Heading to Dubai for Three Weeks in My Last International Job......

.....as I have given notice at work.  Thirteen years with the company and ten years doing international work involving 28 trips working in 25 countries on six continents.  I have been very fortunate and will be forever grateful to my employer, Smith System, for giving me these opportunities.

The Dubai job will be with ExxonMobil and will be my first job in the true "Middle East."  I will be working mostly with people from Cyprus and the job was originally scheduled to be held in Egypt but moved to Dubai.

Part of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is a large, very modern city and I will have a couple of days off to explore around the area, almost certainly in the shadow of the world's largest building.

Took a Taxi into the Old City Friday Afternoon...

.....as part of my observances of Panamanian Martyr's Day.  Actually, the only tours available this afternoon were the half-day canal tours, so I hailed a taxi and asked for the "Old Town."  That is usually the historical area of Central and South American cities where the central plaza is.  From there, churches and museums are usually nearby.

It was a good decision on my part.....very interesting and a good way to kill the afternoon.  As it turned out, the historical museum is in this area that is dedicated to the Martyr's Day heroes in 1964.  I looked it up last night and it wasn't one of America's finer moments:  President Kennedy agreed to a treaty with Panama that the Panamanian flag could fly in the canal zone alongside the American flag at the American school in the zone.  Kennedy was killed before the document could be signed and LBJ didn't think it important.  A group of Panamanian students marched on the Canal Zone with a silk flag and were stopped by the canal police.  American students at the school there attacked the Panamanian students and ripped their flag which caused widespread anger and caused massive protests in which the US called in paratroopers and 21 Panamanians were killed.  Thus the holiday yesterday.  It led to an eventual agreement that, in turn, led to the canal being turned over to Panama in 1977.

As it was, the museum was pretty busy and I was the only American there but I didn't feel uneasy.  It is pretty indicting evidence with lots of blown-up photographs of the victims and exhibits including the flag that started it all:

The museum was small and didn't take a lot of time, so I spent a couple of hours just walking around admiring the architecture.  There were several very old churches in the area:

If you can read it above the entrance of the third picture, the date is 1675--101 years before our Declaration of Independence.

The ruins of the Church of St. Dominic were particularly interesting because of the annex that features the religious art of the churches in the area--icons, retablos, bells, and a wealth of silver.

Built in the 1600s, the church experienced several fires and earthquakes but the ruins were a tourist attraction even in the late 1800s.

One of the features of the ruins was an old, old brick arch called the "Flat Arch" because it is not very high in the center.  Early French and American engineers visiting the ruins were particularly intrigued by this arch.

Local lore is that this arch is responsible for the Panama Canal.  The fact that this arch had withstood fires and earthquakes for so long, convinced the American engineers to construct the Canal across the Isthmus of Panama rather than in Nicaragua since this area was much less inclined to earthquake activity (which, in fact, it is).

I walked around about three hours  and took a break in a small bar and had a cold "Balboa" beer. 

I looked through the shops and bought a souvenir before catching a taxi back to the hotel.  The flight back the next morning went well and overall, Panama was a hard, but a good trip.

I Would Like to Thank the Scheduling Department of my Company.....

......for scheduling me here during the week of Martyr's Day in Panama.  It was 46 years ago today that the U.S. Army killed 20 Panamanians for trying to fly a Panamanian flag at the Miraflores Lock of the Panama Canal.  It is a national holiday now so the company I'm working with was closed today.  Lots of parades, bands, and since it's an election year, lots of politicians campaigning.  Since I have a two-room hotel suite, I held classes in the morning in my room and we took the afternoon off.  I went along the promenade to get some exercise and tried to look as "Panamanian" as I could.

Commuted to South America This Week for Work.....

.....at least technically, I guess.   The Hotel is north of the Panama Canal and the company location is south and a lot of geographers consider the canal itself to be the delineation between the North and South Americas.  Each morning we leave the hotel around 7:30 and go along the Pan American Highway onto a large bridge over the Canal.  The first three days of work were about 11 hour days--back as it was getting dark.  Temperatures has been in the mid-90s this week.

