Panama Canal Transit

[Island Time O25]

I have been invited by a friend to crew FL to Panama leg of his circumnavigation some time early next year. I will not be going through the canal with him as he will be waiting in Colon for some family members to crew with him during the canal transit and may be up to the Mexico coast. Both the owner and these family members have done it a bunch of times and I won't have time to wait around for them and will have to get to the Panama City airport on my own to catch a flight back to US. I'd assume that the best mode of transport from Colon to Panama City is a taxi. If so - how much does it normally cost and how long/how safe is the ride? Any other modes to get there from Colon i.e. buses, trains? I understand that the distances are not great by US standards but still I would like to have a ball park idea of the costs/drive times. Appreciate any advice on this.

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

I have been invited by a friend to crew FL to Panama leg of his circumnavigation some time early next year. I will not be going through the canal with him as he will be waiting in Colon for some family members to crew with him during the canal transit and may be up to the Mexico coast. Both the owner and these family members have done it a bunch of times and I won't have time to wait around for them and will have to get to the Panama City airport on my own to catch a flight back to US. I'd assume that the best mode of transport from Colon to Panama City is a taxi. If so - how much does it normally cost and how long/how safe is the ride? Any other modes to get there from Colon i.e. buses, trains? I understand that the distances are not great by US standards but still I would like to have a ball park idea of the costs/drive times. Appreciate any advice on this.

Shelter Bay has a couple of taxis standing by pretty much all day. I can't remember what they were charging exactly. It was under $100, though.
Leaving from there's perfectly fine. From downtown Colon, I'm not really sure. That town is really a pretty dangerous hole. If you can, get dropped off at Shelter bay, and it's a piece of cake from there. They also have a little shuttle bus there that I believe goes to P. City for shopping occasionally.

Anyway, it's easy from the marina. To the airport is something like a couple of hours.

TJ

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by TJ D

Shelter Bay has a couple of taxis standing by pretty much all day. I can't remember what they were charging exactly. It was under $100, though.
Leaving from there's perfectly fine. From downtown Colon, I'm not really sure. That town is really a pretty dangerous hole. If you can, get dropped off at Shelter bay, and it's a piece of cake from there. They also have a little shuttle bus there that I believe goes to P. City for shopping occasionally.

Anyway, it's easy from the marina. To the airport is something like a couple of hours.

TJ

Thanks a lot for the info. I don't think I'd want to go downtown anyway and the skipper would probably stay at that bay as well. 30 years ago I had a Panamanian roommate who was in dental school in US and I recall him telling me that the place was dangerous even back then. That's what triggered my apprehension now.

[Paul L]

Google Panama City Cruisers Guide. Lots of great info in the PDF. Grab Roger's (Roglio) email and telephone number from it. Then setup for him to pick you up and drop you off. Fair price, reliable and speaks good English.

[Island Time O25]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Google Panama City Cruisers Guide. Lots of great info in the PDF. Grab Roger's (Roglio) email and telephone number from it. Then setup for him to pick you up and drop you off. Fair price, reliable and speaks good English.

+1

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

I have been invited by a friend to crew FL to Panama leg of his circumnavigation some time early next year. I will not be going through the canal with him as he will be waiting in Colon for some family members to crew with him during the canal transit and may be up to the Mexico coast. Both the owner and these family members have done it a bunch of times and I won't have time to wait around for them and will have to get to the Panama City airport on my own to catch a flight back to US. I'd assume that the best mode of transport from Colon to Panama City is a taxi. If so - how much does it normally cost and how long/how safe is the ride? Any other modes to get there from Colon i.e. buses, trains? I understand that the distances are not great by US standards but still I would like to have a ball park idea of the costs/drive times. Appreciate any advice on this.

If your host boat stays at Shelter Bay for a couple of days you probably could crew through the canal as a line-handler for someone. It takes two days with an overnight at a mooring in Gatun Lake. it is a pleasant and interesting experience.

