Hi Friends!
After an early wake-up, a long layover in Miami and an hour and a half bumpy van ride later, we arrived in Panama City on the evening of the 7th of November.
There is so much to say after being gone from the ship for the past month but I guess I have to start somewhere. We just spent the weekend enjoying what I’ve been told was a much needed, well deserved liberty port. Panama City is a so-so liberty port. We were moored directly at the entrance to the Panama Canal and on our land-side was a lush, green scenery, sort of rainforest like (it reminded me a lot of Dominica). Unfortuntely, with the lush greenery was also a plethora of small, buzzing, nibbling bugs. From our berth, we could see ships enter & exit the Canal at all hours of the day as we were directly across from the commercial port where merchant ships would bring their cargo to be dropped off. Just when we thought our ship was huge to navigate through the Canal, even larger container ships could be seen making their way through.
As far as a liberty port goes, Panama City wasn’t great, but wasn’t awful. A few observations about life in Panama after about 24 hours of liberty. First, the things that I really enjoyed:
1) Cab drivers. There were a handful of cab drivers hand picked by NCIS to be allowed access to the base and they would all gather around the gate waiting for us. For a low price of $10-20 per day per person (depending how early in the day til how late you used him), the cab driver would drive the whole group around all day. Since you didn’t have to pay til the end of the night, the driver had a HUGE incentive not leave you where he dropped you off. And stay he did- anywhere from an hour long dinner to 4 hours at the casino, they patiently wait for you to finish up whatever you are doing, by sitting outside of the door in his cab. The first night in Panama, for $10/person, we got to drive around in this sweet Benz from 7pm-1am, taking us wherever we wanted to go. The 2nd day, we rolled 5 deep in a very old Marquis car for $15 per person from about noon to 1am.
2) Steak. I never loved steak SO much until I came here- it’s sort of like the way Brazil or Argentina is with their meat- cooked outstandingly and SO cheap! On the first night, I got a DELICIOUS 8oz filet cooked medium rare for $9.95. You can’t beat that at Outback!
3) Red wine.We also discovered that wine here was very cheap and enjoyed multiple bottles of delicious South American wine for $10 a bottle.
Things I didn’t like so much:
1) The drinks the bartenders make at the bars. For only $2.50 I got what I THOUGHT was Bacardi & Diet one night at the Casino, only to find out that enough Diet was used to change the color of the drink from a clear liquid to one that was just barely a shade of brown. My Spanish being described as limited at best, I had a lot of trouble communicating to the bartender that I wanted him to pour the whole drink into a bigger glass and add more Diet to it. He looks at me and goes “more Bacardi?” and proceeds to somehow pour MORE Bacardi into my glass. Ugh.
2) The heat/humidity. After a month of complaining about how cold Newport was, I find myself pining for the crisp air and strong breeze across the water. Despite being around lots of water, the Canal does not enjoy the luxury of wind that Newport does and it is unbearably hot, muggy, clammy & humid. The torrential downpour that occurs everyday in the lush green rainforest does not help.
Well, I suppose that temporarily ends my list of likes/dislikes of Panama City. Considering that we pull in here VERY frequently, I am sure I will come up with more things to add to this list over the course of deployment.
What else…. Well given that I have been gone for awhile, I’m not really sure what’s going on around here. We have all of these new people (Air Det, Coasties, etc) so I feel like I’m on a brand new ship! A lot of my friends on the boat are leaving soon which really bums me out; it is sad to see your friends leave you L
As far as what we’re doing, we’re out here getting directed around to (hopefully) find lots of drug running vessels & intercept them. We’ve currently have ~$ ½ million in cocaine and other illegal commodities onboard and are definitely hoping for a LOT more!
For those of you who don’t really understand what I just graduated from, I spent a month in Newport, RI at the Surface Warfare Officer School. Newport scenery = beautiful. Newport food = delicious. Newport weather = not so great. We had 3 weeks of advanced shiphandling & advanced tactics, giving us all a chance to understand more about the surface warfare community, strike group operations, amphibious operations and general shiphandling- basically things that, depending on your ship & her mission, you may not be able to experience or learn on a day-to-day basis. The class was also preparation for my upcoming SWO board, basically the culmination of 18 very long months onboard, trying to learn everything about my community that I can. During your hour long board (and many hour long murder boards that precede your official board), you are drilled by the department heads, XO & CO until they deem that you are ready to join the ranks of Surface Warfare Officer. Hopefully, you will see me sporting a sweet gold surface pin by early December.
I have included in this post to Dan a picture of where our ship is, you can see the “Bridge of the Americas” which marks the entrance to the Canal on the Pacific side.
It is truly my goal to post to the blog more regularly & during slow times I hope to actually organize my thoughts (although let’s be serious, anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I can’t help 3-4 tangents in a short conversation) to some coherent ideas, thoughts & stories so you aren’t forced to read a novel that has very little direction or point.
As always, I can be reached @ mharris@ffg58.navy.mil. Love you all!
