On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Our fourth stop was the Panama Canal. I somehow thought it would be a cement ditch, but it’s not. Maybe the rest of you already knew that? It’s a series of locks connecting lakes. Some of the lakes are man-made. There was a big river running through the middle of the path the canal was supposed to take. They realized they could dam that river, create a lake that could hold water for the locks, and also generate electricity at the dam.
This is our ship heading for the canal, which is that black walled area toward the left.
This was taken the next day when we toured the locks. Both cargo ships there are entering the locks. The red-bottomed one closer to me is going into the older canal. The black-bottomed one is entering the newer, wider canal, completed just a few years ago. The black one is waiting longer because a cruise ship is coming the other way through that canal. Theoretically, traffic on the canals is one way during different hours of the day, so that cruise ship should not be coming that way. But cruise ships get priority because they reserve space a year ahead.
See the vehicle in the distance that looks like a freight train loaded with cargo? It’s really a cargo ship on the new part of the canal. The old part is closer to us.
This is Panama City on the Pacific side of the canal. We were docked in Colon on the Atlantic side. Colon is much less upscale.
From Panama, we went to Cozumel, the only place on this trip that Mr. DAW and I had been before. Cozumel’s main industry is tourism. Most of the island is protected from development, and the coast is pretty.
This is the village of Cedral. The guide told a story I’m not sure I understood. According to him, the Maya disappeared from Cozumel several hundred years ago, but returned here in 1840-something. In the picture, the stone building on the left is an old Mayan temple. The newer building on the right is a very pretty Catholic church.
This statue commemorates the return of the Maya to the area. The pig’s head on the man’s hat is a symbol for survival. I think. I am apparently not very clear on Cozumel, for which our next stop may be the reason.
After Cedral, we went to this sort of Disneyland Mayan village. It was built to attract tourists. Dancers perform. And then you go and taste tequila, which they would like you to buy. I had seven small shots of tequila. It was 11 am and I was inebriated. We were then shepherded to another booth where we tasted honey and one where we tasted chocolate. Then we had lunch. I apparently took no pictures.
Ironically, right next to where our bus was parked was a sign saying “Mayan Ruins 3 km,” but we didn’t go there.
Then we went back to the ship. Two days later, we docked in Ft. Lauderdale which was flooded. The airport was closed. Much anxiety ensued. We got home a day late. And I am glad to be sleeping in my own bed.
We did have a mostly good time though, and saw places we’d never seen before
Steeplejack
Great commentary. I am picturing tequila-infused tourists rioting to go to the nearby Mayan ruins.
There go two miscreants
David McCullough’s book on the Panama Canal is excellent! The Path Between The Seas. Written some years ago, so it doesn’t cover the recent expansion, as I recall, but great on the history and construction.
eclare
That is an interesting story. Tequila, then honey, then chocolate.
MagdaInBlack
7 ??😜 My deepest sympathy. I understand the lack of photos 😊
JPL
Dorothy, Thank you for the pics and commentary. I await your next adventure.
sab
Is that twirly thing on the right an actual building? We are all in Shanghai now
EtA Photo 4
OzarkHillbilly
Love the Jenga building in Panama City (“the twirly thing”) ;-) @sab, I would’ve loved to work on a project like that but only if they followed OSHA rules. Pretty certain OSHA rules aren’t enforced in Panama.
rikyrah
Thanks for the pictures and the stories
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I bet it feels like a normal building inside.
sab
@OzarkHillbilly: I bet it feels like a normal building inside.
Just showed my husband the photo. He is never impressed by anything, and he was “Whoah!”
OzarkHillbilly
@sab: Yeah, each floor would feel the same until one looked out a window. I’m not sure what that would feel like. Putting up the steel framing for the facade had to be interesting.
sab
Silly provincial person that I am, I always pictured the Panama Canal as looking like a somewhat larger version of our 19th century midwestern canals, not a chain of big lakes.
OzarkHillbilly
@OzarkHillbilly: I shouldn’t say feel the same, but rather feel normal.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@sab: Detroit girl that I am, that’s what I thought too
MarkPainter
The locals call that twisted skyscraper “el tornillo,” “the screw.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MarkPainter: Cool! Thanks for the info
OzarkHillbilly
@MarkPainter: What Dorothy said.
sab
@MarkPainter: Much better than The Gherkin that they have in London.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@MagdaInBlack: Yeah. I’m small. I weigh 110 lbs. I’m lucky I was able to climb back onto the bus
Soprano2
Did you get to see them fill up a lock? We saw that on the Mein River in Germany when we did our river cruise in 2015. It was pretty cool to watch it happen, as the water level went down and then up.
Nice pics, and you had 7 “small” shots of tequila at 11 a.m.! No wonder there are no more pictures. LOL
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Soprano2: Our ship went through the locks, so I saw them working then. And the next day, on tour, we watched from a walkway along the side. Mr DAW is an engineer, and he was especially interested.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack:
LOL!
mrmoshpotato
@MagdaInBlack: She said they were small shots of tequila. Jeez! 😁
WaterGirl
Thanks for sharing the fun trip with us!
Normally I correct for missing punctuation, but in this case the missing period at the end of your final sentence felt perfect for the tequila story and then no more pictures!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@WaterGirl: Thanks for doing this, WG. Between these pics and the Author post tomorrow, I feel like I’ve had more than my share of BJ time this week.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Nope, just the right amount! :-)
OverTwistWillie
Wait till after the tequila to explain the Atlantic locks are west of the Pacific locks.
Rose Weiss
I have a soft spot for Cozumel because my late husband and I made our first stop there on our honeymoon many years ago, the we returned a couple more times through the years – we were living in Dallas so there were easy non-stop flights every day. It was a charming small town back then, where the big event of the week was Sunday evening family strolls in the Plaza.
way2blue
Very cool to travel through the Panama Canal. My spouse & I visited the canal in 2014 just before the new one was intended to open for the centennial. I remember being impressed at how the flat-sided cargo ships had just a few feet of clearance on either side. And were towed by sort of cog trains through at least the Pacific end of the canal.
What was your overall impression of the Viking cruise? And the balance between being at sea and visiting ports…
Dorothy A. Winsor
@way2blue: For me, this trip had too few stops. I like the river cruises, where you stop every day and can just walk off the ship. Even a cruise crossing the Atlantic had more stops than this one did.
We like Viking. It’s not cheap but they don’t nickel and dime you once you’re aboard. There’s no casino. No kids either. They tend to be education oriented.