Colon Panama

   (March 12)  Our next stop was Colon Panama.  One of our excursion stops was at the Agua Clara Locks and a very nice viewing facility.  We watched a ship pass from Gatun Lake (behind us), enter the locks and then proceed to go in and out of two more locks until it exited into the Caribbean Sea.  It was less than an hour from start to finish.  Photo below.

    The other stop on our excursion was the UNESCO World Heritage site of the town of Portobello.  The photo above was the prettiest spot on our visit there.  It seems to be a rather poor town in spite of its status and importance.  There was a surprise visit by a former president of Panama and she was gracious to allow us to have our pictures taken with her.  She was the first female president of Panama - Mireya Moscoso Rodriguez de Arias.  Our guide said she was visiting because of the importance of the small town.

    We danced with some of the local dancers and learned steps for their national dance.  This lady was very cheerful and colorful in her dancing clothes.  We were inside the broken walls of a fort that had been there for centuries and once helped keep pirates from attacking the town.

    We visited Portobello on a Sunday so this church was in session during our entire visit.  The Iglesia de San Felipe (ca 1814) is unique as it houses a statue of Cristo Negro AKA the Black Christ.  Legend has it that the statue was found on the shores of the harbor and is responsible for numbers of miracles in the town.

This is a nice photo of the shoreline of Portobello.  There is nothing fancy in the town.

    We drove for an hour to get to Portobello and then, of course, an hour return.  These are the kind of houses that most of the people appear to live in.  Primarily concrete and always with a dish on top.

    We passed several ball fields each of which had kids playing baseball on Sunday afternoon.  Here, I was able to snap a photo of their makeshift team "dug-outs."  With so many lush trees around, gathering palm fronds to create shade from the hot sun seems to work well for the teams.

     This lovely tile is on the wall of a building in the town of Portobello.  The compass rose always reminds me of direction.  There are so many aspects of direction that we should consider.  One is -- what direction are you following and what do you hope to find along the way as well as at the end of your journey.  I am so thankful for all the many directions our feet have carried us on this delightful journey.  I love the verse in Psalm 16:11 that says it all for me:  "You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."