The Buses of Colon

Colon Panama is a scary place. A place that you would not even consider walking around with your guard down or after dark. There are areas that are extremely unfriendly to outsiders. The poverty is apparent, the living conditions are terrible. Amidst all of this are the Buses of Colon. They jump out at you and provide color to an other wise dreary landscape. They are expressions of the creativity and the driver’s personality. They display graffiti as art.

Walking around Colon I am escorted by a 250 pound taxi driver that seems to know everyone. I am paying him to watch my back as I try to capture the contrast between the depressing gritty feel of Colon living and the colorful upbeat buses.

As we leave Vatican City (in Colon) he decides to tell me that on the same basketball court I was taking pictures two people where killed the night before. Time to move on....

Check out the pictures by clicking on the "The Buses of Colon" to your left.

Panama

The Panama Canal....

We are curretnly docked at Shelter Bay Marina. Shelter Bay Marina is the new alternative to docking or anchoring near Colon Panama while waiting to transit the PC.

Located only a few miles across the the harbor from Colon it is a completely different world than the dangerous, dirty, decrepid streets of Colon and the Panama Canal Yacht Club.

We are staged to begin our South Pacific Sailing. We have sailed 9000 miles aboard Vivid in the last 11 months. Lot's of miles, experiences, and learnings.

Before we tranist the canal we will sail the San Blas Islands, home to the Kuna Indians. The smallest human beings - I think tied to the pygmees. I can relate to them as I was always the shortest kid in my class.

This will be my second transit of the Panama Canal the first being 5 years ago aboard a 55 foot sailboat. It's an advantage having been here before. You know what to expect interms of the admisitrative hoops and requirements for tranisitg. This time we hire an agent, Panama Agencies. They are invaluable to assisiting with all fo the logistics. This frees me up to focus on the yacht and the details of the owners trip.