a key section of the Pan-American highway. We left the drama of the canal transit and readied ourselves for an American Thanksgiving dinner in the Main Dining Room. The entire transit, from Cristóbal to Fuerte Amador (Panama City) took a little over 13 hours.

The Oosterdam speaker, running the narration the entire day, made sure to let us know that this was “a most beautiful transit” as it was sunny and calm, which is not always the case. All we know is that it was an incredible experience being able to cruise from the Atlantic’s Caribbean Sea to the Pacific’s Gulf of Panama on one of the greatest engineering feats in history!

November 25, 2022, Friday: Fuerte Amador, Panama

The cruise terminal at Fuerte Amador, Panama City’s port, is under construction and will not be open until late 2023. Our focus on this leg of the cruise is our upcoming trip to the Galápagos Islands so our shore excursions until 11/27 are mostly short but covering the highlights of each area.

We joined a tour that bussed us around Panama City, giving us a historic perspective of both pre-European migration and current events affecting the area. Alex, our guide, was a wealth of information regarding historic and current issues affecting Panama. He described the 3 periods of the growth of Panama. From 1502 through 1821 the Spanish were in control of this region. Next came the oversight of Columbia viewing Panama as belonging to them from 1822 until 1903 when the Panama Canal’s creation began.

We drove past a small stone bridge built in the late 16th century that, at the time, led from the port into the small colonial development. It was an important structure and has been a protected piece of history. 

Fast forward to the present. As commerce flourished, Panama City grew but, as often happens,  greed and scandal ensued. Alex referenced the Netflix series, “Panama Papers” that uncovered corruption in the finance industry. Many of the skyscrapers are owned by banks but fewer than 10 major finance institutions remain. Prior to the US handing over the Panama Canal to Panama, the country was only receiving $5 million per year. In 2000, the dramatic increase of money flowing into Panama from Canal revenues increased to $5 million per day! We noticed the huge, modern buildings in the city and were told they had been owned by the banks but are now are barely occupied after the finance scandal. 

There is a large “duty free” shopping area in downtown Panama City that many of the passengers felt the need to explore. Fortunately for Tom, our bus bypassed this and headed back towards the marina, stopping at Frank Gehry’s amazing Biomass Museum.

The building has a colorful origami appearance from the outside and once inside, it was as if you entered a forest. The ceiling structure seemed as if it was a collection of tree canopies in the rain forest. We signed on to the wi-fi, located the QR code and proceeded to take a self-guided tour of this fascinating museum. The focus of the museum is to give the visitor a view of the biodiversity of the region as well as the delicate balance between man and nature. A large room with a glass floor and several huge screens gave a 6-minute visual presentation of the diversity of the region, one of the most diverse in the world. Fish swam under our feet and birds flew overhead. We were “drenched” by rain (on film!). Loud but visually fantastic!

We were led into an area that explained the reason for the diversity through the formation of the Isthmus of Panama or the “land bridge” created a few million years ago, allowing for migration of species between North and South America. In 2016 while creating a new section of the Panama Canal, remains of a giant sloth were found. 

This museum is very popular with school children who are now at the end of their school year (March through December 1). Untangling ourselves from eager school groups, we walked into the aquatic exhibits, showcasing the differences in the Caribbean Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. 

The Biomass Museum was filled with exhibits and information that would require more than the hour we were given to explore. It was soon time to board the bus and head back to the port of Fuerte Amador to relax before dinner.

We had one last item on our wish list that would be fulfilled on this cruise: stargazing under the darkened skies in the Pacific Ocean. We were treated to an astronomy lecture on the Sky Deck of the Oosterdam after 8pm. Jim McParland, guest speaker throughout our cruise, used his laser pointer to identify planets and constellations. Before the lecture, Mary Margaret pointed out Cassiopeia, remembering her childhood stargazing experience with her big brother, sitting on the roof and using his telescope on lazy summer nights. We spent about a half hour listening and learning more about the night sky. Pleiades, Orion, The Eagle and Swan, Gemini and Taurus. It may have not been the perfect night sky but close enough for being on a cruise ship in the Pacific Ocean.

Our evening of festive dining and star gazing was winding down. It was time to prepare ourselves for our next great adventure: exploring the Galápagos Islands! The Oosterdam was already heading to Manta, Peru, a sea day away, where we would leave the ship in the early morning hours and take a van to Guayaquil, Peru for our flight to Balta Island, Galápagos.

Sunday, November 27, 2022:

It is finally here! We met our 3 fellow travelers for breakfast in the ship’s Main Dining Room at 4:40am and had our own personal chef. Breakfast done, passports returned to us and off the ship we walked, dragging our small suitcase and our 1 personal item to meet our guide, Santiago. He is only the guide that will be present during our transport from Manta, Ecuador, to Guayaquil, a 4-hour drive. The José Joaquin de Olmedo Airport is the only airport, aside from Quinto, to fly to the Galápagos Islands. We had to have our shoes cleaned by our room steward prior to leaving as there is a fine if you enter the islands with “dirty shoes”, potentially carrying some random plant or insect not native to the islands.

As we headed away from Manta, we noticed enormous statues in each roundabout we passed. These represented various industries or historic figures of the city.

Our guide was delightful, giving us an opportunity for “quiet time” until we stopped at a halfway point for coffee and empanadas. Back on the 20-seat bus, Santiago gave us an overview of Ecuador including government, exports, climate and every day life. Ecuador sits on the Equator and has Quito as its capital. Although Quito may be the administrative/political capital, Guayaquil is the financial capital of Ecuador. There are 4 regions: the Highlands that include the Andes Mountains, the Coast, the Amazon and the Galápagos Islands. Exports include oil, shrimp, coffee, bananas and flowers, especially roses. There is a special nut called the Tagua, typically made into decorative objects due to its tusk-like hardness. Mary Margaret managed to find earrings made out of Tagua on the ship and took advantage of a sale!

The year is divided into the Dry Season and the Wet Season. Fortunately for us, the Wet Season will not begin until mid-December and end in March. Schools are on their “summer vacations” from the beginning of December until March. We had to continually remind ourselves we are south of the equator!

The currency has been tied to the US dollar since 2002 and US dollars are used as well as Ecuadorian coins. The average monthly salary is $400 but the monthly cost of living is $800. There is “free” health care but if you need an elective surgery, you must wait for a few months unless “you know someone in the hospital and can give them some money to take you sooner”. Cars are outrageously expensive and heavily taxed. The country has a 12% sales tax on most goods. Fortunately there is a vibrant agricultural industry, at least for fruits and vegetables. These are inexpensive as Santiago demonstrated. He stopped by a stand selling rice and was able to purchase a10kg bag of rice for $10. Further along our route, he stopped and purchased a bag of ciruelo, a small red and green fruit that was both sweet and tart, all for $2. Delish!

We finally reached the José Joaquin de Olmedo Airport where Santiago gave Mary Margaret all the boarding passes via WhatsApp as she had the app already installed on her iPhone. This did cause a bit of anxiety in one member of our group as “it’s not paper” and she didn’t want to rely on anyone but herself. After an hour’s wait in a private lounge, we boarded the Latam Airline flight to Baltra Island, a desert island in the Galápagos Archipelago perfect for an airport. We flew “premium economy” which felt like first class in that we had wider seats in the front of the plane and fancier snacks. We’re finally in the Galápagos!