Railroad along the canal

Today we did the path of the canal by rail and by bus and tomorrow it will be by ship. It’s hot and muggy as befits a jungle and the stories of the making of the canal make us wonder why anyone came here to work voluntarily. Over 22,000 people died here during the construction!

Our train experience provided us with a snack and a nice simple map:

We started from the North/Caribbean/Atlantic side on the railroad and then came back from the South/Pacific side by bus. Colon, on the Caribbean, is in a state of disrepair while Panama City is thriving and full of expats who find living there in the new high rise condos to be very inexpensive. The train ride was enjoyable and our guide talked non-stop giving us much interesting information about the country and the canal.

Gatun Lake, the large lake in the middle of the canal passage, was beautiful in its own way. Millions of dead trees which have been there for over 100 years since the area was flooded to create the lake still stand where they grew. We’re told that a Canadian company harvests them for the wood which makes good furniture.

Panama is about the same size as Maine or South Carolina and has an amazing array of flora and fauna. Our guide told us that there are 1038 bird species and 125 of snakes as well as 1200 species of orchids. They have 12 varieties of mangos and everyone just picks or picks them up — no need to buy them.

The Canal Zone is a busy place with roads and buildings for every sort of work needed on the canal and housing for workers.

Our train ride ended in Panama City at the Southern/Pacific end of the canal where we had lunch and saw both the modern and the old city as well a Panama hats for sale everywhere. Panama hats, we learned, are not made in or particularly used in Panama but are named as such because Panama was the place where goods, including the hats which were made in Ecuador, were warehoused for shipping around the world.

After dinner back on the ship Dale and I like to go up on the top deck and enjoy the air and the sky and tonight I checked out the upper deck of the Explorers Lounge and found a few interesting items. Tomorrow the actual canal transit!