MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1983 - Mississippi Years

Travel (continued)

Panama

I had found a Tauck tour of Central America that toured Costa Rica and then sailed through the Panama Canal. Then I discovered that they were sailing through the Canal in the middle of the night. Not the experience I wanted. Nancy found a less expensive guided bus tour but with about 30 people that spent 10 days touring much of Panama. It turned out to be a great tour.

When we got there, I was surprised at how vertical the modern part of Panama City was with many interesting high rise buildings. Yes, there was the old parts of the city that we toured as well. The bus took us for a tour across the isthmus to the Atlantic side. From we boarded a small boat that took us to a beautiful resort in the middle of the man made lake that was created as part of the construction of the Panama Canal.

One of the more interesting side trips was a visit to an actual native village where people were, pretty much as they always have, living in the jungle and living off the land. The one modern difference was that the children all went to school and were literal. Some eventually moved to the cities, but many preferred the simple life in their jungle home.

We were on a small boat when we went through the locks near Panama City. As we were lowered down, we were looking at concrete walls that had been in place for one hundred years. We knew that because Panama was celebrating the centennial anniversary of the opening of the canal.