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Published: June 27th 2009
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We arrived in Panama and planned to spend 3 days there before heading to Equador however soon realised that due to our own lack of organisation we were going to have to spend 5 days there before we could get a flight. As it turned out though we loved Panama City so this was no hardship.
The hostel we were staying in was called Lunas Castle which was a massive restored colonial building with balconies and views over the bay. It was a really sociable hostel and we quickly ran into Stephanie and Sach who was had origianlly met in Ometepe, Nicaragua.
Our first day was spent walking arround Casco Viejo which was the area we were staying in also known as San Felipe or The Old Town. Its got a nice small town feel to it, a lot of beautiful colonial buildings and the very pretty presidential buildings, although we had to be very careful when walking through the streets or under the balconies as our neighbours had a tendancy to throw any food waste they may have over the side. Casco Viejo is also home to a very special deserted building and the Presidential Palace complete with
rare White Flamingo´s, we managed to while away a whole afternoon and a second morning with Sach and Finn exploring the area.
However the main event was on our third full day in Panama when we went to the Canal. I have to admit that I wasn´t overly bothered about going either to Panama or the Canal (at one point in Nicaragua had tried to palm Laura off on Sach so they could visit and be geeks together!), it was Laura who was really keen, but in the end I loved both. Sach came with us and we quickly discovered that he was really interested in the canal and was full of useful and interesting facts. Here are a few for you:
During canal construction days, over 152.9 million cubic meters of material were removed, almost half of which came from Gaillard or Culebra Cut alone. Were this material to be placed on railroad flatcars it would circle the globe 4 times.
On January 7, 1914, the floating crane Alexander La Valley made the first complete transit of the canal. However the waterways official inauguration took place on August 15, 1914, with the transit of the SS
La Union Club
Can anyone guess which 2008 film this building was in? Ancon.
In 1928 Richard Halliburton paid 36 cents in tolls to swim the canal. It took him 10 days to complete his journey.
The canal initiated round the clock operations on May 12, 1963, with the installation of new flourescent lighting in Gaillard Cut and the 3 sets of locks.
The canal has 3 sets of locks, each of which has 2 lanes and operate as water lifts to elevate ships 26 meters above sea level to the level of gatun Lake, in their transit across the continental divide. They are then lowered back to sea level on the opposite side of the Isthmus.
The part of the canal that we visited were the Miraflores Locks which is a set of 3 chambers that the ships and boats have to go through before they head into the Pacific Ocean. We arrived at about 2.30pm which is the best time to view ships coming from the Atlantic side. There was a ship going though the locks as we arrived so we watched it go through the final stages as the others lined up at the far end. The ships line up and are met by small boats
and electric locomotives which use cables to align and tow the ships, although the vessels use their own propulsion for the greater part of the canal transit. The locomotives work in pairs and move on rails to keep the ships in position within the lock chambers. Size dependant, the ships can use from four to eight locomotives. The ships we saw were cargo ships and only used four locomotives, the cruise ships use more.
During the ships transit through the locks, water is used from the Gatun Lake which along with the rainwater dams, provides enough water thoughout the year to keep the canal going. The miter gates seal the locks chambers and gravity drains the water to the lower levels. Approximately 197 million litres of fresh water is used for each lockage and is ultimately flushed into the sea. Each set of locks features a control house on the centre wall of its higher chamber, from which the entire operation is directed.
The lookout that we were using was directly opposite the control house of the Miraflores locks so we were in the perfect position to watch the whole process. We watched a number of ships go
through, which took about an hour per ship (to go through the actual chambers), then headed inside to the Museum and a short presentation on the building of the canal.
We had planned to ride the Transmithian Railway along the length of the canal but there was a big music festival going on over the weekend and the festivities started a few days earlier than we had anticipated, unfortunately it made it very difficult to get out of bed in the morning. However the festival itself was amazing and we felt very lucky to have been stuck in Panama City for it. 5 Stages were set up around Casco Viejo in different Plazas all offering different types of music for all musical interests, thankfully they were all offering very good barbecued meats and local food on stalls that had been set up around the stages, this was particularly good for us as it helped to wash down the Ron and Coca Cola! We were very lucky to have Sach as a companion as not only was he full of interesting facts but his Spanish Language skills were far superior to ours, whilst we were all dancing and partying he
made friends with a local couple and their son, Daniel, who were very friendly and joined us for the evening.
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JJ_L
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Just a note
I can't believe your luck, how you manage to meet all the right people at the right time in the right place? So you now know two factoids, Luke and Sach.