Panama

Hi, we are here in Panama safe and sound. The 24 hour trip took a little to recover from but nothing tht 12 hours of sleep on the first night (which was somewhere during N.Z´s .Friday) didn´t fix. We spent the first day orientating ourselves with the city - that´s a flash way  saying that we walked for hours and got ourselves lost! We did discover the beautiful old city of cobbled streets lined with old building constructed from a conglomerant of building materials (mortar, bricks, blocks, stones - and that is all in one building). There are going to be some great photos from this area but I have to be able to master recharging the netbook (Panama has a different plug system that much of S.A. and I do not have the correct plug) before you get to see them.
Today we have been out to Miraflores Locks on the Canal and watched 2 large liners pass through the lock system, being lifted 30 odd metres in one of the three locking systems along the canal. Fascinating to watch when the ships are a ´good fit´for the present canal system. Panama is constructing an additional lock system to cater for the large container ships wanting to use this short cut. A huge investment but judging from the skyline of the city it is doing very good from the revenue collected from the present transitting of the ships. The city looks like what I would expect in Dubai - one very new impressive building is in a spiral twisting itself around for 40 or so stories.
We have our boat to Columbia booked for the 21st April, so there are a few more days to fill in here. The trip is about the journey as it takes just 2 days to sail to Columbia but we will take 5 as we spend time on the San Blas Islands of the Caribbean.
I will blog again before we leave as after that there will be a gap!