Sophie-Claire was asleep when we arrived but we peeked in on her as we wouldn’t get much of a chance tomorrow. Gretchen and Chris fed us a nice dinner and we turned in early for the big day tomorrow.
Saturday we had arranged for a full day total transit of the Panama Canal. We did get to see Sophie-Claire a little bit in the morning but we had to leave early and she was staying with a baby sitter. We drove to Flamenco Marina located at the end of the Amador Causeway where we would board our ship, the Pacific Queen, to start the trip.
We started in the Pacific Ocean and went under the Bridge of the Americas, through the Miraflores Locks, Miraflores Lake, Pedro Miguel Locks, under the new Centennial Bridge, through the Gaillard Cut of the Continental Divide, Gatun Lake, and the Gatun Locks to the Atlantic Ocean side of Panama. We saw much canal traffic from large container ships and roll on–roll off ships, to smaller tankers, tug boats, and private yachts. We also saw several sea birds such as the magnificent frigate bird, egrets, and brown pelicans. Going through the locks was interesting and we had an excellent guide on board who explained the process very well.
We ended up in the town of Colon in a heavy downpour. Here we boarded buses that took us back to our start at Flamenco Marina. We stopped for a light dinner at a Middle Eastern café called Beirut Café. Sophie-Claire was asleep, looking angelic, by the time we arrived home.
Sunday we had some Sophie-Claire time. Gretchen, Chris, Sophie-Claire and I went for a hike in the Metropolitan Park and hiked jungle trails for two to three miles. We saw an assortment of tropical plants, flowers, ferns, a few unidentifiable birds, and a Central American agouti which is known locally as a neque. We also saw a lizard that walks on water (or so it appears) and it is really called the Jesus Christ lizard. Sophie-Claire, comfortable in her Baby Bjorn carrier, was a trooper and loved the outdoors.
Back to the apartment and a nice brunch then off again to Casco Viejo or the old, historic town of Panama. Actually it is the second old town because Captain Henry Morgan burned down the first town of Panama. Then the Spaniards moved to a location that was difficult to attack especially in low tide – Casco Viejo. We walked around for an hour or more viewing old, restored houses, the National Theater, cathedrals, beautiful hotels, green plazas and the Presidential Palace which is located here. We found a couple of great places to stop – one for iced coffee and empanadas and the other for great ice cream. We went back to the apartment and spent time playing with Sophie-Claire.
Monday we spent time in the morning playing with Sophie-Claire once more – a chore we just had to make ourselves do. Her nanny Eladia normally comes around 7:30 when Chris and Gretchen go to work but for the next two weeks Eladia was told she could come around 9:30 am. That way she had more time to spend with her own children and we had private time with Sophie-Claire. I should mention that Sophie-Claire loves Eladia and the feeling is mutual. And when Sophie-Claire went down for her morning nap, Rita and I could take a walk as we did this morning. We walked to a local grocery store called El Rey and had lunch at a small café next door. This was the pattern most days while Gretchen and Chris worked and we didn’t mind it a bit.
A couple of days I took Gretchen to work and kept their car. I hesitated to drive far since I didn’t have a good map, it wasn’t clear if we were covered on their insurance, and the drivers in Panama are terrible. The roads aren’t much better either. One day Rita and I drove to the Miraflores Locks which were close to their apartment. We went through a small museum that covered the history of the building of the canal. We also saw a short film on the canal then we walked out on a viewing platform and watched some ships go through although it wasn’t as exciting since we saw that on our transit. Another day Rita and I walked to the Embassy Club café and swimming pool which is like a country club setting. We had a good lunch and explored the game rooms and gym.
Friday Gretchen and Chris took a day off work and we packed the car for a long weekend trip. We headed out of town across the Bridge of the Americas and took the Pan American highway through La Chorrera, Coronado, Anton, Penonome, Cocle, Nata, Aguadulce, and a short distance past Divisa we turned off on the road to Ocu where real Panama hats are made. As you may know, what we call Panama hats are really made in Ecuador but were erroneously contributed to Panama during a visit by Teddy Roosevelt. In some of these small remote towns the real Panama hat, which is black and white and inferior to the Ecuador hat, is made in small craft shops. We went looking for one for about an hour on back roads, sometimes unpaved, in the countryside around Ocu. We saw plenty of men on horseback carrying machetes and other colorful people but we didn’t find the craft shop. We went into Ocu and had lunch at a questionable outside café but we didn’t get sick.
