I Almost Died

Well, that’s probably a bit of an overstatement, but I could have. Panama City is a lovely place. The people are friendly, the Canal is interesting – did you know that they discovered the cure for Yellow Fever while building the canal… The disease was killing so many of the workers that they had to do something about the endemic.- , and they have a wealth of hisory. Panama City also has an interesting island some 20 miles from the city. The island is called Taboga and is a common place for people to relax for the day and absorb some sun. Several of us from the Hostel decided to take a day and explore.

The morning ride to the island proved exceptionally slow. Apparently, this was caused by work they were doing on one of their engines (I was yelled at, and almost had my camera confiscated because of taking this photo).

On our ride back from the island, we were told that the second engine had been fixed, that our ride should be cut in half, and that they were sorry for the inconvenience of this mornings ride…

20 minutes later, the engines of the boat turn off

5 minutes later, the engines turn back on

2 minutes later it begins to rain, and a big thunder storm approaches

15 minutes later, the engines once again shut-off

The three of us are now hot from being inside the boat and decide to step outside- the rain has subsided but the lightening hasn’t

5 minutes later, we see people running around placing life-vests over their heads

For the next 2 minutes Bjorn and I begin laughing about the situation. Iris does not find this funny and suggests that we go investigate the situation.

1 minute later, she runs out with a life vest instructing me that “THIS IS NOT A JOKE, THE BOAT IS TAKING ON WATER!”

3 seconds later, I run in and grab a life-vest.

For the next 5 – 10 minutes we await our unwritten destiny, wondering, at what point it will be necessary for us to jump overboard. After sometime, we see flares fire from the boat and smoke signals being thrown off the ship. Shit this boat is really sinking, I can’t believe it.

15 minutes later, two boats begin approaching, one boat successfully comes to one of the sides of our boat, the other, experiences some problems. As people began rushing towards the successfully docked boat, the boat begins to tip more violently… We started shouting at the passengers to slow down; and that their actions were going to kill us all! After much maneuvering, the other rescue boat finally positioned themselves so that we could begin boarding. I jumped onto the other boat, began assisting with the boarding of other people, but within several minutes, the boats disconnected from one another.

SNAP! A large and disastrous sound emitted from the sinking boat and it began tipping more forcefully. At this point I ran over to one of the connected ropes, grabbed hold and began pulling as tightly as possible. One by one, then two by two, then three by three, people started jumping off of the sinking ship.

Finally, after 10 exhausting minutes of holding the rope –at this point others had come over to help me- everyone had offloaded from the ship. And, within another couple minutes, the sinking ship was no more. Lightening added a perfect backdrop to the exciting journey.

What an exciting experience!... I kept my life-vest as a momento.

The following is an article about the sunken boat- This was in the Russian paper Pravda...

In Panama, 179 passengers rescued before boat sinks off coast

02:22 2005-09-20A public passenger boat sunk on its way from a small island off the Pacific coast of Panama to the mainland, but authorities said Monday they were able to rescue all 157 people aboard. No injuries were reported. Officials from the National Maritime Authority were investigating the cause, but believed that the boat sprung a leak. They originally said 179 passengers and six crew members were onboard, but later corrected those tallies to 150 passengers and seven crew. The boat was headed to the capital, Panama City, from Taboga, an island about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south that is popular with both Panamanian and foreign tourists. News media reported that the boat suffered from engine trouble, stalled, then begin to fill with water. A maritime authority spokesman said the vessel was overcrowded and should not have been carrying more than 127 passengers and three crew members. The crew immediately sent out distress signals, prompting the arrival of a safety boat from the Panama Canal and two boats from the maritime authority. Passengers were dropped off at a pier in Panama City where the boat was supposed to have arrived. At a news conference, maritime authority director Ruben Arosemena said that on Sept. 2 officials had ordered the boat not to sail because of its "deteriorating structural conditions." Despite those restrictions, the vessel left for Taboga on Sunday and sprung a leak on the way back to Panama that night, Arosemena said. He said the boat operators would be severely sanctioned and that "the case has to set precedents.", AP reported.