The street is dusty, children's screams drown out the otherwise prevailing traffic noise. A few young people are playing soccer on the uneven, potholed alley. A small boy is standing a bit apart with his ball, watching the hustle and bustle. He is probably still too young to play. When he sees me coming, he walks towards me and tries to look as impassive as possible. I stand in his way and try to wrest the ball from him. He was just waiting for that. He skillfully defends the ball and runs around me. He is happy and I smile at him. Twenty meters further on, he suddenly shouts Senor! I turn around and the boy passes me the ball. I stop him and play it back again.
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| Panama City |
The scene in which it all takes place is in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Panama. The contrasts of a city can not be greater than in Panama City. Skyscrapers and modern, almost futuristic buildings rise into the sky. One street further, there is sheer chaos. An avenue with high walls, rolls of barbed wire on top. Camera systems monitor the entrance. Behind it, a park-like complex with tall trees that provide shade for the villa on the property. One street further, decaying industrial plants, where the poorest of the poor are still looking for something usable. As part of our preparations for the Pacific, we do some shopping in Panama City. This brings us a little closer to the city and we discover its beautiful and less beautiful sides.
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| Panama City Downtown |
The mill where we pick up 50kg of grain is a bit out of the way. The traffic is enormous and the constant changing of the lane, does not make the ride more relaxed, especially since you always have to watch out for the holes in the asphalt. Finally we reach the mill, but we are not allowed to enter. The bags are brought to us in front of the gate. Too bad, I would have been interested to see how the flour you can buy here is made. We drive back over a toll road. The highway leads over a bay and we reach directly the city center. Here are the modern skyscrapers. Mainly banks and commercial buildings are located here. Of course, shopping centers are not to be missed and Panama City is in no way inferior to other cities. We are looking for a ship chandlery, which is supposed to be located near the city center, in a small industrial area. Next door, a car is being dismantled on the street and usable individual parts are being sent to the spare parts trade. There are no oil drip pans, but it doesn't matter, because the dust covers everything up again anyhow, within one night, so that you can't see any more of the spilled oil anyway.
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| On the outskirts of the old town, Panama City |
Since we don't get everything, we drive out to the Flamenco Marina. The marina is located at the exit or entrance - depending on which side you look at it from - of the Panama Canal on the Pacific side. There are a few ship dealers here. Unfortunately, Panama's commerce is not designed for sailboats. You just can't get many things here. Therefore most things have to be imported. One does well to plan enough time and money for the transport. The Shelter Bay Marina, on the Atlantic side, offers a, not quite cheap, but reliable service. The delivery service delivers almost daily from Miami. However, I wanted to take a few blocks for the Pacific, which unfortunately did not work out. In between we pick up Dennis, who has hired on the SY Mare. Dennis has responded to an ad at Hand against bunk and wants to go to New Zealand. Since Reinhold is alone at the moment, this is a good match. Dennis immediately gets to feel what it means to sail on a sailboat.
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| Restaurant in the old town of Panama City |
The next store is a bookstore where you can buy maps. Islamorada Internacional S.A. is the name of the store. It smells like old wood and paper when we enter the store. I hadn't experienced that for a long time, that a store has its own individual smell. My grandmother in Graz lived in an apartment building in the middle of town and there was a milk store on the street corner. In those days, milk was still filled on the spot from a jug into glasses milk bottles. The smell of floor wax and curdled milk made the stairwell a very special olfactory experience. I think you never forget a smell like that for the rest of your life. Just as I will never forget the smell of this bookstore. The shelves were made of solid wood, the counter was a glass showcase, covered with all kinds of written material. Some books are aging, others have this year's issue date. Maps are available from all over the world, and even if the store has a certain nostalgia, you can still buy the latest charts and cruising guides. We stay here longer than necessary, before we finally turn our attention to the old town. Casco Viejo is built on a headland and since 2003 UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 1673, the new city was built here after the old city, two years earlier by Henry Morgan, was attacked and eventually completely destroyed. In the 18th century, the district was again badly damaged by fire. In recent years, much has been done for the reconstruction and with numerous historic buildings, restaurants and pubs, a thoroughly worth seeing district was created.
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| If you have the misfortune to be born on the wrong side of the street |
On Calle 13 Oeste, the children play soccer again and are so far away from the glamour of this city, although it starts only one block away. Somewhat thoughtfully we sit down in the car and drive back the way to Vista Mar. There is a tremendous amount of traffic and they use one lane of the opposite lane to let the line of cars flow better. But that doesn't help much either. 30 kilometers out of town, we make it and the number of cars slowly decreases. Late in the evening we reach our Katinka dead tired.
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| Fruit cooled down to refrigerator temperature |
The next day we continue with the shopping. We bunker altogether for scarcely 400€ food, whereby we bought still no fresh commodity, like fruit and vegetable. This we will do only shortly before we leave. Unfortunately, we have to reckon with headwind on the route at the moment, so that our departure is delayed a little bit. But as the saying goes: "The patient skipper always has the right wind". In this sense, we wish you to always come to the world on the right side of the road, fair winds and keep a stiff upper lip.
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| Waiting for the right weather window |
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