Bowl & Basket

Colon, Panama  85f Sunny and Windy

Colon is the richest port in the Caribbean area due to the location to the Panama Canal.   As the Atlantic entrance to the canal, the cargo and ship facilities define the city.  Panama is generally an easy country to visit. English is a main language. Due to the US involvement in the Panama Canal for years, the US dollar is their currency.

Colon is a young town founded in 1850 as the Atlantic terminal of the Panama railroad built to provide quicker access to California during the Gold Rush Period.  The building of the Panama Canal also contributed to increased population and wealth.  Cargo loading and unloading docks/structures are lined up and spread along the coast to handle the canal traffic.

The ship was refueled during this stop. The whole process took about 6 hours. Since Costa is a European line, smoking is allowed on open decks and on your balcony. Throughout the day there were overhead announcements to refrain from smoking outside - but only on the left side of the boat.

Colon was destroyed by fire in 1885 during the Colombian Civil War, again in the Great Fire of 1915 and yet again in 1940.  Anything of interest was destroyed in those events.  With the completion of the Panama Canal and dictatorships (1960's - 1980's), Colon has been in decline, both loss of population and wealth to larger cities such as Panama City or oversees. The city has started a revitalization project, but progress is very, very slow.

This is all to say, aside from the Port activities, there isn’t much to see in Colon.  I looked at the tours offered by the cruise line as well as tour groups such as Viator.com and all the tours from Colon, visited Panama City.  In many cities, local taxis have put together tour packages if you prefer a smaller group of travelers on a negotiated fee. Even the people advertising their services at the port – were all taking people to Panama City. 

My problem with tours to Panama City is that it is a minimum 3 hour round trip just to get to Panama City and back.  Most of the time, you will be riding, not doing anything.  Having spent some time in Panama, I passed.  But what to do, as it is always good to get off the ship and do something.

Colon’s cruise terminal was larger than some of the other cities we have visited. It was actually a complex with relatively new buildings of shops, duty free shops, services and restaurants.  Attached was a Radisson Hotel.   The area outside of several blocks around the terminal appeared run down with large buildings seemingly vacant.

In the picture background of the terminal complex, you can see the Atlantic Bridge that spans the Atlantic opening to the Panama Canal.

I have no concern admitting that when travelling, I have a few odd things that I like to do.  When Kristin and I travel, we are obligated to visit churches.  I like to roam grocery stores.  I find it fascinating to see the brands and cost, available produce and location specific food.  Although I wish I had not seen frozen kangaroo tail in Australia. And a grocery store carrying local products can be a great place to purchase gifts.  I know bizarre but when I rounded a corner and saw a large grocery store, I was happy.

I should have gotten some pictures but didn’t even think about it.  The store was a ’99 Supermarket’, a Panamanian chain from what I could determine.   It was a multipurpose store having food, personal items and other household goods for sale but no clothing or such.  Certainly not as big as American grocery stores but big for Central/South America outside of major cities.  And they did a big business with the cruise ship crews as well as regular shoppers.

They had a good mix of common brands in America, a nice selection of European brands and new to me Spanish brands.  I could recognize brands such as L’Oreal hair products but entirely in Spanish.  Others such as Heinz were totally in English.   Most stores outside the US do not have such an overabundance of choices – 25 different spaghetti sauces vs 7. But they had a decent produce section, all the meat was obtained from a counter, not prepackaged.  Eggs were on the shelf as is usual outside the US because they do not process eggs to the point of needing refrigeration.  Dairy of all forms was available but there was a big selection of on the shelf milk that did not need refrigeration.  The cheese section had a wide variety of types we normally see. Various breads and lots and lots of tortillas.

The coffee from Panama and chocolate from South America were more than reasonably priced.  Oops – spoiler alert for anyone thinking they might get a gift from me.

They even had a small café in the store.  Price wise I (not a big shopper), felt the European products I knew were reasonably priced (cheaper), from what we pay in the US.   The US brand products entirely in English more expensive and entirely in Spanish, less expensive.  The Spanish brands beat all pricing.

I was most surprised by the many products carrying the Bowl & Basket brand.  Not just 10 products but many products throughout the store (Bowl & Basket Ghee?).   For those of you not from New Jersey, the Bowl & Basket brand in the same packaging, is the store brand for the Shop-Rite supermarkets located in NJ.  Go figure that link.

My weirdness satisfied and over 5,000 steps on the watch, I headed back to the ship.  Tomorrow we transit the Panama Canal and I’m expecting that to take 8-10 hours.  Since it is one of my highlights of the trip, I won’t miss a minute.

UPDATE - Yesterday it was announced that the ship would no longer stop in Manta, Ecuador. Not having turned on a TV since I left the US, it appears they are having some military action to combat a rash of gang activity. There is a state of emergency in place through March 8 with curfews, deployment of police and military to seaports and airports throughout the country. We are continuing on to Lima Peru and will spend those extra days in port there.

That gives me a little more time to prepare the post for yesterdays transit of the Panama Canal. I have so many pictures from a completely interesting day and much info to share.

Adios !