If you need to get to Panama City from Colon you basically have two options. You can take a taxi which is tourist/yachtie priced at $100. Or you can take the local bus, which was something like $3 when we were there about eight years ago. Colon is not a nice place but seemed to be relatively safe during the day along the main street, in Cristobal where the canal offices are. The bus station area in Colon seemed OK at least there were so many people there. I certainly would not wonder into adjacent streets though. There are constant buses to PC so you would not need to wait long. When you get to the bus station in PC there would be buses or a taxi to the airport - although it is an interesting city to spend a day or two in. It is not completely safe, but much better than Colon.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by AiniA

If your host boat stays at Shelter Bay for a couple of days you probably could crew through the canal as a line-handler for someone. It takes two days with an overnight at a mooring in Gatun Lake. it is a pleasant and interesting experience.

If you need to get to Panama City from Colon you basically have two options. You can take a taxi which is tourist/yachtie priced at $100. Or you can take the local bus, which was something like $3 when we were there about eight years ago. Colon is not a nice place but seemed to be relatively safe during the day along the main street, in Cristobal where the canal offices are. The bus station area in Colon seemed OK at least there were so many people there. I certainly would not wonder into adjacent streets though. There are constant buses to PC so you would not need to wait long. When you get to the bus station in PC there would be buses or a taxi to the airport - although it is an interesting city to spend a day or two in. It is not completely safe, but much better than Colon.

Good suggestion to find a line-handler position and take a few days to get through the Canal. Its a great experience and lots of boats are looking for additional line-handlers.

If you want to take a bus into Panama City you can get on the bus near Quartro Alto (where the Shelter Bay bus drops off for shopping). This avoids having to go into Colon to pick it up. I don't really recommend this till you've been around Panama for a bit --- although its safe and not really difficult once you know what bus and where the bus stop is and what the schedule is that day. The bus will drop you at the Alderwood Mall and you will have to get a ride to airport from there.

[Island Time O25]

Thanks for the suggestions. Much will depend on our ETA (myself and another friend will be getting off the boat while the skipper will wait for his allotted passage time plus his next crew) as we're most likely have return flight tickets. At this point we're shooting for a week to get there from KW plus a week for any weather/repairs issues, etc. So if we get there on time or sooner we will probably stop at San Andres for a day or two.

I have no idea what the transit wait times are but the skipper will be picking up a bunch of relatives as transit crew (all except little children are experienced sailors) so we will need to get off anyway before they transit. Crewing for another transit boat is a great idea and we will definitely explore it either beforehand or once we get there.

The skipper transited many times but mostly as a captain of large merchant ships so he knows the drill well but his knowledge of latest details is probably somewhat dated. But I'm sure he'll catch up on it between now and February through his network of marine contacts and fellow sailors.

[Island Time O25]

One more issue came up while googling a potential stop at San Andres/Providencia. Among various descriptions which came up there was a disturbing blurb cautioning not to sail too close to the coast of Nicaragua due to the pirates being active in the area. That article did not have an apparent date and I have no idea if this was posted 10 years or 10 days ago. Does anyone have any current knowledge as to this issue, i.e. is 150nm off the coast is OK or not. Thanks.

[Boatguy30]

When boats anchored in colon it was easy to take the train to Panama city. Assume there is still a train option?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

I have been invited by a friend to crew FL to Panama leg of his circumnavigation some time early next year. I will not be going through the canal with him as he will be waiting in Colon for some family members to crew with him during the canal transit and may be up to the Mexico coast. Both the owner and these family members have done it a bunch of times and I won't have time to wait around for them and will have to get to the Panama City airport on my own to catch a flight back to US. I'd assume that the best mode of transport from Colon to Panama City is a taxi. If so - how much does it normally cost and how long/how safe is the ride? Any other modes to get there from Colon i.e. buses, trains? I understand that the distances are not great by US standards but still I would like to have a ball park idea of the costs/drive times. Appreciate any advice on this.

Waiting in Colon...not the best of choices...it is for the most part a full on slum...not a place you want to meet family and friends. My suggestion is he go over to Shelter Bay Marina (AKA Shelter Pay) for the pick up at least.

Re transport:

Regardless of how you go, except bus which is slower, its about 1 hour trip between Panama City (PC) and Colon. All modes are safe...bus is a bit more sketchy because you must go to the Terminal in Colon.

