January 11, 2007

January 11: Side-tied at the Panama Canal Yacht Club, we waited for Enrique
to arrive from the city to collect the four 150-foot heavy-duty lines we had
rented from him and to return our $450 deposit because we had not had to
stay in the lake overnight. After lunch Thom, Bob, and I took a taxi to
Fuerte San Lorenzo, a 16th century Spanish fort that remains in fairly good
condition, having been rebuilt for the third time in the mid-18th century.
The drive to the fort was in itself worth the trip. The only roadway across
the Canal on the Caribbean side is on a single-lane swinging bridge running
along the base of the gates of Gatún Locks. The water, only a few feet
beneath this low bridge, was swirling and churning as the chamber behind the
gates was draining.

After going through a checkpoint, we passed former housing for Americans
stationed at Fort Sherman, one of the four former U. S. military bases
around Gatún, just before the road deteriorated from a smooth paved surface
to a series of rock-and-gravel potholes.