The Panama Canal at Miraflores

The Panama Canal at Miraflores

For some reason, whenever I hear of the Panama Canal I think of “Arsenic and Old Lace”.
Teddy says “I’m going to the basement to dig the Panama Canal!”
I love that show…
No trip to Panama, especially Panama City, would be complete without a trip to the canal.
We didn’t really make it work last time we were here (as we just passed through Panama City), but this time we knew we’d go.
Our overnight bus arrived into Panama City from David at 6:00am – exactly on time!
There are some crazy buses in Panama (all over Central America)!

From there we went to our hotel, and they let us check in super early, which was great!
So, we were able to grab a nap.
I read that there is a restaurant in the visitor’s center of the canal, so we decided to go there, have lunch, and watch a few ships pass through.
It was awesome! The food was ok, not the best (and pretty pricey), but good enough.

But it really did have the best view of the canal, which is really what you’re paying for when you go to eat at the visitor’s center.
We got to see a very large cargo ship go through.
It was really fun to see the workers on the ship waving and taking pictures (of us, waving and taking pictures).

It takes about an hour for a ship to go through the canal.
The video below is 1 hour and 15 minutes of our time summed up in 2 minutes.
Press play to see it.

Then we had to basically run through the museum because we waited to long to check out the exhibit.
But, we did get to see some really fun parts. I especially liked the guy dressed in the haz-mat suit. He clearly needed it, what with his hand down at the level of his shin.

Jonathan liked the UPS guy. He decided to shake his hand, but got a little more than he bargained for.

After closing the museum, like we tend to do, we took a taxi out to the Causeway.
The Causeway took dirt from digging the canal and then used it to connect some islands off the cost of the city.

So, we went to the far island and then walked into town. We had dinner at a restaurant that was back on the mainland, and decided that for one of our last meals in Panama, we should try the “Panamanian Touch”.
It was just a collection of local foods, but the name sure was interesting. It wasn’t the best food I’ve ever had, but the experience was really great. It was a fun walk, with plenty to see, and great company.