By Thomas Römer/OpenStreetMap data, CC BY-SA 2.0,
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| Panama City at dusk. |
It was dark by the time we approached the Panama Canal.
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| A view of the Panama Bridge with the city in the background |
A huge "car carrier"
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The small locomotives move along rail tracks on both sides of the canal
towing the ships through the canal.
This is the method used on the older, smaller, original canals,
which we used because we were a small ship. |
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First, canal seamen boarded our ship to attached lines to our ship
from the engines on either side of the canal. |
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Lines in place; low water level. We will be sharing our space in the lock with a dredger.
We would get much closer to it. |
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A ship moving in the opposite direction from us - left to right -
pulled along by the engines on the tracks. |
The video clips below show our progress in the first lock. It took quite a while. After this we went below to pack as we were to disembark early in the morning.
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| Looking back to see the lock at maximum height as the gates began to open. |
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| "Dancing lights" of the canal |
The next morning our bus stopped at the Agua Clara Visitor Center, near Colon, where we could see the large ships moving through the big new canal towards the Caribbean, with access to the Atlantic Ocean. You can see the location of Aqua Clara in the circle at the top of the map (at the beginning of this post).
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Aerial photos showing the new canal.
The water reutilization basins now allow water to be reused in the locks
saving 60% of the water. |
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Looking east towards the Caribbean and Panama Bay.
This big container ship is now in the second lock |
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In the new canals, tugs keep the ship in the centre of the lock,
rather than the locomotives. |
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| You can see the first lock here, with another ship waiting to enter. |
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| Rolling gates are easier to maintain than the swinging gates used in the original locks. |
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| The ship is now entering Gatun Lake, heading west to the locks on the Pacific side. |
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The second ship is now entering the first lock, as the water there is at sea level.
You can see how much the water level will have to rise
before the rolling gates to the second lock are opened. |
We then boarded the bus again to drive west to return to Panama City. As taxes are not levied on income earned outside of Panama, business is thriving. The skyscrapers were amazing, in number, size, and design.
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| photo from International Living |
After checking into our hotel (we were luckier than many in that we did not have to wait several hours) and having a short rest, we headed with several others to the Biomuseo, located on the Amador Causeway.
"Designed by world-renowned architect Frank
Gehry, the Biomuseo is his only work in Latin America and the tropics. The
building was designed to tell the story of how the isthmus of Panama rose from
the sea, uniting two continents, separating a vast ocean in two, and changing
the planet’s biodiversity forever."
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| biomuseopanama.org |
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| Museum entrance - a beautiful new building; the complex is still under development |
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A gallery showing both extinct and current animals and birds of Panama.
You could point your headset towards any exhibit
and get the story behind the exhibit elements. |
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| Shows the relative size of the bear-like creature |
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| Pre-Columbian pottery with fruit and vegetable motifs including maize and squash |
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A contemporary Embera family showing traditional body painting
made with the juice of the jagua fruit.
The geometric designs are similar to those seen on ancient pottery. |
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Later, our driver took us out to the end of the causeway. We were too tired to stop and investigate the many restaurants, parks and marinas, but it was a pretty drive.
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We left for home the next morning - two long flights, stopping in Toronto for a few hours, and arriving in Calgary at about 1:40 AM. David was kind to pick us up and take us to his house for the night before we headed home Monday morning.
