Panama Canal, Colon

We awoke on Wednesday, April 23, to a beautiful Panama Canal day--the destination we had been anticipating. 

Our ship is approaching the three Gatun Locks which will raise us above sea level and deposit the ship into Gatun Lake.

We stay in our lane as the locomotive mules help guide our ship through the locks.

Our gate is opening up for us to pass into our lock. The container ship on our right has risen in its lock and is getting ready to move on up into the next lock.

Up and out it goes.

How do I look today? Healthy and well?

Somebody sharing my cabin was sure hoping I was going to get a clean bill of health.

The workers who were on the locomotive mules going back and forth between the canals were so friendly as they waved up to us passengers. The mules help guide the big ships through the canal with very little room to spare on both sides of the ship.

The container ship is entering the next lock.

The gates are shutting behind it and the water will begin to fill the lock.

 The ship rises and will soon be on its way out.

We got through the three locks and are now in Gatun Lake. Only those people who had pre-planned shore excursions arranged through the ship were allowed off the boat.

This was the one and only pre-planned excursion for us and Glen is totally ecstatic because Nurse Grace declared me fever-free; hence quarantine-free; which meant we could put on our dork dots #3 and join our shore excursion group.

We were tendered from our ship to the shore and now we're off on an hour-long drive to see some sights and visit Colon. The rest of the passengers remained on the ship. The ship waited her turn to go back through the Gatun Locks where we came from. We rejoined the ship in Colon.

This is some interesting city architecture.

We went to some ruins where the great fire destroyed Colon.

This is our guide for the day explaining lots of things to us.

Does this guy look like a tourist or what?!?

There was some beauty among the ruins. Quite an interesting looking tree trunk.

This flowering tree was very beautiful.

It was a sunny day which Patricia loved.

Look at me--I'm turning into my mother! I actually carried an umbrella to shield me from the sun. Our guide was so confused as to why in the world I was using an umbrella when there was no rain in sight. Ah ha! Apparently she hasn't met my mother!

I honestly still wasn't feeling all that great. I kept forcing myself to drink lots of water. It was very hot and I didn't want to have a heat stroke after being feverish for a couple of days.

More information spewing forth from our guide.

 Beautiful cityscape view.

We walked through a shopping area--not buying anything, of course.

We came upon an interesting chicken statue. Made us think with fond memories of the popular landmark in Marietta Georgia--KFC's The Big Chicken--that everyone would use as a point of reference for directions.

The statue at the base of the chicken is of Ferdinand De Lesseps--the French man we read a good book about who built the Suez Canal and then made a noble attempt to build the Panama Canal at sea level.

After thousands of deaths due to diseases and financial troubles resulting in a failed attempt, the Americans came to the rescue and built the inter-oceanic waterway which uses a system of locks raising ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake, 26 meters above sea level, and then lowers the ships to sea level on the other side of the isthmus. (That paragraph copied straight from the internet.)

Some buildings in the city.

We ended our tour at a shopping area where we were told to not step one foot outside the patrolled border of the shops or it would not be safe for us. Scary! Just hearing that confirmed to me why I am nervous to travel outside the good old U.S.A.!

We did survive, found our ship and got back on board to change clothes and go to dinner and a show.

Long day! Felt good to be out of quarantine even though I thought Glen and I sounded absolutely terrible with our deep, loud, frequent coughing. That wasn't going away even though the fever had run its course.