Day 49: Perusing the Panama Canal

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Today is officially our final day of our month-long tour through Central America. Over the past 28 days we have been through 5 countries, seeing and doing some amazing things including swimming with the dolphins, peering into an active volcano full of lava, canyoneering down cliffs and zip-lining across valleys. Its been an amazing 4 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed every minute and the people we've met along the way.

Our final day begun with a sleep-in, whooop!! No Olly Murrs 'Troublemaker' would wake us up this morning. We had a free day in Panama City and we thought we'd get our 'chores' over and done with first. We had breakie at the hotel, I put on the biggest load of washing ever in preparation for our summer gear hibination as we would be travelling south to cooler climates. I also had to get some stuff printed for customs as the boat carrying all our crap from the UK was approaching port in Brisbane.

So after all our chores, we headed out looking for...a post office. We had collected a vast array of souviners (hammock, shot glasses, canvas prints, Rach's 'night' thongs etc..) and our packs were starting to bulge. We found a 'carreas' (post office) just up the road from us however as we were beginning to discover, they too didn't have any sort of packaging to wrap our stuff in. We checked Google maps and found a bigger post office a taxi ride away. We flagged one down and drove to El Dorado shopping centre, a bizaare mall that was full of Asian looking clothes shops, a food court and a massive post office!! We strolled in and luckily the girl behind the counter could speak a bit of English, enough to understand that we needed a box to send stuff back to Oz. So half an hour and $60 later, we had unloaded my backpack and filled out enough forms to hopefully ensure its safe travels to Hawthorn, Victoria. Kate, please be on stand-by for a brown package with about 25 Panamian stamps stuck on it!!

We grabbed a quick bite and smoothie from the food court and hailed a cab back to the hotel. We had arranged to meet the Canadian couple (I always feel like we just call them that, but their names are Peter and Mirina) at 2pm for a taxi ride out to the famous canal.

We arrived just in time, met our waiting taxi driver and off we went. The canal basically starts from the Bay of Panama in the Pacific Ocean side, where Panama City lies. We drove for 15mins out of town to the Miraflores Locks, which houses the first 2 sets of locks in canal's journey north towards the Atlantic.

We paid our $8 entry which gained us access to both the observation deck and the museum, not bad considering this is a pretty famous landmark. We walked up a few flights of stairs, and up another lift to the 4^th floor observation deck. And we had timed it perfectly!! We took a look out along the canal and this massive container ship was just making its entry into the locks, heading south after its transit from the Atlantic. The announcer talking through the loud speaker informed us that the 'Eurasian Highway' is the largest vessel that can currently fit through the locks!! What chances. And this ship was massive carrying European cars to the Asian market (I think I just made that up!). The ship pulled into the lock area with the assistance of a couple of tugs and they hooked it up to these 6 train engines that assisted guiding the ship down the narrow passage-way. The total clearance was only 50cm on either side of the lock's walls! As the ship came closer, we saw that it was flying a red and white flag which indicated that the ship was under the control of a Panamian Canal pilot, the only canal in the world that requires a local pilot to guide the ship through. The ship stopped at the first set of locks and just like a bath, the water flowed out of the lock and the ship started lowering before our eyes. It took about 8 minutes for it to go down about 12m before they opened the first lock and sent the Eurasian Highway on its way to the 2^nd set of locks 100m further on. Over the 80km transit from Atlantic to Pacific, each vessel goes up and down 26m through 5 sets of locks. The locks work completely through the force of gravity, with the water flowing down from Gatun Lake, a large inland lake in the middle of the country.

