Panama 2024: Prelude
My parents celebrated their fiftieth anniversary in 2023. They decided that for their anniversary they wanted to take their children and grandchildren on a big vacation. They chose Panama as the destination, and so the 9 of us flew to Panama on Friday, February 16 and returned to the United States on Sunday, February 25. I've already posted a fair amount of detail on Facebook with our photos, but I feel like a trip diary would be useful for future reference, so I'll be posting them here under the tag Panama Anniversary Trip 2024.
In a very small way, the trip was my fault. We were visiting my parents for Hanukkah in 2022. They've been enjoying their retirement, but they hadn't really done much traveling even though they generally like traveling. The pandemic helped with that, obviously. They had been set to do a European cruise with my father's cousin that got cancelled by the pandemic, and certainly other travel was put on hold for a substantial period of time. Still, I pointed out to my father that at their age they were only going to get less able to travel, so if they wanted to go anywhere, they should not wait.
A few weeks later, my parents emailed my sister and I and told us they wanted to go to Panama, and they wanted us to come with. The deal was that they'd pay for the trip if we planned it. My sister found a travel agent, and I coordinated our conversations with that agent. After comparing dates, we arrived on February 2024 for our trip. We went to Panama instead of somewhere else largely because my father has always wanted to go through the Panama Canal. Good enough for me! M was happy to be returning to Central America. I was happy to finally apply some of the Spanish I've been learning for five years. And we all got to have a family vacation that was appropriate for small children.
As preparation for the trip, in 2023, my parents and I all read The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough, so we had a good background on some basics of Panamanian history and the canal. Candidly, the canal makes up about 90% of Panamanian history that is of any particular interest.
In a very small way, the trip was my fault. We were visiting my parents for Hanukkah in 2022. They've been enjoying their retirement, but they hadn't really done much traveling even though they generally like traveling. The pandemic helped with that, obviously. They had been set to do a European cruise with my father's cousin that got cancelled by the pandemic, and certainly other travel was put on hold for a substantial period of time. Still, I pointed out to my father that at their age they were only going to get less able to travel, so if they wanted to go anywhere, they should not wait.
A few weeks later, my parents emailed my sister and I and told us they wanted to go to Panama, and they wanted us to come with. The deal was that they'd pay for the trip if we planned it. My sister found a travel agent, and I coordinated our conversations with that agent. After comparing dates, we arrived on February 2024 for our trip. We went to Panama instead of somewhere else largely because my father has always wanted to go through the Panama Canal. Good enough for me! M was happy to be returning to Central America. I was happy to finally apply some of the Spanish I've been learning for five years. And we all got to have a family vacation that was appropriate for small children.
As preparation for the trip, in 2023, my parents and I all read The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough, so we had a good background on some basics of Panamanian history and the canal. Candidly, the canal makes up about 90% of Panamanian history that is of any particular interest.