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Published: January 26th 2015
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When I decided to come to Panama, and tack two days onto the end of the trip, a primary reason was to have time to actually go through the canal, not just visit it from the shore. But when I heard the price, I very nearly decided not to. Had to be talked back into it. And I'm glad I succumbed.
But first, a bit about Panama City. This is a modern city, defined by the multiplicity of sky scrapers. Definitly makes Vancouver's skyline look a bit micky mouse. Yet it's not that big a city, barely a million people. And the sky scraper architecture is very interesting, very little of the plain jane variety.
I've spent quite a bit of time walking along the waterfront, which is wonderfully developed, the old town of Casco Viejo, which reflects a lot of the French dominated period during their ill-fated attempt to build a canal, as well as the new downtown. The city looks rich, but it's not a reflection of the country. The parts we've seen are the most Americanized of all of Central America. And for good reason, I guess, because the Americans finally built the canal and controlled
the canal zone for another 85 years before turning it over to the Panamanian government in 1999. But Panama has one of the highest disparity rates between rich and poor in the world. In Panama City, and most of where we've been, we've only seen the rich. In truth, Panama is way behind Costa Rica in overall development; it just doesn't look that way.
The Canal is the largest industry in the country, representing a significant proportion of Panama's income. It's built a lot of sky scrapers.
So yesterday was all about cruising the canal. Prices for a half cruise are $150. Full cruises would have been $250, but are available only about once a month, and not at this time (so no temptation there). We arrived at the appointed 9 a.m. hour and were promptly put on three motor coaches, and driven to Gamboa, at the start of Gatun Lake, about half ways along the canal route. Gatun Lake, the largest man-made lake at the time, was formed by damming off the Changris River so that about half the canal could cross at a 26 meter elevation above sea level, and save a lot of digging. This
meant, of course, putting in locks, three at each end. The French plan had been to dig down to sea level all the way, i.e., 86 feet deeper over much of the crossing. The plan would never have worked, as the Pacific tides are 20 ft high and the Caribbean ones only 4.3 ft high. Ships would have been struggling against current much of the time.
We boarded our boat at 1030 and cruised very slowly for over an hour and a half. Meanwhile our excellent guide explained a lot about the construction of the canal and about the various ships that we passed coming through in the opposite direction. Incidentally, ships come through in only one direction in the morning, and the other direction in the afternoon. That's because the big cut, where they crossed the great divide--and it is really impressive--is a bit narrow for 106 ft-wide ships to pass each other. At night, though (which is apparently busier), ships go in both directions, but they are smaller vessels. The locks are all 1000 ft. long and 110 ft. wide, larger than any ship at the time, but a "Panamax" standard that limited the size of ship
building for nearly 100 years. Now, though, about 30% of the world's fleet surpasses that size, so new locks are being built to accommodate these larger freighters.
We speculate that we went so slowly because we had to get to the first lock at an appointed time (probably not before noon, since we were going against the morning traffic, but then we were a small boat by comparison to the large ones). Passage can be booked up to a year in advance, and must be done at least four days in advance. All large vessels are piloted by dedicated Canal pilots, the regular captain having to give over complete control of his ship for a 24 hr period to the local Canal captain. Incidentally, the average freighter pays upwards of $200,000 for one passage through the canal, and the highest price ever paid was over $400,000 by a Norwegian cruise ship. (It's all cash, no credit). That's cheap, though, when you consider that a Panamax freighter uses about $100,000 worth of fuel a day, and it would take about 23 days longer to go around Cape Horn. (I said we had an excellent guide, right?)
The on-board lunch
started shortly before the first lock and, of course, I was in line as we entered that lock. In a few short minutes, we had lowered the 32 feet to Miraflores Lake, a short passage before the Miraflores locks (2 and 3). The whole process is strictly gravity fed; there are no pumps. Luckily, this is a tropical rain forest zone, so Gatun Lake maintains its elevation. I did read today, though, that a dam has since been built higher up, to help regulate the elevation of Gatun Lake. A sailboat from Virginia was granted passage with us, so we tied up to the side of the lock and the sailboat tied up to us. The same process was followed for the last two locks.
After the third lock, we were down to sea level on the Pacific side and then simply finished out the cruise to the marina at the end of the long weir, built as a breakwater from about one-third of the canal material dug out. As we rounded the end of the weir, the afternoon rains (a regular occurrence) descended on us. And everyone was happy that Gatun Lake was being replenished.
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