updates - Panama first

I just updated my blog, so scroll down a while for lots of new pictures! Most of my pictures of the Panama Canal didn't come out, so this is what I have. The canal was fascinating; it takes 8 hours for ships to get from one ocean to the other and can cost around $300,000 for large cargo ships to go through.
a view of the Miraflores locks

ships passing through the canal

check out the cranes in Panama City - so much development

some ruins in Panama City

I didn't get a chance to properly explain bus rides in Central America. Remember the big yellow school buses some of us rode to school years ago? Well they usually make it down to Central America for many more years of use before they are finally (if ever?) put out of their misery. They paint these old buses lots of pretty colors, like the one above. The buses are called chicken buses and remarkably they don't even translate it, they just call the buses "chicken buses." And people actually bring chickens on the buses, which are never full. They can always fit additional people, which helps gringos like me keep from falling out of the seat on the curvy roads.