Note: all photos are linked to a larger version. Click on the picture to see it…
Last week, I was in Panama for four days. As usual, I stay in Panama City, even though half of my business is done in Colon. But, Colon is dirty and dangerous…
Although it is counterintuitive, Panama City, on the Pacific side, is southeast of Colon, on the Caribbean side.
The primary reason for visiting was to "walk a crane". In other words, make an inspection as part of providing a quotation to upgrade the control system. Given that, I figured I’d start with a few pictures taken from the crane I was "walking".
The first is of some of the other cranes at the same terminal, with the Bridge of the Americas in the background. When I was with my former company, I worked very hard to sell the control systems on the cranes pictured. Now that I’ve changed companies, the terminal is hesitant to learn a whole new system just because I’m saying, "please"…
Looking across the canal from the boom tip…
Looking from the back of the crane at Panama City.
When in Panama, I typically stay at the Country Inn & Suites right on the canal. In the Google Earth satellite image below, the hotel is at the upper left, circled in red. Further to the upper left is the Bridge of the Americas. You pass under the bridge to go through the canal.
The second red circle is Punta Culebra. More on that later…
In between the two is the Amador Causeway.
The hotel has a set of pools with quite a nice view. I don’t care much for swimming pools, so I’ve never taken advantage of them. But, it looks nice…
I had the day free (mostly) on Saturday. Like I’ve done several times, I took a walk along the canal, out the Amador Causeway.
A view of the Bridge of Americas…
To break up my typical routine of taking an insane number of pictures of flowers, I decided to throw in some trees this time…
Okay, some of the trees have flowers…
This one has monstrous leaves, up to two feet across. Each leaf has twelve lobes.
I just liked the coloration of these leaves…
This tree is obviously pregnant. Even has stretch marks…
These leaves don’t seem too dramatic in the picture, but most are over a foot in length. This tree also has nice white flowers, but none were blooming low enough on the tree to get a good picture…
This looks a lot like a ficus. Probably is (or closely related). A bit bigger than most house-bound ficuses…
I wonder what the thin rootlets do. They don’t ever seem to grow to the ground to add support or additional nutrient "straws". Maybe they can pull moisture out of the air?
This tree seems to think it is a string bean vine…
This tree had some of the oddest flowers I’ve seen.
Alrighty. Enough with the trees for now.
I’m always happy to see wildlife. I wasn’t seeing much initially, but did find a few of these lizards. This one is about two feet from snout to tail. He didn’t let me get any closer…
Okay, maybe one more tree. This one is dying off in an interesting fashion…
This picture is taken about half-way out the causeway, looking towards Isla Perico (second island) and Isla Flamenco (third island) (though it looks like just one island in the picture).
This picture is looking back along the causeway. As you can see, it’s a long walk with little protection from the sun. (Small wonder I came back with a sunburn on my nose and forehead. That is still peeling…)
On the walk out, there was absolutely no breeze. By the time I got to Isla Naos (the one closest to the mainland), I was pretty overheated and dehydrated.
I’ve walked past the Marine Exhibition Center of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute several times, but never realized there was something to see…
This time, instead of stopping at the nearby restaurant (in the background of this picture) for something to drink, I decided to check it out.
The columns in this picture are from an old quarantine house. The trees next to the columns are mangroves. This must be at high tide, as they don’t look like the typical swamp trees…
The STRI had several small aquarium displays and one small pool. The pool contained a couple of sea turtles, a couple of nurse sharks, a remora, and a variety of pretty fish. Being a turtle-kinda guy, I mostly ignored the non-turtle creatures…
At the tip of the Punta Culebra (is that redundant? Does "punta" mean tip?)…
The wave action was pretty strong. This shot is about halfway between the wave crashing down and covering all but 1/3 of what is currently showing, and exposing about twice what is currently exposed. The tide was too high to see any tidal pools in the usual places…
This is Flamenco Island. They have a "mall" of restaurants and nightclubs, along with a marina for people with very expensive yachts. I typically have a meal or two on Flamenco, but not this trip…
I have no idea if these fluffy "tails" would be flowers? seedpods? something else? I thought they looked cool, so I took a picture and I continue to bask in my ignorance…
I saw a pair of coati mundi (I think). They scampered up a tree before I could bring my camera to bear…
A parasitic cactus vine…
Apparently Punta Culebra is a nesting ground (and all around hangout spot) for brown pelicans. And boy does it stink when that many get together and poop…
(Kinda hard to see in the picture below. If you click on it to see the larger version, it’s a bit easier to see the dozen-plus pelicans in the branches shown. And this wasn’t the only tree with this type of population density…)
Dang. My camera doesn’t do closeups very well. This was the best of about a half dozen that I shot. Sigh…
Cute little couple, though…
Look! A non-tree related flower!
And, lest you think that I completely neglected my thirst, I did have a late lunch (plus about six glasses of water and three beers) at the restaurant just outside the entrance to STRI. Before walking back to the hotel. (Couldn’t stay too long, as I was meeting a customer at 5:30 p.m. to have a beer at his house and then go out for dinner. Hard work, which is why they pay me so well…)
The beer in Panama is especially insipid. Basic lightly flavored pilsners. Here’s a typical example…
This is looking back at Panama City from the causeway.
And, finally, a couple of panoramic shots. I hate that I have to cut down the resolution so much to upload them to the photo hosting site, but c’est la vie…
Be sure to click on the images to see the larger version. (And, if your web browser resizes it to fit the window, click on it for the full-sized picture.)
The first shows Panama City, looking out from the restaurant on Isla Naos.
This one shows the other side of the causeway, the entrance to the canal. I took the pictures that make up this panorama from right at the point where the causeway joins the mainland.
That’s all for now!
“But, Colon is dirty and dangerous…”
That’s sounds like something they would say in prison
Comment by Scott — 10 November 06 @ 2:37 pm
Ha! (I bet it doesn’t deter the inmates much, though…)
In my head, I pronounce it the Spanish way (like “cologne”), so I didn’t make the connection. I guess I should’ve written it with the correct marks, “Colón”…
Comment by Doug — 10 November 06 @ 2:47 pm
Man. I was gonna say, from personal and recent experience, roughly the same thing Scott said - then I got caught up in your photos. If you ever get out of the crane business, you should look into professional photography. (And then I’ll have to get a computer that doesn’t freeze up for 45 minutes when there’s more than two pics on a page, heh.) Except for the leezards, Panama looks beautiful.
Comment by elayne — 12 November 06 @ 1:13 am