The Panama Canal

Thecdrive to the puckup point for my canal trip was beautiful. Lots to see, beautiful roads and for now on this Sunday morning peaceful and cool. 
With typical Latino disorganisation we eventually boarded our colour coded busses bound for Gamboa at the central point of the canal. 

The meeting point was on Flamenco island, one of three islands off the coast of the city, joined by roads built on land reclaimed from material from the canal excavation. 

I am on the blue bus, one of four massive coaches going today, and sneaked on board first to grab a front seat.  Each bus is decked out in its own ‘unique’ decor. Brocade, braid and metallics prevail. Our colour theme is purple. My favourite colour but I never imagined it being used like this. 

I had not realised but the canal cuts through a small distance of land at the northern point then opens onto Lake Gatūn before the canal locks resume south of the lake. Then there is a short section where the canal transits Lake Mirafores which is where the most well known lock is.  Gamboa our boarding point is pretty much half way. 

Prior to the canal being built Lake Nicaragua was considered as the best point until engineers found otherwise. 

The canal was built with assistance from the US, in manpower, expertise, money and management. They still have an active interest in Panama. 

We arrive at our boat the Pacific Queen and board. We share the boat space with a group of school kids who quickly became the most detested people on board. They must be born with ants in their pants because they dont keep still. 

We also share the waters with crocodiles and vessels cruising the lake, our commentary gives  us facts and figures and useful info if we want to transit on our own. 

Northbound traffic transverses the locks from midnight to midday and southbound until midnight again. We are the first to go southbound from our starting pount but have to wait for the vessel behind us to catch up.   That is a sizeable vessel that has come down the full length of the canal when southbound opened at noon so we had a long wait. 

Vessels need to book their passage well in advance and even with a booking they can wait in line for days before they can go through. At the moment water levels are low so they let fewer vessels through each day. Tourist vessels need to book 48 hours in advance to get in the queue. 

The reason for the locks in Panama is not because of differences in sea level on the opposing oceans but because the man made lake was created 26metres above sea level in the mountains. So instead of having to cut through 50kms through land they raise the water level for 9kms in the artificial lake then drop it down again. 

A car carrier is the last of the northbound traffic. It is massive as it passes next to us. The big ones have to wait till last and they don’t have a big one going in the opposite direction on the lake at the same time. The wake created by the biggies creates too much havoc if they are going in opposing direction. 

As an aside being off grid I haven’t seen a lot of fish lipped women. They abound on this boat. For some reason they seem to go hand in hand with a scowl directed at other people 🤣🤣🤣. Of course the obligatory selfie is part of the package. 
The cruise down stream is lovely with lots happening on the water and the shore. 

We veer left to go through the old smaller locks while bigger vessels will go right to the new locks.  There are now three. We are on the smallest. 

Now we wait. Wait until other vessels come to join us. So far we have two yachts tethered alongside. It’s stifling hot but with the faintest breeze. They served us a very ok buffet lunch which because I was so hungry I ate against my rules around not eating pre prepared food. 

Alongside the water we can see where they have carved through the hills to create the water ways but on other parts we can see huge expanses of flat verdant land. 

Eventually a vessel arrives into the lock behind us. Alongside of the lock are markers indicating the number of feet to the gate. We can see from the markings that the 600ft vessel will just fit in behind us. 

The world is watching the vessel behind us. We are waiting to move. 

FishLips #1? Is more intent on getting the perfect selfie without a care of whose view she might be blocking. 🤣

All vessels must travel on their own power and the captain surrenders his navigation to the pilots which come on board.  Tugs line it up and navigate to the entrance to the lock and train pulls it along the lock keeping it straight. 

This guy has one foot spare on each side of him so it is a long slow process. 

Another boat is going into third lock. He is a biggie and soon gets through. 

The guide was excellent and was trying to explain everything to us but no one can hear for kids chatter.  

Once the vessel behind us is safely in place and tethered the gates behind close and the valves are opened to allow water to drain toward the centre lock. This saves water as the water from the centre can be drained back to the sides later. 

Without really noticing we slowly go lower towards sea level as the water drains out. The only way to see how far down we are is by comparing the water line on the sides of the lock. One minute we could see land the next minute we could only see the sides of the lock dripping with water. 

The gates wont open unless the water pressure/level is the same on both sides of the gates.  When that happens the gates slowly open. There are double gates for each lock on the Pacific side to reduce the pressure on a single doorvfrom tidal flows. 

Gates open and we are able to move on. In total we went through three locks. Waiting for the big guy behind us held us up, but the last  lock was very near to the previous one so it didn’t take long for him to catch up. 

In total we went down 26 metres over the three locks. The entire trip (given that we only started half way down) took nearly six hours. 

The cost of transit is based on the size of the vessel and gross laden weight. The vessel that followed us in would probably have paid about $150,000. The highest crossing ever paid for was a mere $4,000,000 for a ship laden with 17,000 containers.  It was still much cheaper than going round the bottom of South America, both in $ and of course in time. 
As we near the dock the icing on the cake was the sunset. As though it knew we would be so late. 

Today’s experience was fantastic. I’m so pleased I did it.   My descriptions don’t do it justice. 

It was an extremely hot and humid day so that made it really uncomfortable and tiring. 50 kids zooming round the place like mice did not help. They were like swarms and rude as hell pushing people out of the way which resulted in a few people taking them to task.  Discipline of children by the locals does not seem to be a thing here. 

We alighted to be confronted with taxi touts trying to score rides.   My uber this morning cost me $5. The taxis wanted to charge $15. Get lost guys. An uber bought me home again for $7. 
Along the drive we ran into traffic and I asked the driver about the hoardes of people all headed in the same direction along the causeway. Eventually we saw it. A massive public Christmas party was underway. 

By the time I got home I was tired, hungry and short of patience. I went into the first restaurant I could find and ordered a bistek ‘milanese’. The restaurant is about as basic as you can get but with an extensive menu. Milanese is usually schnitzel so not sure what the bistek bit had to do with it but it was not too bad for $10.    It filled a gap. 

I was not in the mood for the two noisy screaming kids next to me or the table of 9 men who thought they needed to scream to be heard.   I devoured my schnitzel as quick as I could and called it a night.