The Panama Canal is the result of a saga of human ingenuity and
courage that goes back to the early XVI century when the Spaniards arrived on
the Isthmus Since then, the idea of building a rout that would join the
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans was conceived.
The first firm effort to build an all water route through
Panama began with the French in 1880, but financial trouble and diseases made
the initiative fail. After its independence in 1903, Panama negotiated an
agreement with the US for the construction of the canal, which the US would
finish on August 15, 1914 and then managed the waterway until 1999.
At noon on December 31, 1999, Panama took over full
operation , administration and maintenance of the canal, in compliance with the
Torrijos-Carter Treaties negotiated with the US in 1977.The waterway is managed
by Panama Canal Authority, an autonomous government entity.
The interoceanic waterway uses a system of locks with two
lanes that operates as water elevators and raises the ships from sea level to
the level of Gatun Lake, 26 meters above sea level, to allow the crossing
though the Continental Divide, and then lowers the ships to sea level on the
other side of the isthmus. The water used to raise and lower the vessels in
each set of locks is obtained from Gatun Lake by gravity and poured into the locks
through a main culvert system that extends under the locks chambers from the
sidewalls and the center wall.
We entered the lock at about 5 AM in the morning.
We got into the first locks (Gatun Locks) right on time
about 6:45 AM. Unfortunately there at been a medical emergency on the ship the
night before and we stopped in the lock to off load the patient. This put us
off about 45 minutes.
Once we exited this lock we go to Gatun Lake and wait for
our turn to go to the next set of locks, Pedro Miquel locks. We were supposed
to get to those locks about 1:30, but it ended up being 2:47 PM. While in the
lake you saw many other boats at anchor with you waiting to move on.
Once we left Gatun Lake, we passed some very interesting scenery,
including the prison where Noriega is incarcerated in.
In these locks we had an old cruise ship beside us. It had
phoenixreisen.com on the side was Albatros. When you are in the locks there are
machines that attach lines to the ship to guide it through the locks. They are
locally called mules.
We then progressed to the last lock, Miraflores Locks. Here
we had a different ship in the next lock. We had made up some time as we were
to get there at 2:35 and got there at 3:30. There was also a dam there for the
lake that they used to flood this lock.
At the end of the locks was a visitors center. It was packed
with people watching the ship come through the canal. It was Sunday, so may
have been more crowded than normal. Right past the visitors center you could
see the skyscrapers of Panama City.
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