Panama Canal with Mickie Bachrow

10:06 PM ‘Sunday Jan 8, 2023

No Mickie Bachrow is not chopped liver. 


Both David and I were up late in anticipation of our transverse of the Panama Canal. The timing was unsure but we knew it would be early so we left the Bain curtains open. Sometime between 5:30 and six I was startled out of my sleep and saw lights from my bed outside. I practically stumbled out of bed and looked to see we were already in The canal. I tried to wake David but he was in a deep sleep so I quickly dressed and ran up the stairs, grabbed some hot coffee and made my way to the deck only to discover I had missed going under the first bridge. Apparently we had entered around 4:30am.


It is really unbelievable what this canal with its locks and technology can achieve. I won’t bore you with facts and details as you ca read all that elsewhere just to say it is mind boggling. Let alone this was done in 1914. As the day went on the ship seamanly made its way through the locks and dams guided by a series of small train like robots with a mean inches between the ship and the walls of the locks on either side. David and I made our way from deck to deck meandering and watching in amazement as the ship glided on past the palm trees and jungle. Our ship the Volendam made excellent progress and while we took time for our afternoon Dutch 
Tea Party. Our sister ship Ziederdam was close behind. unlike us this ship did not pass the minimum Covid test and the passengers are having to wear masks and we are allowed to be mask free. We take great pride in our staff for their constant cleaning and sanitizing every surface. Our ship is both clean and safe.  

We ended the day with what was essentially a field trip with four of our new best buddies into Panama City. We had a double date with tow very lovely Jewish women in the room next door and a couple from England. The bus took us to a city carnival tourist area. It was crowded with people on pedal carts, bikes, lights and it was like being dropped off in the middle of the state fair. The crowds were insane and we didn’t stay long, returning to the softly of our ship for the 9:00 big screen movie, Panama. It had Mel Gibson as some kind of CIA operative and a band of Panamanian thugs taking out Noriega and his Sandinista henchmen. The movie was bad, real bad. It was a Spanish language film dubbed in ‘English. We left early and expect a good night sleep as tomorrow is our Panamanian Monkey cruise. 



 

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