Dubai on the Isthmus

On the way out of the Panama Canal Prinsendam passes the huge container port of Balboa with the skyline of Panama City beyond.  Panama City is a shock.  It has a skyline that looks like Dubai or Doha.  One skyscraper has an outline similar to the “sail” motif of Burj al Arab in Dubai.  On the breakwater separating the canal from the city the new Frank Gehry designed museum looks like a brightly colored collection of partially crushed pop cans.  It is Gehry so, of course it is controversial.  I will post pictures and you can judge.  I do like the contrast between the old cathedral and the modern skyline in one of the shots.

I have limited email but while in the Canal my iPhone worked on roaming.  I emailed Kevin that I was following our progress on a navigation app he gave me for Christmas.  He emailed back that he was following our transit through the canal on a GPS driven cruise ship tracker.  The Panama Canal made the world smaller by allowing the quicker transit of goods.  The 19th century dreamers who realized their vision in the early 20th would be amazed at the transit of information in the early 21st.

 

2 thoughts on “Dubai on the Isthmus

  1. I have envisioned Panama Cityas kind of a sleepy Central American village. I guess this is what Panama owning the canal themselves has wrought. The Gehry museum seems unusual in that he usually uses uncolored stainless steel in those soaring shapes, like the Weisman Museum at the U of M. I enjoy his playful work.

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