After an early wake-up, a long layover in Miami and an hour and a half bumpy van ride later, we arrived in Panama City on the evening of the 7th of November.
There is so much to say after being gone from the ship for the past month but I guess I have to start somewhere. We just spent the weekend enjoying what I’ve been told was a much needed, well deserved liberty port. Panama City is a so-so liberty port. We were moored directly at the entrance to the Panama Canal and on our land-side was a lush, green scenery, sort of rainforest like (it reminded me a lot of Dominica). Unfortuntely, with the lush greenery was also a plethora of small, buzzing, nibbling bugs. From our berth, we could see ships enter & exit the Canal at all hours of the day as we were directly across from the commercial port where merchant ships would bring their cargo to be dropped off. Just when we thought our ship was huge to navigate through the Canal, even larger container ships could be seen making their way through.
As far as a liberty port goes, Panama City wasn’t great, but wasn’t awful. A few observations about life in Panama after about 24 hours of liberty. First, the things that I really enjoyed:
1) Cab drivers. There were a handful of cab drivers hand picked by NCIS to be allowed access to the base and they would all gather around the gate waiting for us. For a low price of $10-20 per day per person (depending how early in the day til how late you used him), the cab driver would drive the whole group around all day. Since you didn’t have to pay til the end of the night, the driver had a HUGE incentive not leave you where he dropped you off. And stay he did- anywhere from an hour long dinner to 4 hours at the casino, they patiently wait for you to finish up whatever you are doing, by sitting outside of the door in his cab. The first night in Panama, for $10/person, we got to drive around in this sweet Benz from 7pm-1am, taking us wherever we wanted to go. The 2nd day, we rolled 5 deep in a very old Marquis car for $15 per person from about noon to 1am.
2) Steak. I never loved steak SO much until I came here- it’s sort of like the way Brazil or Argentina is with their meat- cooked outstandingly and SO cheap! On the first night, I got a DELICIOUS 8oz filet cooked medium rare for $9.95. You can’t beat that at Outback!
3) Red wine.We also discovered that wine here was very cheap and enjoyed multiple bottles of delicious South American wine for $10 a bottle.
Things I didn’t like so much:
1) The drinks the bartenders make at the bars. For only $2.50 I got what I THOUGHT was Bacardi & Diet one night at the Casino, only to find out that enough Diet was used to change the color of the drink from a clear liquid to one that was just barely a shade of brown. My Spanish being described as limited at best, I had a lot of trouble communicating to the bartender that I wanted him to pour the whole drink into a bigger glass and add more Diet to it. He looks at me and goes “more Bacardi?” and proceeds to somehow pour MORE Bacardi into my glass. Ugh.
2) The heat/humidity. After a month of complaining about how cold Newport was, I find myself pining for the crisp air and strong breeze across the water. Despite being around lots of water, the Canal does not enjoy the luxury of wind that Newport does and it is unbearably hot, muggy, clammy & humid. The torrential downpour that occurs everyday in the lush green rainforest does not help.
Well, I suppose that temporarily ends my list of likes/dislikes of Panama City. Considering that we pull in here VERY frequently, I am sure I will come up with more things to add to this list over the course of deployment.
What else…. Well given that I have been gone for awhile, I’m not really sure what’s going on around here. We have all of these new people (Air Det, Coasties, etc) so I feel like I’m on a brand new ship! A lot of my friends on the boat are leaving soon which really bums me out; it is sad to see your friends leave you L
As far as what we’re doing, we’re out here getting directed around to (hopefully) find lots of drug running vessels & intercept them. We’ve currently have ~$ ½ million in cocaine and other illegal commodities onboard and are definitely hoping for a LOT more!
For those of you who don’t really understand what I just graduated from, I spent a month in Newport, RI at the Surface Warfare Officer School. Newport scenery = beautiful. Newport food = delicious. Newport weather = not so great. We had 3 weeks of advanced shiphandling & advanced tactics, giving us all a chance to understand more about the surface warfare community, strike group operations, amphibious operations and general shiphandling- basically things that, depending on your ship & her mission, you may not be able to experience or learn on a day-to-day basis. The class was also preparation for my upcoming SWO board, basically the culmination of 18 very long months onboard, trying to learn everything about my community that I can. During your hour long board (and many hour long murder boards that precede your official board), you are drilled by the department heads, XO & CO until they deem that you are ready to join the ranks of Surface Warfare Officer. Hopefully, you will see me sporting a sweet gold surface pin by early December.
I have included in this post to Dan a picture of where our ship is, you can see the “Bridge of the Americas” which marks the entrance to the Canal on the Pacific side.
It is truly my goal to post to the blog more regularly & during slow times I hope to actually organize my thoughts (although let’s be serious, anyone who knows me even a little bit knows that I can’t help 3-4 tangents in a short conversation) to some coherent ideas, thoughts & stories so you aren’t forced to read a novel that has very little direction or point.
As always, I can be reached @ mharris@ffg58.navy.mil. Love you all!
No comments:
Post a Comment