Panama – Short and Sweet!

Panama – Short and Sweet!

We flew into Panama expecting to have to wait a week in a hotel before picking up Big Bertha from the port. But the shipping stars were aligned and we got the call to come to port on our third day and so we were limited to one day of sightseeing in Panama City, but nonetheless, we liked what we saw; especially the historic centre.

We picked up Big Bertha at 4pm and so we stayed locally, at a nearby marina, and we then spent the next day visiting the Atlantic end of the Panama canal at the Gatun Locks. Dave really enjoys looking at ‘big’ engineering and the canal ticks all the boxes! The canal has an interesting history – the French tried to build it and went bust, the Americans bought the project off them for $40m, did a deal with the Panamanians to defend them from the Colombians in return for the land around the canal (which effectively became US territory), completed the canal in 1914, and then handed it back to the Panamanians in 1999. In 2007, Panama invested a large sum to expand the canal with additional locks to cater for larger ships. This opened in 2016.

Panama is now quite a wealthy country thanks to the fees charged ($5bn in 2024) of which roughly 50% goes to the treasury, or $581 per capita, after Operation and Maintenance costs.

The canal has three flights of locks – one at the pacific end and one at the caribbean end. The canal is 82km long and comprises cuts and flooded man made lakes. Surprisingly, the entire system is fresh water, to prevent corrosion to canal infrastructure, the supply of which is purely from rains emptying into the artificial lake. Panama is the fifth rainiest country in the world (ask us how we know!).

After just two days, it was time to head for the hills because the temperature and humidity was unbearable. So the next stop was El Valle, a small village in the hills (700m) popular with expatriates. We spent a few days there cooling down and then descended back to the heat, visiting a church at Nata (dating back to the 1500s) and a canal interactive centre at Santiago, where Dave got to pilot a ship through the canal. We also stopped at a gas plant to refill our tanks. There was a little consternation on how to fill them, but we found that Panamanians are resourceful as well as friendly and they found a way.

Our next refuge from the heat was Boquete, sitting at 1000m and a very popular town with Americans. We spent five days here and took advantage of the cool climate to do a couple of hikes.

Before leaving Boquete, we visited the supermarket and bought a heap of supplies – Costa Rica is expensive we have been told. We then drove the short distance to the Costa Rican border and crossed without hassle. Thank you and goodbye Panama.