Hello, Panama!
February 3, 2024 Saturday
After a rough and rolly passage, we were very grateful to be approaching Shelter Bay Marina off Limon Bay, Panama! It was very interesting to see all the boats awaiting transit through the Canal. Panama has been experiencing a record drought this year resulting in half the number of transits per day than usual. I counted 30 huge ships: tankers, ro-ros (car-carriers where they "roll them on, and then roll them off"), and container ships each of which had its own unique configuration of stacked containers on deck.
A busy day after our 10:15 am arrival: lunch, haul-out, check-in with Immigration, and ride over to our hotel in Colon.
Happy captain, life raft demonstration in resort pool, Bountibou gets hauled out for a paint job
On the way to Colon we we over a bridge and got our first look at the Gatun Locks... Very exciting to think about the upcoming transit!
From our 10th-story room, we overlooked the world’s largest duty-free zone. It was a VAST mall of warehouses, one right next to the other. There is nothing that you cannot buy there…you just have to know where to find it!
View of the largest duty-free trade zone in the world
