Ancient Anderton Wenatchians: Panama

Panama - Central America XVI

The big adventure, today, would check off a major item on my bucket list: Cruising on the Panama Canal. We met Los Gutierrez at the dock - the cruise boat left from the same island group we visited yesterday at the end of the Amador Causeway. This departure point gave us a short and easy jaunt to the International Bridge that spans the entrance to the canal area and marks the approach to the first set of locks. Impressions: 1)The cruise we took was about 3 hours which was just about right - you get to see enough but it does not get repetitive, 2) The boat was clean, nicely maintained, and the on- board tour explanations over the sound system were well understood and helpful, 3) We bought the lunch option and it was worth it - good food and helped to eat something mid-day, 4) There was no boat motion that would lead to sea-sickness, 5) Another nice thing about this cruise - it was one-way and therefore there was no repetition in the experience (a bus was waiting at the end that took us back to Panama City), 6) The boat was small enough that you could still appreciate the scale of the Canal and the fantastic effort involved in its construction, 7) The landscape was not as exotic as I thought it would be. Maybe it was the fact that we were there at the tail end of the dry season, but the jungle just wasn't as menacing or lush as I expected. It seemed at times like we were cruising around Long Beach or in New York Harbor.

Wristbands

KR on the Ramp to Our Cruise Boat

Ruthbeth & Cecilio Gutierrez

Ships Waiting Their Turn

Interestingly enough, some ships are unloaded of their containers at the Canal ends, either Pacific or Caribbean, then the containers are moved by rail to the other side and loaded onto another ship. The method used depend on the cost analysis of the particular situation where the unloading and loading costs are factored into the total costs.

Port Facilities on Pacific Side

The Anderton's

Glimpse of The Panama Temple from the Canal

We went through two sets of locks before we arrived at the end of our cruise on Gatun Lake; the Miraflores and Pedro Miguel. Below are pictures of our passage through these two sets of locks. When the Canal was built, Gatun Lake was formed by damming the Chagres River. It created this very large, artificial lake which serves two main purposes: 1) It supplies the quantity of water necessary to operate the locks on both ends of the canal on a year-around basis, and 2) It covers a major section of the passageway of the Canal and in the middle, allows ships going in opposite directions, a wide place to pass. Ships are let in at both ends early in the morning, then they pass each other in Gatun Lake in the middle. Thus, since we were in the Canal later in the day, we only saw ships heading west to the Pacific.