Christmas 2008 - In the Panama Canal travel blog

Approaching the Panama Canal at Daybreak

We will enter in the left lane

The Locomotives are Lined up; we'll need 8.

Spacing Between the Vessels; we're next.

Feathered Supervisors watching over the Canal

A Closer Look at the Locomotives or 'mules'.

This is our lead mule on the starboard side.

This vessel is raised to the next step.

The gates & traffic bridge open in the right lane.

It's time to dry my feathers.

Going on to the next chamber.

Santa & Mrs. Claus on the Bow.

We're in Gatun Lock Now

The Mules keep us aligned

Aft View showing the first chamber & a container ship in the...

Lighthouse at Gatun Lake

Gatun Locks

The Tender Boat that takes us to shore

Now you know what becomes of old school buses

The Chagris River

End of Year Custom with the Dummies; you stuff them with your...

The Beehive Temple

View of Panama City from Our Restaurant

It's a very pretty waterfront

Our Lunch Venue

Another View of the Panama City Skyline

Monument to Juan Pablo Duarte

The International Bridge

Some of the Monuments in Old Panama

The National Cultural Center in Old Panama

Suez Canal Pioneer

Monument to Carlos Finlay who linked the Mosquito to Yellow Fever

Another lovely monument in the French Quarter

I bought this bag from this Kuna Indian Lady

One of the few water fountains in Panama

We thought several of the buildings had a New Orleans look

Fabulous Old Panama Buildings

These are REAL Marble

The Opera/Concert house

Bolivar Palace

Joe spotted the Manequin Leg hanging over the railing.

Some Lovely Old Churches

The Crest on the President's Palace

It took over a 100 years to build this beauty

Living Monument of Palms, an exact size replica of the Canal Locks

Contrasts - the rebuilt on the left, the abandoned on the right

First rebuilt building in Old French Quarter


We were up bright and early, awakened when the ship slowed up to take on the local pilots at the canal breakwaters. It was pitch black outside at 5 a.m. so we decided to just get showered and have breakfast. It was going to be a long day.

By about 7 a.m., the day had dawned and it was bright enough so we could see what was going on. We headed to the bow of the ship but it was way too crowded for our liking so we went up a few decks and had a much better vantage point.

Joe had been through the canal before but I have always wanted to experience this great man-made wonder. The Panama Canal is a lock-type canal about 80 Kilometers long and connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific. International operations commenced here in 1914 and the U.S. turned over authority for the canal to Panama in 1999. The U.S. is still the #1 customer of the Canal, followed by China ,and we were surprised to learn that grain is the #1 cargo transported through here (I guessed it might have been shipments bound for Wal-Mart).

There are three sets of locks each with two lanes and they operate as water lifts to elevate ships 85 feet above sea level at the Caribbean (Atlantic) side to the level of Gatun Lake; then the ships transit across the Continental Divide and are lowered back to sea level on the opposite side and on to the Pacific Ocean.

Today, we did what’s called a partial transit. Our ship entered the canal at Gatun Locks, dropped anchor in Gatun Lake to disembark the passengers to our tender boats to Gatun Yacht Club for our shore excursions. Yacht Club is a bit of a misnomer here; there isn’t a yacht within miles. In fact, there’s literally nothing here except buses to transfer passengers to various tours. Now, we understand why they told us we couldn’t get off here unless we were on a ship’s tour.

The operation of the canal was quite fascinating to me. To be lifted 85 feet above sea level, we entered the lock, actually a set of three steps with thick 1,000 ft. long walls, and 7 ft. thick gates to contain millions of gallons of water. The ship uses its own propulsion to navigate through but a series of locomotives, called mules, guide the ship from step to step. The other interesting thing is there’s no pumping of water. It’s all done by force of gravity. The locks can accommodate vessels up to 110 feet wide and 965 feet long. We barely fit – a real threading-a-needle operation. There is a major expansion project underway to build a third lane to accommodate the larger vessels on the horizon.

While we were on our tour, the ship transited back through Gatun Locks and docked at Cristobal / Colon. A through transit would have taken us to Gamboa, through the Culebra Cut and the other two sets of locks at Pedro Miguel and Miraflores on to the Pacific Ocean.

We had booked a tour to Panama City, which is on the Pacific side so we had a bus trip which traversed the Trans-Isthmus Highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. This is a famous road as it was once used by the Spanish Conquistadors and the Forty-Niners seeking a short cut from the east to the gold fields of California. We witnessed a lot of poverty along this section of the countryside – a have/have-not society for sure. Trash was strewn all over the roads as trash bins bulged with rubbish.

As we approached Panama City, it was a different scene. The skyline is compact and cosmopolitan with sprawling luxury skyscrapers along the beautiful Pacific bay. Obviously, the lucrative fees from the canal trickle up to a very limited segment of the population.

We had a lovely buffet lunch at a restaurant right on the bay with a spectacular view of the skyline.

Next, our guide took us on a walking tour of Old Panama and the French Quarter. Beautiful churches, convents, colonial palaces, bridges, and military buildings tell the story of the grandiose past of Old Panama. We really enjoyed this and wished we had more time to poke around the area but we had to hustle for the bus ride back to Colon to rejoin the ship.

Back on board, we had a delicious traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, dressing, and all the trimmings. The ship provided complimentary champagne for all guests. Even though we were tired from the long day, we went to the evening show time performance by a husband-and-wife team known as Mysteriaque. They met in France where they did solo dancing at the Moulin Rouge. They do very artistic dance, acrobatic lifting, with some illusion, intrigue, and magic sprinkled in. They were excellent performers, especially some of their ballet renditions which they had performed at the Lido de Paris. Her costumes were spectacular and exuded the glamour of Parisian haute couture.

We put our clocks back an hour and called it a night; tomorrow, we arrive early in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica.

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