We pressed onwards on narrow back roads through the small villages of Menchaca, Chumical, Las Minas, and Los Pozos where we couldn’t find the road we wanted and ended up in the town of Pese where we took the wrong road again. We finally ended up in the fairly large town of Chitre and the highway we eventually needed. We pressed on through Las Tablas and Pocri to the fishing village of Pedasi where we had reservations at the Casa Margarita B&B. We checked in then met at the bar for drinks and eventually dinner in the hotel restaurant. I must mention that Sophie-Claire was great in the car and hardly offered a complaint for the long road trip.
Saturday was our big adventure day. First I had a walk around the small town which was colorful and clean with friendly locals, many dogs, a variety of flowers, several butterflies, and chickens loose everywhere. We all piled into the car and headed to the local beach where our hotel had arranged a boat and captain who was waiting for us. He and his son helped us wade to their small boat (about 20 feet long) which is called a panga. The outboard motor was powerful and soon we were on our way. Sophie-Claire had her little life jacket on and loved the breezy, loud ride. She fell asleep just as we neared our destination after about a 30 to 45 minute ride.
Our destination was Isla de la Iguanas or Iguana Island and it was about six miles off the coast in the Pacific Ocean. It isn’t a very big island but it does have nesting grounds for about 5,000 frigate birds which filled the sky above the island. The waters also have humpback whales this time of the year and our captain took us around the island but we never saw any. The captain cut off the engine and we coasted onto the white sand beach after slowly floating over a coral reef with several colorful fish. On the island we found hermit crabs, which entranced Sophie-Claire, and some red and purple Pacific land crabs.
Our hotel also provided beach chairs and a picnic lunch with drinks so we set ourselves up under a nice shady spot of coconut trees. There were a few other people but the crowds really arrived in the afternoon when we were leaving. Chris, Sophie-Claire and I hiked across the island to a cove where we saw thousands of frigate birds feeding. We walked back to the beach and took Sophie-Claire into the water for her first ocean swim. She loved it and splashed around with her little life jacket snugly around her. Gretchen even took her hands off the life jacket and let Sophie-Claire free float. We had our picnic lunch under the trees and Chris did a bit of snorkeling while the rest of us watched. Later Gretchen, Rita and I went hiking again on another trail which ended up at the same pretty cove. And true to its name, we saw several iguanas on the island on our hikes and on the beach.
By mid-afternoon black clouds were building up and we decided to head back to the hotel. Sophie-Claire had herself a big, busy day. Our panga came and we loaded everything back into the boat and headed back. The ride back was very choppy with rain splattering on us as well. Sophie-Claire once more laughed on the ride back but fell asleep even on this very bumpy ride. She is a water girl. Back at the hotel we napped for a while and I had a beer in a hammock on our balcony while watching Panama flycatchers, ruddy quail-doves, and blue-gray tanagers. I also saw green hummingbirds getting nectar from the flowers but I couldn’t tell what kind they were. Panama has about 40 different hummingbirds.
In the evening we hired a babysitter (employee of the hotel), dressed up a bit and headed out to a late dinner at an upscale resort. A few miles down the road in a very remote part of the area is the Villa Camilla where celebrities such as Michael Jordan and Shakira have stayed. We had dinner reservations for 8:00 pm and had a table set up by the swimming pool. The resort was built and is run by a Frenchman and it is tastefully decorated. It wasn’t very crowded but the setting was tranquil with the sounds of the ocean waves in the distance. Our meal was good but not exceptional. We did have a nice Bordeaux wine and Chris says French wines are difficult to find in Panama.
Sunday we had breakfast at our hotel and didn’t check out until close to noon. Chris, Gretchen and Sophie-Claire walked around town while Rita and I talked to the American hotel owner who is from Pennsylvania. Finally we checked out, loaded the car, and went a few blocks away to the Iguana restaurant for lunch. It was a local café with basic amenities – a big difference from the night before. But we had fish, beer, and chips which were all tasty. After lunch we made a stop at Dulceria Yedy, a local sweet shop where we had their delicious flan and espresso. Yedy, the elderly lady who owns the shop, has photos of herself with several Panamanian celebrities who have visited the shop. She came out to greet us and offered to be photographed with Sophie-Claire but by that time Sophie-Claire was tired and buckled into her car seat.
