Panama Canal
Navigating the Canal
Dawn broke and mist surrounded us. Even though we were close to shore, there was nothing to be seen. There was an eery silence cutting through mist over the water. The sun rose out of the fog on the horizon, and slowly the haze lifted. Dozens of ships started to appear dotting the ocean around us. They had been there all along, but through the fog they were invisible. All of the ships were queuing up to enter the canal. Each one would be anchored in a certain location awaiting its turn to navigate through the canal.
The Panama Canal has a fascinating history and is quite a spectacle to observe from within the locks. The French began construction in the late 1800s and due to underestimating the budget and scale of work, not accounting for the fact that sea level is different on either side of the isthmus, workers dying from tropical diseases, and political corruption in France, this was a failed effort. The U.S. took over the effort in 1903 and finished it in 1914. IT remained U.S. territory until it was transferred back to Panama in 1999.
There are three sets of locks to traverse and three bridges to pass under. When going from the Atlantic to the Pacific we first went under the Atlantic Bridge and through the Gatún Locks. There are three chambers here and each one raises boats about 30 feet in elevation. Large metal gates open in the water way, a boat enters the lock, and the gates close behind it. Then the chamber is filled with water raising the boat up to the level of the next chamber.
By the time we came through the Gatún Lock’s chambers the ship was about 90 feet higher than sea level in the Atlantic. We had arrived at Gatún Lake, which was artificially constructed by the creation of the Gatún Dam. The fact that sea level is different on the Atlantic side versus the Pacific side makes the Panama Canal unique compared to the Suez Canal. To compensate for this, Gatún Lake is essentially a large holding tank of water that helps raise and lower water in the surrounding locks. It spans about 15 miles across the isthmus and is home to a lot of wildlife.
Next we passed under the Centennial Bridge which is part of the Pan-American Highway. The Pan-American Highway starts up in Alaska and ends not long after it crosses over the Panama Canal. The highway was never built past there because it runs into a heavy jungle that is inhabited by about 40,000 indigenous people as well as violent Colombian drug cartels. The Darien, as it’s called is widely considered to be very dangerous - no MSC tours going through there.
We cruised slowly through a narrow channel for a few hours before arriving at the Pedro Miguel Lock with just one chamber. Not long after that we came to the Miraflores Locks which are located outside Panama City. These were the final three chambers to pass through before we reached the Pacific. This time when we entered the chamber the water level dropped to bring us closer to sea level in the Pacific.
The total distance to cross the Panama Canal is 50 miles, and it took our ship about 11 hours to traverse it. A special canal pilot came on board to navigate our ship through the canal. It cost our ship nearly $500,000 in tolls to pass through. That price tag was based on weight and amount of passengers. We noticed that the ship had drained one of the pools and two of the hot tubs, we are guessing to keep us in a certain weight/price bracket.
Our ship came through the original canal that was completed in 1914, but there is a new and larger canal that was completed in 2016. As cargo ships have grown in size so has the need to get them through the Panama Canal. The new canal runs parallel to the original and is about 60 feet wider. It cost about $5 billion and took 10 years to build.
Weeks before we went through the canal we had asked employees on two different occasions how/where we could access the front of the ship. We were told twice by different people that passengers could not go to the front of the ship because it was for employees only. So we watched our passage through the canal from various parts of the ship. The gym happens to be at the front of the ship, and it seemed like a good time to hop on a treadmill and watch one of the world’s most unique navigational experiences unfold, albeit through scummy windows. It was not until the last lock of the day that another passenger told us that there was access to the front of the ship from a couple decks down where the cabins are. We were disappointed that we didn’t know about that fact earlier despite having asked about it. We’ll file that under More Misinformation from MSC - It’s a long file.
Ashley was impressed by this miraculous feat of engineering considering when it was built and how it has changed the world in regards to commerce and distribution of goods. She is also particularly fond of the fact that the French started this project but fell short and it was taken over and finished by the USA. U-S-A! (chant) I was amused to go through the canal on such a large ship because I have been through it before on a 27 foot sail boat, and the scale felt quite different looking down on the chambers rather than looking up at them. If you ever have an opportunity to go through it, we highly recommend it. Check out a time lapse video of passing through the Panama Canal below!
Gatún Lake Eco Boat Ride
We had one day to explore the area around Colón near the Atlantic entrance of the Canal. We were hoping to see some capuchin or howler monkeys in Central America so we took an eco tour on a small boat through Gatún Lake. Our guide explained some interesting history about Panama and the canal as well as pointing out many animals during our eco boat tour.
We got on our boat at a hotel next to what used to be the US Army School of the Americas, which is known for churning out dictators. Noriega, Pinochet, and Somoza were all educated there. Makes you wonder what the curriculum looked like: Dictatorship 101, Military Coups and How to Come out on Top, Money Laundering - Don’t Get Caught with a Dirty Dollar, How to Torture and Get Away with it. Those are just some guesses. In reality it’s a tragedy what these guys did to their countries and people for decades. The school came under scrutiny for the crimes committed by a number of its attendees and was shut down. There are a slew of other attendees who are on the FBI’s most wanted list, which we found astonishing. It’s a school run by the US Army, and a different US Agency (the FBI) is actively tracking down many former students for high crimes. It was relocated to Fort Benning, Georgia and has been renamed The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and is still active today.
After learning some interesting history about that school and the area we hopped on our eco boat for an afternoon cruising around Gatún Lake. We were dearly hoping to see a sloth, which neither of us had seen before. We got our wish when we spotted a sloth on the move through the branches of the Guarumo tree. When called to action sloths can move faster than you’d imagine. After our boat fully of noisy tourists pulled up this sloth put on the jets and moved two trees over to hide on a more secluded branch. We found another sloth sleeping in a ball up a tree, and he was quite content. Guarumo leaves are the primary diet of sloths, they cause drowsiness in sloths, and they are smoked by native people during ceremonies.
We also saw a fresh water crocodile. As we slowly drifted past it, a woman on our boat muttered, “I bet it’s plastic for the tourists.” Our guide told her, “You want to go put your hand in its mouth to see if it’s plastic?” She was unwilling to take that bet. We admired a number of other birds like toucans, herons, and little sparrows that they call flying rats. However, the monkeys alluded us that day. Overall we thought we had some pretty great wildlife sightings.
