Scotia is a Canadian bank that has a lot of operations outside of Canada. She was very knowledgable not only about what is going on in Panama, but financial situations in Costa Rica, Venezuala, and Cuba. That is something else I have noticed. Many citizens of foreign countries are very familiar with what is going on in other countries. They are much more in touch with their neighbors. Even speaking with the Russians, they know several languages. Many Europeans do. As Americans, we seem so distant and secluded.
I really feel a push to work outside the country. Everyone is so in touch with each other.
From there we enjoyed lunch and lounging by the pool. Afterwards we went to the Miraflores lock, one of the three locks on the Panama canal. It is absolutely incredible. Especially since it is the same technology from 1914. Amazing.
We watched as electric trams that run along the canal pulled each ship through until they reached their position. From there the back gate was closed and the lock released water into the next lock which was practically empty. When they were at the same height, the next gate was opened and the ship was pulled through. The process happened once more so that the ship was at sea level with the Pacific.
It was amazing to see such huge things moving so much. It almost doesn't seem right that humans are capable of creating such giant things and being able to operate them.
One of the ships was carrying cars from Japan. They call that roll-on, roll-off cargo. There was a huge ramp on the back of the ship that was taller that the ship (from sea level to the captains tower) that, at landing, would fold out and allow the unloaders to drive off the cars.
We had a presentation afterwards where we discussed the expansion of the locks with one of the lock operators. Since, maybe, one day America will catch up with the rest of the world and utilize trains to their fullest potential we wondered what would happen with the canal if and when America ever built a useful train system that went from the East to the West coast of the states. He blew it off. He says that time is money and the money it would cost to unload from a ship and load a train and vice versa on the opposite coast would cost too much. It was definitely something we had not considered.
The canal is able to charge around $150,000 for one-way toll (or 65 cents for the one man that swam the canal back in the early 1900's, ha!). The price varies on the tonnage of the ship. That is more than my house. Although, it saves them so much money in moving around South America it is well worth it. The money really helps to fund the economy of Panama into what it is today and what it will be tomorrow.
Before dinner we took about a one hour walk further into the City of Knowledge. It really is like its own town with a gym and several ball fields and such. There was a hostel and varying neighborhood types back in the Northwest corner. I have noticed that luxury cars do really well here. Many of the driveways house a very nice BMW or Lexus, no matter how nice or not so nice the house was. Hopefully today we will get the chance to explore the southwest portion.
Once we finished dinner we all got ready to go out to a street in downtown Panama that is famous for its bars and clubs. We stayed at ManRay for the evening at their pool top bar. A DJ came out at about eleven to set-up poolside. The place was filled. Several of us got in the pool to dance, which was so much fun. It felt more like NYC. I mean I was dancing in a pool amongst the skyscrapers and beautiful star-lit sky with a cosmopolitan in hand. Other than everyone speaking spanish outside of our group, I would have never known we weren't in New York City.
A few of us decided to leave a little early, around 12:30 or so, to take one of our extremely inebriated friends back. Just so you know, taxi's cost about $5 more if you have someone who is that drunk in the car. The poor driver was so nervous he was going to throw up everywhere, and honestly, we were too, ha!
Alas, we made it back alive to tell the tale.
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