The company location is really pretty remote in an industrial park but the landscape here is, as I expected, lush tropical foliage.  Everything is dark green here, at least some rain every day, and lots of palm and coconut trees everywhere.  The hours have been so long that I really haven't been able to see much except the commute since I've been here.  I did walk around behind the hotel yesterday after we got back and shot a picture of this amazing building.

This was a good group--I had students from Panama, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and Mexico.

It has been a long, hard week, and Wednesday they decided to go out as a group and celebrate.  We loaded up in a large taxi and headed out, first to a bowling alley.  I don't recall ever bowling since I was in high school, but I had a good time.

The Panama Canal Was Amazing and We Caught it at the Best Possible Time.....

.....most tour brochures preface their trip with "if we're fortunate, we may get to see a large ship going through the locks" or "we may be able to see a partial transit through the locks."  We got there just in time to see a complete portage of a very large ship through the Miraflores Lock.

I didn't realize this is the centennial of the opening of the lock.  Today we had a large ship connected to the railroad cars and ready to transit

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The railway cars (two on each side) don't actually pull the ship.  The ship navigates the canal under it's own power--the railroad cars simply keep it centered.  This ship had less than 12 inches on each side.  Notice the size of the ship in the background.

Here you can see the lock it is going into has a much higher water level--about 10 meters or 30 feet.  I hadn't thought about it, but the sea is level all over the world--the Atlantic and Pacific are the same.  The reason for the locks is that the canal goes over varied elevations of land, otherwise they would have just built a canal from side to side.  Two large lakes constitute a large part of the Canal and they lie at different elevations.  This is why the locks are necessary and it surprised me, but the Panama Canal is fresh water which allows rain to replenish the lakes and keep the water available for the locks. 

As the water was drained from the upper lock, you can see the gates opening here.  It took about twelve minutes to drain the lock.

Here you can see it traversing into the lowered lock where it will be raised about 30 feet when the gates are shut behind it.

I'm having trouble getting the video to work, but it is probably moving 8-10 mph through the canal at this point.

Here the gates are shutting behind the ship and the lock will be flooded again--about 10-12 minutes.

And here it is off again into the next lake.

For centuries the only passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific was the Magellan Strait where I was last year for the marathons.  From Central America it took about 30 days of dangerous sailing to reach the other side of Central America.  Today the canal operates 24/7 and sends ships through in about ten hours.

 There was a really good museum and outside, there were a lot of old equipment for viewing.  You can see the early railroad engines were simple basics:

All this was accomplished before World War I.  Last summer, Devin and I visited Hoover Dam which was built during the Great Depression.  Today it seems our highways, bridges and infrastructure are falling apart while China and other countries are building these kind of projects.  But at least we're rebuilding Afghanistan and Iraq I guess.

The tour also stopped by the "colonial" area of Panama City and was interesting.  Actually the city is like most Central and South American cities I've visited--very little of historical interest. 

The skyline is pretty amazing from across the Bay of Panama:

It started raining just as we got back to the hotel.  If it stops, I may go for a walk along the promenade, if not I'll just hang around in the hotel.

Tomorrow I start work.......

Easy Flight Down Here, Great Hotel, and Have a Half-Day Trip Lined Up Tomorrow.....

.....the hotel is really nice.  I actually have a 23rd floor two-room suite with two bathrooms and three TV sets, which is great but......

I also have an ocean view, free gym and Internet privileges and even a complimentary $20/day bar tab.  There is also a large mall attached to the hotel which means plenty of restaurants at "other than hotel prices," and even a supermarket where I can buy snacks and water.

Tomorrow morning, I've signed up for a half-day city tour including a visit to the Panama Canal.  Don't know what to expect, but so far this trip is off to a good start.