Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Panama City

Got here OK, few flight delays but nothing major. Got through customs and immigration, a driver picked me up and got more paper work sorted before delivering me to the ship. 


The weather, as you can imagine, is very warm. We all go around dripping on deck and enjoying the A/C inside. The nice thing about working in galley is you aren't at much risk of getting a sunburn!

We are at anchor here so to go ashore you have to take a tender in which means I haven't gone exploring much. My first excursion took me to a mall, very much like any North American mall, complete with a Santa to visit and Christmas trees etc. 


I've also visited Casco Viejo, the old part of town. It's a little touristy but interesting anyways. 



An interesting thing here is that during rush hour there are vendors selling snacks from little carts between the lanes of traffic! Good business opportunity really. 

We had Julefrokost here on board. It's a Danish lunch (though we had it for dinner) that you have to celebrate Christmas with co-workers or friends. Things on rye bread and lots of pork products. There were Christmas lights and Danish flags strung around the salon and it was quite festive. 

At night we get lots of pelicans flying or floating by. I didn't realise they are nocturnal. (Or else these guys are very confused). Haven't seen much other wildlife except gulls and giant moths. 

The first couple weeks the students were off on a jungle? rainforest? adventure and the teachers were back home for a break. Then the volunteers left for a few days of diving and the ship was quite quiet. Now of course everyone is back and we are ready to head out, spend Christmas at sea and sail to the Galapagos!