We watched the ship sail through just as the heavens opened. It absolutely bucketed down and dispite being 'undercover', the rain came in horizontal at times at we got absolutely soaked! We next went and visited the museum which told of the initial construction and future developments of the canal. Apparently the French were the first to attempt construction of a canal between the 2 oceans. However disease (colera and maleria) and excessive costs meant that construction was cancelled. At the turn of the century, Panama became independent of Columbia and signed an agreement for the United States to construct the canal. Over the next 14 years, they blasted and dredged 80km of canal which has now seen its millionth ship pass through its waters. Under the terms of the agreement with the US, the Panama government took over ownership and operation of the canal on 31^st December 1999 at 12 noon. Panama has since come into an age of prosperity, earning vast amounts of wealth by charging tolls for each ship that transits the canal (it costs between $300k and £500k for each boat!!). We can see this wealth when we look at the Panama City skyline, which is full of high-rise buildings mirroring that of any modern city. Pity that most of the buildings are unoccupied.

We wandered through the museum which also had a mock control room for guiding the ships through the canal, a ship's bridge(I don't know what its called ok) that showed in fast-forward a video transit through the locks, a weird wildlife section and finally information of the canal's expansion. They are currently installing a new set of locks that will see capacity increase by letting larger container ships through (currently ships can only carry 4,500 containers however after the expansion is complete, the new locks will let through ships carrying 12,000!!). We finished the museum with a '3D' movie which was a propaganda-type film telling us how our Panama is at expanding the canal. It didn't really need to be in 3D put was informative all the same.

We finished up at the canal and got a taxi back into town. We were going to get dropped off at a lookout for some photos however the tropical storm was still raging and the rain continued to bucket down so we thought better of it.

We met up with the Canadians and John for dinner at 5.30pm. We strolled down to the bay and walked along the foreshore which we could see was only relatively newly constructed. It was quite nice, with lots of families out and about; kids playing on the play equipment, and battling it out on an outdoor table tennis table. We got a couple of nice photos of the bay with the new city in the background. We strolled towards the Spanish 'old-town' where Panama City was first inhabited. We had to pass a dodgy looking slum area first so we kept our heads down and charged passed. It was only about 6pm by this point so was still light and completely safe. We made a mental note however that we would get a taxi back home.

We walked around the old town which Marina told us was newly added as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There was a lot of reconstruction work going on and some alley ways were really nicely presented, painted in different colours and looked like we'd stepped back in time to when the Spanish had first settled. Other parts were clearly 'work in progress', with grey crumbled buildings and dark empty interiors. We walked up to Plaza Catedral which was an open space in-front of the old cathedral. We were drawn here by the sound of music and singing thumping throughout the streets. We walked into the plaza and were met by a circle of people, watching an unusual musical dance display, with the dancers all dressed up in natural dress. We foot tapped along for one song before the high pitched noise got too much and we headed off to look for dinner.

We went for dinner at La Clementina Restaurant thanks to our friends on TripAdvisor. It was quite a flash restaurant and when we walked in, we noted that all the tables had reserved signs on them. We were all wearing just shorts, thongs and t-shirts so not really the appropriate attire for such a place. This was probably the reason why they shunted us to a table out in the 'garden area'. Rach ordered a pashionfruit majito which was really nice despite sucking up bits of mint-leaves as she tried to guzzle it down. I ordered an Argentinian Malbec to wash my lamb burrito down with. Unfortunately I didn't stop to think that I hadn't seen too many sheep on our travels through Central America and it showed when my burrito was filled with mostly spinach and onion with only a few scraps of lamb throughout. Rach ordered the beef burger which was about the size of her head, which was good for me given my disappointing meal choice and I was thrown the leftovers after Rach said she was about to burst.



We chatted for a while after dinner, organising where we should travel in Canada when we get around to organising our next big trip away. We all squeezed into a cab after dinner and headed back to the hotel. That completes our Central American adventures...next stop, South America!!

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Photos

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Eurasian Highway coming down the canal

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The locks opening after pulling the plug

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Through she goes!!

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Drenched....

Comments

[Mum and Dad]

Panama Canal
You got some great photos of the Panama Canal. Its no wonder they are making it wider, it must be a great money spinner for the Gov. Theres a bit of trick photography with the panoramic shot of the canal which put a bend in the canal. I think not !!!!