Shuttle. Shelter Bay runs a twice daily shuttle to/from Cuatro Altos (outskirts of Colon...safe area) at no charge. They also run a once a week shuttle to/from Panama City, no charge. Both for marina guests/employees only. Contact them for current schedule and details.

Train. My recommendation. A cool way to cross between PC and Colon. Old restored cars, observation car, jungle, wildlife, views of the canal and Lake Gatun...and you get a little Panama Canal Railroad happy meal like box. Runs once per day, each way. Depart Panama City about 7AM. Depart Colon about 5PM. About $25 IIRC. Google Panama Canal Railroad to confirm rates and schedules.

Taxi. About $30 between Colon/Cuatro Altos and Shelter Bay. About $100 from Shelter Bay to Tocumen Airport in PC. Taxis who do this run often hang out at Shelter Bay. Note: if you hop a Taxi in Colon he may not have passes for the expressway and so take the local roads...this is significantly slower...expressway speedo is 100 KPH...non-stop on a modern 6 lane road all the way to PC....the local roads are none of these things and not very interesting either.

Bus. Not my prefered method becuase it involves going into Colon proper, but that said, Ive taken the bus a few times without incident...or feeling like there was about to be one. If you take the bus, travel light (ideally one small-med bag)...easier to stow on the bus and you can move quickly from taxi thru terminal to bus. Cheap, like about $5 IIRC. Bus route ends at Albrook Terminal in PC. A Taxi from there to Tocumen is about $30. In theory you could hop off somewhere a bit closer and taxi to Tocumen, but the Taxi is still likely to want $30 just because you are going to Tocumen.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Google Panama City Cruisers Guide. Lots of great info in the PDF. Grab Roger's (Roglio) email and telephone number from it. Then setup for him to pick you up and drop you off. Fair price, reliable and speaks good English.

Yes, Rogelio is a good guy to know. I have his contact info if you dont find it.

His rate is also about $100.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Good suggestion to find a line-handler position and take a few days to get through the Canal. Its a great experience and lots of boats are looking for additional line-handlers.

If you want to take a bus into Panama City you can get on the bus near Quartro Alto (where the Shelter Bay bus drops off for shopping). This avoids having to go into Colon to pick it up. I don't really recommend this till you've been around Panama for a bit --- although its safe and not really difficult once you know what bus and where the bus stop is and what the schedule is that day. The bus will drop you at the Alderwood Mall and you will have to get a ride to airport from there.

OK its been a couple years since we were in Panama -- a couple of spelling errors above. Its cuarto alto, like in 4 stops, and Albrook mall, not Alderwood.

[Sea Life]

We past the coast of Nicaragua a few months ago from Bay islands, Honduras to Providencia. We stayed way off shore, did not stop in the Hobbies or Vivirillos. We had one incident during our transit. My wife details it in her blog. We did leave nav lights on and do not have AIS. Very scary at the time, but looking back, I would not let it deter me from either Honduras or Providencia/ San Andres, we loved all three!

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Island Time O25

One more issue came up while googling a potential stop at San Andres/Providencia. Among various descriptions which came up there was a disturbing blurb cautioning not to sail too close to the coast of Nicaragua due to the pirates being active in the area. That article did not have an apparent date and I have no idea if this was posted 10 years or 10 days ago. Does anyone have any current knowledge as to this issue, i.e. is 150nm off the coast is OK or not. Thanks.

Yes, best to stay well off the E coast of Nica. There have been a few "incidents" along the usual cruiser route in which boats perceived a threat, but none I know of that involved an actual boarding/robbery etc. Close along the E coast of Nica (not the usual cruiser's route) there have been such events. See www.noonsite.com for more details.

The most frequented cruiser's route varies, very roughly, from about 40 to 130 nm off the coast, depending on leg of route.. This is coming from the Bay Islands, across the Nicaraguan Banks, and then down to Providencia/San Andreas.

If you are coming from FL there is no reason to get anywhere near the Nica coast. You could just make a direct shot for Providencia.