The Panama Canal

We arrived when it was dark. The captains voice boomed through the tannoy telling us we were here. or as he said If I am up you are up !! A real character. There were people who complained about being woken. I thought this was the reason for being on the cruise , the main event so to speak so to want to lay in bed seemed pointless but then as I realised  there are some wealthy people in the world
and hearing them speak it was all rather trying and they had done it all before . One benefit of not being rich is that you can appreciate a once in a lifetime opportunity and be glad you got it.

 As the night gave way to day the entrance to the canal was revealed , we had seen as we waited hundreds of lights , as dawn broke we saw the sea was littered with waiting ships and the lights were there masthead lights. We as a cruise ship got priority. I assume we paid more.

Panama

we enter the locks

If you wonder what this is its the gap between the boat and the dock ! Thats right there isnt one. Ours was the biggest boat able to navigate the canal and as you can see only just

Superlatives run out when you start to talk about the canal . It was an unimaginable feet of engineering. All the water used in these locks is used ONCE , then its gone !!

Just a reminder this is in the middle of the Jungle.

and this is what they had to dig through and  how far they had to dig to find a level. There is lots of information on the canal and how it was built . I cant cover it here but I do recommend you read up on it , impossible is a good description . A second canal has been built , sort of , because of modern technology we hardly heard of it. It unlike the canal we saw reuses 80% of the water.



and a train passes by

The trains (called Tugs) that pull the boats through go up this incline ,and down it .

Jungle and commerce , its like trader Jim. It could be 1900 .

The mountain endlessly falls into the canal and the canal endlessly needs maintenance.

 Below picture from the balcony of the lock keepers building , its close, I could have shared his sandwiches..

This is a picture from our balcony of the lock keepers control room you can see how close it was.

another chance to see the non existent gap , its a miracle to get a boat through like this . Well not a miracle but certainly you need to concentrate.