Day 11 Panama Canal

Today we left the ship early to visit the canal and one of the lakes that provides water for the operation of the locks.  You might find it interesting to know that fresh water from the natural and man made inland lakes is used to operate the locks.  So the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea never touch.  We were told this is because salt water would be corrosive and quickly ruin the lock mechanisms. 

We first stopped at what once was an American installation of some kind that has been converted into a hotel.  It is located on Lake Gatun which provides the aforementioned fresh water.  We took a small tour boat out on to the lake to see some of the local wildlife.  We were fortunate to see two different types of sloth, a hawk and some monkeys.

After this we visited the Gatun locks which are actually located on the Caribbean side of the canal.  We had driven about 40 miles to get there.  As you will see from the pictures we witnessed some ships in transit through the canal.  It is interesting to see.  There is little room for error, with about 2 feet of clearance on each side of the ships.  They are aided by small tow motors that run on rails and are connected to the ship by cables.  These are called “mules”.  Ships try to maximize their cargo as they transit the canal since they are charged a fee based on their capacity rather than their actual load.  A half loaded ship pays the same as a fully loaded ship of the same size.   We were told that one of the Norwegian cruise ships pays the most, at $400,000 per transit.   The cargo ships we saw pay about $200,000 per transit.

Our Panamanian guide displayed a great deal of pride in the canal and the fact that his country is operating the canal.  He indicated that the current president disbanded the army.  The understanding being that if anything were to happen to the canal there would be so many countries who would come to their aid because of the canals significance.