Panama Canal

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Hello everybody,

This 77 kilometre canal between the Atlantic and Pacific celebrates 100 years this August. France started the project in 1879, but disease--malaria and yellow fever--plus a lack of engineering expertise did them in. Although the excavation was two-fifth finished, it sat for many years until the United States got involved. At the time it was part of Colombia. Panamanian rebels got support from the U.S. and separated from Colombia. The new state of Panama sold the rights to the Panama Canal to the U.S. for $10 million. The U.S. gave France $40 million for the excavation work they had completed. By this time is was 1903 and technology and disease control was much better. During construction, 200 million cubic metres of material were removed. If you put this stuff on railway cars, it would circle the globe four times.

Today, Panama ownes the canal--no other countries are involved. It has big plans with an additional canal to be opened in 2015. The new locks will be 1400 feet long and 160 feet wide. Since it started, over one million ships have gone through the canal. Of these, 65% are containers, followed by grains and Petroleum. It operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

It took about 10 hours for the Nowegian Star to get through all the locks and across the two lakes. We barely fit into the locks--only two feet on each side between the ship and the walls. The minimum cost to ships is $750., always payable in advance, however they pointed out that back in 1928, somebody paid just 36 cents--to swim the canal.

Our ship paid $134.00 per person for a total of $426,750.

Bye for now,

Donna

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Photos

IMG_1681
Some nice people I met--Maria and Roy had a cabin at the pointy end of the ship and invited me to join them!

IMG_1674
We were sure that our ship would never fit. As it was, we had two feet on either side. I believe they had a big barrel of vaseline.

IMG_1677
They used 8 of their locomotives to pull us along. They cost $2 million each. No wonder it cost the cruise company so much money.

Comments

[Marion]

Panama
Loved your pics. Where's the Vasoline?

[Goodie]

Looks like the weather is good. canada is stinking cold.

[Leslie]

News!
I'm loving reading this. The blog about the Rose Bowl Parade was really good. There was so much that I learned and it sounded like such a cool thing to be involved in. I didn't know you were going to Panama. That's one of my dreams is to go there and through the canal. So, when you get back, give us a call. We want to have you for dinner and a travelogue. We haven't seen each other for a while and I still would love to see pictures from China. I'm sending a hug for the rest of your travels.

[Leslie]

News!
I'm loving reading this. The blog about the Rose Bowl Parade was really good. There was so much that I learned and it sounded like such a cool thing to be involved in. I didn't know you were going to Panama. That's one of my dreams is to go there and through the canal. So, when you get back, give us a call. We want to have you for dinner and a travelogue. We haven't seen each other for a while and I still would love to see pictures from China. I'm sending a hug for the rest of your travels.