Around Panama City - March 11th

Today is Mom's birthday!!!  Happy Birthday to you, Mom!

Nice breakfast this morning in our hotel.  The weather was warm and the birds were just singing away!

Angie and John

After breakfast, we drove out to the Panama Canal and had some luck.  After paying for out entrance tickets, we went out to the observation deck and a ship was just going through and we could see 2 more behind it that would be coming through soon.  So, we stood out in the sun and waited for at least one of those ships to get through the locks and as before, it was all very interesting.  It seems it doesn't matter how many times we visit these locks, it is always amazing and fascinating to watch the ships going through.  We didn't stay to watch the entire process (too hot), instead we went back inside and watched a short video about the building of the Panama Canal.

Ships approaching the locks

Entering the first lock

Being steadied from the edges by "mules", those little box cars along the sides.

Here the mules are getting in front of the ship to pull it the last few inches and then they're going to go back down and try to stop the ship completely with those wires.

The ship is inside the lock and the lock is filling with water.

The next lock the ship will go in...

Looking ahead to the next lock

The back of the ship, and the mule cars helping to slow it down.

The ship is about to be enclosed in the second lock.

We didn't watch too much after this since it is so slow going and the sun is pretty hot out on that observation deck.   So we went back inside the building and watched a short video about the building of the Panama Canal which helped us cool off a bit.  Then we got back in the car and drove to the Amador Causeway to have lunch.  We went to a place called Lenos y Carbon and had some delicious shish-kebabs at a restaurant along the water's edge with the skyline of Panama City in the distance.

The skyline up a little close.....

and basically how it looked from where we ate.

After visiting the causeway, we took a break at our hotel and then that evening went out (in a taxi this time because we'd have to drive through that rough area again - this time on purpose) to see Casco Viejo.  It is always so interesting there.

John and Guillermo looking over the wall in the Plaza de Francia

Plaza de Francia

Looking back towards a section of Panama City from Plaza de Francia

John and Angie

After walking around in Plaza de Francia and along the sea wall, we found the restaurant that Guillermo and I had eaten at in 2009.  When we arrived at the restaurant, there was maybe one other table with people, so at first we thought we had made a wrong choice since a lot of the other outdoor restaurants had way more people.  Well, I can't say the "food" was all that exciting - it was good enough - but we ended up having such a wonderful time.  We picked a good table, and a group of people came later to the table next to us.  Next thing we know, there's a guitar player on the bench by their table.  Just listening to him sing and play his guitar, and adding to it - the ladies at the table next to us singing their hearts out along with the guitar player.  It was wonderful.  Angie requested a song dear to her heart and the ladies also sang along to that one - as Angie sang along too, with tears in her eyes.  At one point, two of the ladies got up, sat next to the guitar player and sang along with him there.

We had so much fun this evening, lingering over dessert and drinks.  When we finally did leave, we walked to their table to tell them how much we enjoyed listening to them sing and ended up talking with their group for a little while.  Turns out they all were from Venezuela, now living in Panama.  Well, they really made our evening special.