Hello from Panama…

…is what we’re saying in this photo – or something like that. Yes I’m finally getting around to blogging about our trip to Panama back in March. I’ll sum it up by saying we had a fantastic time – thanks to Greg and Alyssa for inviting us along!

We headed down for the last week of March and into the first few days of April.
Greg and Alyssa were getting married. The wedding was on April first and no – it wasn’t an April Fools joke.

The weather was pretty much perfect while we were there. It rained one day – for about 5 mintues. The sun was strong (as expected) and unfortunately I didn’t manage to avoid it as much as I had hoped. As a result I got a pretty good sunburn on my back one day – but it didn’t really slow me down. I think one of the highlights of the trip was playing in the waves like we are doing in the photo to the right. Unfortunately I lost the hat that I’m wearing in that picture but luckily I have a great wife – who found the same hat in the gift shop and bought me another one. Thanks dear.

Another highlight of the trip was a day trip we took into Panama City. We stopped in at the Mira Flores locks which are part of the Panama Canal. We got to see a couple of cargo ships passing through the locks while we were there. A couple of quick facts about the Panama Canal – it’s about 50 miles from one side to the other. A ship can traverse the canal in a day whereas if they had to go around it would take them 22 days. Average cost for a cargo ship to pass through the canal – $64000 US. All the water used for the canal comes from rivers, lakes, etc so the rainy season is VERY important to Panama. And finally – working on the canal is pretty much the best job you can get in Panama. You are paid almost five times more than any other job you can get.

Greg and Alyssa’s wedding was beautiful, what more can I say. Alyssa looked amazing (as expected) and Greg even manged to smile for the camera once or twice. :)

The purchase of the two-way radios for this trip was well worth it. Trevor in particular really seemed to enjoy the radios. We never did get around to testing their range along the beach (line of sight) but I was happy with how they performed.

All in all, as I said above, a fantastic trip. I’m really looking forward to the next trip we take together with everybody. There was talk of a cruise…

Haggerty-2 out.

P.S. Photos for the trip and the wedding are on Flickr as usual. If you have any photos from the wedding please tag them with “Greg and Alyssa’s wedding 2006″