Paradise - Taboga Island, Panama

For my weekend in Panama City, I decided to escape the city and head to the island of Taboga, which is 12miles off the coast of Panama City. It was amazingly beautiful and incredibly relaxing!

I was greeted by my buddy Juan Ramone the juice shop guy when I walked off the boat. Who knew that a smoothie made from melon and ice could be that delicious...I had four in my short stay that was barely over one day.

The town of San Pedro was very small and quaint and I loved taking walks and hikes all over to explore.

I stayed at the Cerrito Tropical - a quaint B&B owned by an Canadian couple.

The Cerrito had an amazing hammock where I took a fabulous nap!

Nothing beats fresh seafood from the island...and this place was no exception - 4 tables total, overlooking the ocean, amazing!

There were great trails to hike all over the island, through the wildlife preserve.

Taboga is called the island of flowers...for obvious reasons!

One of the many beaches...

I had checked out the the Cerrito earlier in the day, but they let me store my bag and use their garden shower before my ferry departed.

Can't beat that as an ending to a wonderful trip!

Panama Canal

On Friday afternoon, Gina took Linda and I to the Panama Canal. I absolutely loved it, could have stayed all day - it was fascinating. There are 3 sets of locks, we went to the Miraflores Locks, just minutes from Panama City.

There are two sets of locks at Miraflores. Half the day the traffic flows Atlantic to Pacific, half the day Pacific to Atlantic, and at night one lane is open for each. This Maersk ship had just entered the last lock when we arrived.
See how above the blue part of the ship was visible and below it is not....that is all done through massive amounts of water being pumped in and out of the locks.
The ships receive a pull from a tug boat to get into the locks, and from there they are hooked up to mini-trains that guide them through (as you'll see with the cruise ship pictures below).
Over looking the locks.

Coconut water....so much better than regular boring water :-)

We were told that this car carrier only had 2ft on each side to pass through the locks. There are several ships that actually scrap the sides going through.

Again, note the before and after as the car carrier goes through the locks. The ships are lowered 27ft at Miraflores.

I took some video of the locks opening and a small cruise ship going through. Yes, this is a small one - ships are taxed based on cargo and this one was $156,000. The largest cruise ship cost $375,000 - yikes!

The locks also has a great museum with a video about the history of the Canal, and several floors of exhibits explaining the Canal, from mechanical to biological. As I said, I absolutely loved it and will definitely go back when I return in March!!!

PCLC

What is a PCLC you ask? A Panama Coastal Logistics Center, of course. I'm down in Panama for a week and a half to help train our new hires and it has been a blast so far. My days are filled with process maps and training material....

My evenings are spent laughing with the team. Danicel, Itzel, and Rafael are the West Coast team - basically they make sure the ships go out full from any west coast port.

Alexandra and Maritzela are the East Coast team....
Julio, who runs the Panama office...and basically the country of Panama, took us to many fantastic meals...

And my nights were spent dancing with Itzel and her friends!Itzel took me to the Amador Causeway (built using all the rocks excavated from the Canal) where they have a pedestrian street about 2 blocks long line with bars and clubs.

El Ultimo Dia

As they all do, this vacation passed way too quickly. After Kel and I went for a tough run on the beach (tide was in and wind was strong) and a walk with Mom, we all headed down to breakfast on the beach.

True to form, Kel and Bob tried to soak up the rays until the last second.

Another successful "last" family vacation - thanks for another great one Mom and Dad!

...and lucky for me, I've still got a week and a half in Panama before heading back to the frozen tundra!!! Plus, I got a few extra hours in Roatan so I headed down to the condo pool.

Some clouds were rolling in so I had the whole pool to myself!

The Good Life

We had another great day in Roatan. My family stayed in the West Bay to snorkel and enjoy the best beach on the island, while I hopped on the water taxi down to West End to spend the day diving.

I'm going to give another plug for the Sea Grape - I stayed here last year and it was great and very reasonable. All the employees are fabulous and it is one of the only locally owned dive shops.

Tony, Doug, and I had a great first dive of the day. Went through some caverns, along the reef wall, and down to about 80ft. Tony spotted a sea turtle headed up to the surface for air so we waited for him to swim back down and then watched him for while.

I went to Tong's for an extremely delicious and relaxing lunch, followed by a little ACC basketball at the sports bar across the street.

Then it was back out on the water. This time Tony captained the boat and Calvin took us along "Green Outhouse Wall." The current was so strong that we just glided along and barely had to kick. At the end of the dive we dove through a cave and to get out we had to go one by one and swim up, maneuvering through some very tight spaces - so fun!

It was a gorgeous afternoon, so I walked the hour back to West Bay...

Along the way, I had to cross a treacherous bridge. I remember crossing it last year with Daron and we went one by one for fear it would collapse. Well, it has only gotten worse. When I got up to it there were steel wires blocking the entrance. I asked the fisherman standing there gutting his catch how to get across and he said the only way was the bridge. Well...when it Rome I guess. I hopped the wire blockade, made my way carefully up the broken steps, walked quickly across and down and over the blockade on the other side. Probably not my smartest move, but I made it!

For dinner we walked down to the Vintage Pearl on the beach, a little Italian style villa.

Any place where you leave your flip flops at the door is a winner in my book!

Our three course meals were delicious and afterwards we walked down to the beach and relaxed in the hammocks looking up at billions of stars - seriously amazing!

Island Fun - Roatan

For the 5th annual last family vacation - yes, we ladies have conned Bob into 5 "last" family vacations - we headed down to Roatan, Honduras. Daron and I had gone last year, and I knew my family would LOVE it! We arrived on Thurday afternoon, checked into our great condo, and headed to the beach for a little snorkeling. For dinner we headed to the Lobster Pot...which our cab driver could not deliver us too directly...we had to walk the last bit via beach!

It was delicious...as Kel said "If their name is the Lobster Pot, I think it is a safe bet that they have pretty good lobster." And, everything - including the coconut wheat bread - was made by hand - we all cleaned our plates :-)

On the way back we stopped at the Barefoot Bar and Kel listened for the ocean in the conchs....heard nothing, must have still had stuffed ears from the plane, bummer.

On Friday morning, I headed back to the Sea Grape Plantation Dive Shop - where I got certified last year - for my first of 4 dives. It was great - lots of fish and a couple sea turtles! Then off to the Blue Marlin for lunch.

Kel and Mom joined me for the second dive of the day....they snorkeled.

While Tony, Peter, Doug and I were diving we saw a HUGE manta ray - click on that link, it was HUGE, 10ft tip to tip, had a remora traveling with it. It just kept circling us...not aggressively, but still a bit scary - but overall it was SO COOL!

We headed to Eagle Ray's for happy hour and sunset watching.

Dinner at the Lighthouse was delicious....and entertaining since Bob decided to wow us with a new fashion sense...swim trunks under shorts....