We traverse the western half of the Panama Canal, visit the Visitor’s Center, and buy some trinkets
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I discovered how the shower works finally. I had a very cool shower for awhile until I did. Although even knowing how hot water was supposed to come out didn’t always guarantee it on the trip. Luckily, it was hot enough out that a cool shower generally felt pretty good. We met a few folks at breakfast. There was a very quiet guy and his more outgoing wife from Redlands, CA. and a couple of ladies from Portland. The boat is only a little more than half full which is nice.
After breakfast we got off the boat and on to the buses for a ride to the mouth of the canal and the boat we would take through the canal. The boat was the Isla Morada which was formerly Al Capone’s yacht. The tour guy on the bus said “when you see it you won’t think it’s sea worthy”. He didn’t add the “but it is” you might expect, which did not go unnoticed by us. And it didn’t look too seaworthy. Very African Queen-ish. It’s made of wood which was actually very pretty. It was used in the war to clear mines.
We headed back into the canal on the boat, passing everything we’d just driven by and back under the Bridge of the Americas and by our cruise boat.
The tour guide told us lots of stuff about the building of the canal. First the French effort and then the Americans. 22,000 died in the French effort. Another 6000 plus for the Americans. It’s hard to imagine any project with anywhere near that number of fatalities today. Of course, many were “brave and courageous” folk from Barbados and other Caribbean countries who may not have had much choice.
The “canal” is actually a set of locks on either end connecting to Lago Gatun, an enormous man-made lake in the middle. It passes through the Culebra Cut which was where most of the digging occurred (and most of the deaths I’m guessing). The lake is 85 ft above sea level so the locks are needed to raise you up. There are 3 on the Pacific side (2 together and one more). We went through them all. They are 1000′ long and 100′ wide and ships are built to those specs so they just fit (they’re called PanaMax). We squeezed in with a freighter, a tug and a sailboat.
It takes 26 million gallons of water to fill each lock which they get from the lake and the nearby watershed. The locks are filled by gravity so the water is not re-used. Luckily it rains here a lot. They run 14,000 ships through the canal each year. That’s a lot of water. Ships are charged by their size or the number of containers they carry (but not the ones on deck for some reason). It can be very costly, but still cheaper than going around or shipping across.
The locks fill at 3 million gallons per minute, which is pretty amazing, and you can really feel the boat rising. It’s pretty impressive to see a big freighter being raised up. The lock doors are 900 tons or something but open and close with a 40 hp motor because they float. Ships go through under their own power but the big ones are held in place by ‘mules’, little engines on tracks on either side that are pretty cool looking. Their job is to keep the ships straight so they don’t bang into the sides. Sometimes there is only about 2 ft of clearance on each side. A PanaMax sized ship in a lock looks like a toy boat in a teacup.
The locks were pretty cool but after one time, the other two were less exciting. The scenery was not very impressive and after awhile it was “okay, we’re done now”. Marion never really did get into it at all. I like being able to say we’ve been through the canal (at least part of it). But I’m glad I didn’t make a special trip down to Panama to do it.
We got through the cut and into the lake where we stopped. Then off to the Visitor’s Center which overlooks one of the locks. There’s a viewing stand and a ship was coming through, but it was 3 people deep all the way across and I couldn’t get anywhere near it. I never did see anything from there. When we went by on the canal the viewing area was packed then too. I guess it always is.
There was a movie and some potentially interesting displays but by then we were hungry, had heat headaches and had heard enough about the canal thank you very much. So we didn’t really benefit much from it. We were ready to go back to the boat.
When we were leaving they couldn’t locate two people. It took 15-20 minutes before they finally found them. Apparently they had stopped in the restaurant for a meal. People were *not* happy. The missing people didn’t seem too embarrassed or concerned though. The lady from NY (I’m guessing) and the two gay men that seem to be traveling with her were riffing pretty good on them and some other folks too. We’ll have to watch ourselves around them if we don’t want to get talked about.
But it wasn’t time to go back to the boat just yet. No, it was onto a market for some shopping. This was a classic “tour” stop, where one is given the opportunity to “experience the local culture” and sure, if you wanted to buy something, that would be just fine. But there were some cool masks, vegetable ivory carvings, molas (those colorful stitched things) and such. Lots of pushy sales people which always turns me off but I guess they’re just trying to make a living. Marion bought a few trinkets and things and a cool painting on a bird feather.
We finally headed back to the ship for a much needed lie-down. While we were resting a very large freighter came by, stopped, turned and appeared to be heading right for us. It was docking right in front of us but from our window, it just seemed to be sliding closer and closer to ramming us. And it was big! It was pretty exciting for a few minutes. I almost woke Marion up so we’d be ready to abandon ship. But it slid by without incident.
Then the evening recap and plan for tomorrow. We’re going to a native vilage. We got some description of the natives we’ll be seeing, who the cruise line is basically keeping alive by bringing tourists to buy their stuff. No need to buy anything of course, but it’s how they make enough money to survive, send their kids to school, etc. And it’s so cheap… No guilt there. (The bus tour guide for the canal trip was trying to sell us on real estate too. Great time to buy, prices are low. The hotel chains are snapping it up, etc.)
The boat finally got underway and headed back out the canal and into the Pacific. There was lots of boat traffic. They would pass really close and didn’t always seem to be very well lit. But we didn’t hit anything and more importantly nothing hit us.
The description for tomorrow made it sound like we’d be wading in through crashing surf, like the Marines on Guadalcanal or something, although without anyone shooting at us which is a big advantage.
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