WORLD TOUR BY SHIP, TRAIN, BUS, FERRY, FEET 2012: DAY 30 TUESDAY APRIL 24 THE CANAL

Very exciting day. It was raining and misty when we started moving at 1am.
We moved slowly up the river and arrived at the first lock at 3am.
There was a huge operation taking place parallel to us as they build a new
canal that can accept wider ships than ours. We coul toch the lock walls on
either side of the ship. There were hundreds of workers busy as we moved
through. One tried to sell us a panama cap for ten bucks but we declined.
We were changing from side to side and from upper yo lower decks all day.
Another ship was following us closely in the next lane of the canal so we
had a good view of the procedure from outside view as well. After three locks
we sailed across the huge freshwater lake that proides the water for both
sides of the canal. Crocodiles were seen along the bank and there were
several dredging barges deepening the channels between the locks. We
arrived at the desceding three locks at 10:30am and emerged at sea level
an hour later.
The Manet berthed after lunch and we received clearance to go ashore to
visit the city of Colon which services the Eastern end of the canal. Very few
people can speak English so we were lucky to be given a taxi driver who was
bringing back passengers from another ship. He gave us a rundown on where
to go and arranged to pickus up at 7pm where he dropped us off.
The people of Colon were clean and happy but the streets were filthy and
hazardous. Malcolm fell over negotiating deep gutter in the dark and ahuge black
man picked him up and dusted him off. Came away with only a sore wrist.
We found out the hard way that there was no wifi in this city. We decided the
safest place to eat was MacDonals. There was beautiful cathedral under
repair.
A long day but one we will never forget.