Panama- Thursday

Thursday

Hello from Panama!

We arrived safely last night about 10:00 pm. We had a rather long wait to get through customs. We met Ken, our friend, at the airport and came to his house. The driving in Panama is typical of South American countries... no one pays any attention to the street signs, or lights, and sometimes on the lines on the road dividing the traffic :) I'm glad Ken was driving! He said his quest while he is down here is to introduce as many people as possible to turn signals! No one uses them :)

This morning we woke up to a Panamanian breakfast. We had apple strudels, empanadas, and a salami and cheese sandwich. Of course fresh fruit was also on the menu. Ken prepared all of the food himself... very impressive! We took a tour of Panama this morning and afternoon. We visited the National Cathedral, the Church with the Golden Altars... no joke... real gold and lots of it! When the Spanish came through the Panamanians painted the altars black so they wouldn't take the gold... it worked! We also toured the French Plaza and got to see a great view of the city. We also were able to see the National Museum. We received a tour guide of our own because Nathan and I were teachers. Teachers are held in high esteem here. The museum gave us the history of Panama as well as the history of the Panama canal. We were able to see the Nazarene church in Panama and see the house where Jay and Jerry Winkle lived when they were here.

After the tour we went to Hard Rock so Nathan could get a t-shirt. We ate lunch in the food court of the mall. Then we traveled to the 5th largest mall in the world. It was huge! Nathan needed to find a pair of tennis shoes. After the shoe hunting we went back to Ken's house and sat and talked for a while. Then we went to Ken's favorite restaurant. I can't remember the name... I'll have him write it down... but the food was delicious! We are now back home. I'm heading to bed because it will be an early morning. We get to do a simulation tomorrow of how the boats navigate the canal.

For those of you who don't know... Ken is overseeing the expansion of the Panama Canal on the Pacific side. They are adding another set of locks and expanding the existing one. It will be a 7 year project with a budget of 7 billion (yes, that is with a "b") dollars. And Ken is in charge... wow! He is very capable, however! They have a historian documenting every detail of the project. So in 7 years you will probably see it on the Discovery channel... or someplace like that.

I'm going to sign off now... talk to you all tomorrow!

Love you,
Faithe (and Nathan)