Colon, Panama
On Sunday, March 18, we took the bus from Panama City to Colon, which is the eastern side entrance of the Canal. The ride by express bus took 1 hour and 15 minutes and cost $2 USD each. The bus was like a Greyhound, air-conditioned, curtains, and storage down the bottom. That is not a normal bus for this part of the country. Most of the buses are old school buses. We wondered if the US school system had some type of deal with Panama for getting rid of their old, worn buses. Our bus ride included a movie in English with Spanish subtitles. The movie was about Attica prison and the riot in the 70s. We almost missed our stop in Colon because we were so engrossed in the movie. We did not notice that we were in Colon because all the bus curtains were drawn (better for movie viewing and keeping the bus cool). We only noticed because everyone was blocking our view of the TV screen on their way off the bus. Suddenly there were only two people on the bus. We jumped up and asked if this was Colon and the driver said si. We grabbed our stuff and jumped off. Before the bus could pull away a taxi stopped for us. We jumped in and were off to the hotel - a two block ride that cost us $2. We would have walked but we did not know where the hotel was located.We moved from the sauna (Panama City) to the armpit of the world (Colon). It looks like there was a war here. Every other building is abandoned. Just like Panama City, every hotel and store has a security guard with a pistol. However, here the grocery store guard had a big machine gun. But do not worry. We are being careful.
We were supposed to meet Alan the day we arrived in Colon (Sunday). Alan, his son, Duane, and other crew sailed the boat from Trinidad to Colon. His wife and daughter flew from Canada to Colon to meet them and visit for a few days. The plan was for the family to sail from Colon to Isla Boca for a few days then return to Colon and meet us and the other crewmember, Steve, on Sunday. In an earlier email we agreed that we would meet Alan and his family at the Colon Yacht Club at 2 PM on Sunday. This would be a good opportunity for us to meet his family. We went - but no Alan. We talked to a few of the yachties but no one either at the six pier yacht club or out at the flats, an anchorage near the club, has seen or heard about our boat, Rhum Punch. One of the yachties even went out to the flats where there are about 50 boats anchored and cruised around looking for our boat. Nothing. Alan and Rhum Punch are not in Colon. What happened?