Arrived in Grand Cayman - in one piece
Arrived at Grand Cayman – Yeah! Halleluyia – thank God I’m alive and that ‘YOU’ listened to my prayers through all of those lonely night watches when I sat at the edge of the bench in our cockpit for 3 hours watching the towering waves heading towards us and then leaving us sometimes to shudder in their wake, my job which I will not shirk no matter how nervous I am – which is to do a 360 degree search of the seascape to ensure our safety every 15 minutes. If there is something to deal with, such as a large freighter or an incredibly well lit cruise ship that’s a bonus, because now I have something to do other than worry and pray. I get to watch the ship through my binoculars to see whether its direction effects me at all. If it does then I want to know when I should start to worry about that fact – radar will tell me that, but mostly I trust my eyes and the fact that I learned what I needed to know about ship identification at night.
So this last 10 days since we left Christobal have kinda outranked what I would have written about Panama.
Just to put that in perspective, we have been through many ports and cities on our route and though we cannot possibly be any kind of authority on any of these locations we still have the right to use the old ‘love at first sight’ test which we all trust because we all love love, and some [places you go have got it and some just don’t. If they have then one takes the time to spend in that place, with those people etc. So I suppose Panama did not have it. We did have a lot to do in Panama and our focus was definitely all about how to get out of Panama and through the canal as soon as possible.
We also didn’t really feel safe in Panama and relied on a driver quite often to get us around. He helped us with our transit and checking in and out procedures in Panama which are quite ridiculous and we did pay a ‘tip’ or call that bribe to have an official in the Port Captain’s office expedite our paperwork more quickly. The supervisor of that office caught our driver and the official in that transaction and told us that we had just basically been ripped off and that this service was free. We let our driver know that we knew and from then on he stopped asking us for tips.
We did a very brief trip around Old Town Panama which is sadly taking a very long time to renovate, but will be absolutely beautiful in about 50 years time if it doesn’t all crumble before they finish it. This is definitely a tourist draw. Unfortunately on the way to Old Town you have to pass through the Barrio district which is a disgusting eye sore or tall tenement buildings which are filthy and completely unkempt. Apparently the inhabitants are all squatters and will not be evicted. The government owns the buildings and keeps up the supply of electricity and water so the squatters stay. Perhaps some of these apartments are kept nice inside but from the outside this is a very scary district to pass through.
So this last 10 days since we left Christobal have kinda outranked what I would have written about Panama.
Just to put that in perspective, we have been through many ports and cities on our route and though we cannot possibly be any kind of authority on any of these locations we still have the right to use the old ‘love at first sight’ test which we all trust because we all love love, and some [places you go have got it and some just don’t. If they have then one takes the time to spend in that place, with those people etc. So I suppose Panama did not have it. We did have a lot to do in Panama and our focus was definitely all about how to get out of Panama and through the canal as soon as possible.
We also didn’t really feel safe in Panama and relied on a driver quite often to get us around. He helped us with our transit and checking in and out procedures in Panama which are quite ridiculous and we did pay a ‘tip’ or call that bribe to have an official in the Port Captain’s office expedite our paperwork more quickly. The supervisor of that office caught our driver and the official in that transaction and told us that we had just basically been ripped off and that this service was free. We let our driver know that we knew and from then on he stopped asking us for tips.
We did a very brief trip around Old Town Panama which is sadly taking a very long time to renovate, but will be absolutely beautiful in about 50 years time if it doesn’t all crumble before they finish it. This is definitely a tourist draw. Unfortunately on the way to Old Town you have to pass through the Barrio district which is a disgusting eye sore or tall tenement buildings which are filthy and completely unkempt. Apparently the inhabitants are all squatters and will not be evicted. The government owns the buildings and keeps up the supply of electricity and water so the squatters stay. Perhaps some of these apartments are kept nice inside but from the outside this is a very scary district to pass through.
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