Today’s ships often have less than one foot of clearance on either side as they go through the canal, but after the canal expansion is completed in 2015, even larger ships will be able to use the waterway.
destination. The city’s history is fascinating, the atmosphere electric, but still, I’m glad when we head out to the rural areas. In line with Grand Circle’s philosophy that meeting local people is as important as seeing historic sites, we stop at an agricultural cooperative where farmers work together to bring their produce to market, a sugar cane farm where a husband and wife have a small candy-making business, a school where youngsters perform traditional dances and their mothers serve us a homemade lunch, and a private home where the owner teaches us to make one of his grandmother’s favorite dishes. At each place our hosts talk freely, giving us insight into their daily lives. I emerge from these visits well fed and well informed. We learn about yet another Panamanian lifestyle when we meet the Embera people, members of one of Panama’s seven indigenous tribes. I step out of our dugout canoe to find a village of thatched huts perched on stilts, an open-air schoolhouse, a soccer field, meeting hall, a woman weaving baskets and an entire community of
people in traditional attire. The tribal spokesman explains that opening their village to outsiders allows the Emberas to earn a living while continuing to live according to the ways of their ancestors. It’s a Margaret Mead experience, and I love every minute. In between people visits, we take mini treks through the rainforest. Unlike the men who built the canal, we’re
slathered with sunscreen, protected with insect repellent, and our only goals are to see a monkey, spot a toucan and track a capybara. We aren’t charged with digging a path through a thick jungle where the temperature is often above 80 degrees and the humidity above 90 percent. Of the 80,000 men who worked on the canal, more than a third died of yellow fever or malaria. A normal trip through the canal takes 10 hours, but Grand Circle has arranged for us to have a full daylight passage. Therefore, we enter on the Pacific, head northwest through two sets of locks that raise the Discovery 85 feet above sea level, cross the Continental Divide and spend the night on Gatun Lake. The next morning we go ashore to visit the Gatun Dam and take our final rainforest trek, which reminds us of the travails that went into building the canal. Then we reboard our ship, go through the final set of locks and descend to sea level in another ocean. I go to the upper deck and look to the west. Yes, the sun is setting over the Atlantic.
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February 2014 : : Lovin’ Life After 50 : : page 39