Tuesday, November 29, 2011 - Day 9 – Panama City, Panama
Rotterdam is anchored for the day in Panama Bay, however I have no shore
excursions scheduled, so I can take it easy today aboard ship. This ends up
being a wise decision since it pours rain most of the day. I go ashore for about
a half hour to have a look around the local community of Fuerte Amador, however
there is nothing of interest to me there…just tour and taxi stands, souvenir
shops, and a few restaurants. There are also some very expensive-looking boats
moored in the local marinas.
I spend a quiet afternoon working on my notebook computer annotating the 160
photos and videos I took of our Panama Canal transit from yesterday. I also
enter place name location data for each photo to supplement the GPS position
tagging. I find doing this as I travel rather than after I return home makes it
much easier to cope with all the photos I take on my travels. I can turn out
regular blog entries while I travel, and I can update my JoeTourist website much
more quickly after the trip ends.
Three young men (Nicholas Rodriguez, Austin Miller and Connor O'Brien) perform in the show lounge this evening
as The Matinee Idols, singing classic songs
from the stage and screen from the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s. I find it kind of
funny that the songs they are performing were hits when these guys weren’t even
born! The tenor has the strongest voice, but the other two are good singers as
well. I enjoy their show. Two of them had roles on soap operas (daytime drama TV
shows), hence their group’s name.
I saw them hanging out on the
deck earlier today. They stood out since they are young and good-looking, as
compared with most of the rest of the men on this ship, who are generally old and
not-so-good looking!