We headed back to “the city” as Panamanians call it and took our highway back through Pocri and Las Tablas where a festival was being held. We spent an hour on a detour road around Las Tablas which the local police could not have messed up more. We finally made it through and back to the main highway which took us to Chitre and Divisa where we took the Pan American highway back to Panama City. We also hit very heavy rain which obscured the traffic for several hours. Chris had a difficult time in the long deluge but we finally made it back to their apartment about 6:00 pm. Sophie-Claire was once more a great traveler who slept much of the way and was cheerful when awake.
Gretchen took off work on Monday and at noon she took us, and Sophie-Claire, to the US Embassy where we had lunch in the cafeteria. Chris ate with us and we sat with some of his office’s employees. Gretchen took us around her offices and introduced us to her supervisor and many of her co-workers. As should be the case, Sophie-Claire was the center of attraction.
Gretchen returned to work on Tuesday and for the next few days Rita and I had more Sophie-Claire time around the house. One day her nanny, Eladia, prepared a local soup dish called sancocho which was delicious. We also witnessed Sophie-Claire try her first hand-held tasting of a tomato. She made a face but continued to eat it. She also had new teeth bothering her and woke up in the night a couple of times. But basically she is a very jolly child.
Friday Chris and Gretchen took off work again and with Eladia taking care of Sophie-Claire, the four of us drove to the village of Gamboa. On the way we saw dozens of large blue morph butterflies and I saw a toucan on the wing. We arrived at the impressive Gamboa Rain Forest Resort where we started our Monkey Island tour at 8:30 am. The resort is located on the Chagres River and our small boat (but bigger than a panga) with three other people, driver and guide, set out into the Panama Canal towards Monkey Island. Once we arrived we coasted very slowly in a jungle looking for wildlife. And we found some. Among the birds we saw snail kites, black-bellied whistling ducks, mangrove swallows, black hawks, a lesser ani, and a purple gallinule. We also saw a baby crocodile, more neques, and monkeys. First we saw a group of howler monkeys with the head monkey making howling noises. Later we came across three white-faced capuchin monkeys – one who boarded our boat looking for handouts. Finally our boat headed back to the resort.
Then we took another tour called the Treetop Tram Tour. A guide was assigned to the four of us and we all rode up a hill on an aerial tramway together. At the top we departed the tram and walked through a jungle rainforest to a platform which we climbed to the top. Here we saw another of the toucans with huge yellow bills. From the top we had great views of the Panama Canal and Chagres River. Our guide pointed out several tropical plants and after the tour we had lunch in one of the resort restaurants on the river.
Saturday we walked to the Embassy Club swimming pool with Sophie-Claire. Gretchen, Chris and I went into the pool with Sophie-Claire who had a great time splashing around once more. She does love the water. Following that we drove to a local area that has several handicraft stalls with local ware. Rita bought a couple of items and called it good. We had lunch at a Greek cafeteria called Nikos. Then Chris and Gretchen had to pick up some framed photos downtown so we had a good tour of the high rise condos. In the afternoon Chris and I took a walk and came across some green parrots in their neighborhood as well as a coati mundi which closely resembles a raccoon.
In the evening the four adults went out for dinner at a very nice restaurant called Maitos. All of us had great food and I had a starter of smoked pork in little corn tacos followed by a main course of corvina, a local fish, with shrimp. Dessert was a chocolate, caramel and marshmallow concoction that was delicious. We had bottles of white and red wines. It was a wonderful, delicious end to a great trip.
Sunday we woke to a loud thunderstorm with much lightning right over us. I loved it! We stayed in bed until the storm blew over then packed our bags for departure. We played with Sophie-Claire until it was time for Chris to take us to the airport. We flew Continental again to Houston and then on to San Antonio arriving after 8:00 pm. By the time we stopped for dinner and again at a grocery store for a few items, it was 11:00 pm when we arrived home. But it was a great trip. We had a great time with Gretchen and Chris but especially with Sophie-Claire.
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