The Panama Canal

Today Ted and I stepped off the beach and into the city!   We went to the Panama Canal first, to learn about and see the process...it was amazing!  For those of you who don’t know much about this amazing feat you can check it out at www.pancanal.com Or if you just want to learn a little....here it goes ;-)

The Canal was proposed by the Spaniards and then started by the French.  The French fell ill to many diseases and then ran out of money.  After the USA signed a treaty with Panama, they would build the Canal and manage for almost 100 years and then would sign over to Panama.   

The Canal is 80km long connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  It takes about 10 hours for a large ship to pass through the Canal or 3.5 weeks to go around.   They also have a loading port, so many ships unload cargo containers, which are then transported via train to the other port, headed to HONG KONG, CANADA and other destinations.

The Canal is like a 2 lane highway with elevators to get you where you need to go!  These elevators - Locks as they are called - raise from the Caribbean Sea up 26 meters to Sea Level (where there are 19 lakes contributing to) then they sail across Gatun Lake, and then get released back down to the Pacific Ocean. 

The US took over a large part of Panama with Navy and Army bases, Panama holds the 2nd largest runway in Central America (from what we have been told).    

When you speak to people here their views of US involvement is very mixed. 

The history is amazing, their city is huge....way bigger then I would have imagined.  Panama’s population is 3.5 million in its country, and 1.5ish in it’s city.

During the construction of the Canal 200 million cubic meters of material were removed, this would circle the globe four times!

It is an incredible feat and an amazing process!

Here are a few of the pics I got, we couldn’t stay long as we were on a tour, but the whole process of going through this set of locks take 25-40minutes.  The ships are lowered in 16M sections!!!  In the pictures you can see how much the Sunbelt Spirit went down by the amount of blue passing behind the terminal.

This boat had only 6" of clearance on either side....these ones take a little longer thru the locks, they are propelled by side trollys (the white cable train in the foreground)  This ship was transporting Toyota, Honda, etc.

From 8am-5pm The Canal schedules large ships and both sets of locks run one way and then the other...so we got to watch 3 ships go thru!   It is like the Lions Gate Bridge in Vancouver....during rush hour they control the flow 2 lanes in or out!   After 5 pm - larger ships are to wait in the bay until their slotted time and small crafts can continue 24 hours a day.

That is the SUNBELT SPIRIT featured in the second photo photo, already down 16M headed behind the control towers and headed waiting for the 2nd set of locks to take her down the next 16M


Today we also ventured Old Panama....It was amazing I hope to post tomorrow all of my beautiful views!!!!

Stay Tuned for more from Panama!!!