Our last stop was Panama, and for us that meant a shore excursion through the Panama Canal. AMAZING. Seriously.
It was dark and rainy when we boarded a bus on the Caribbean side so that we could be transported to the Pacific side. Isn’t that cool? Two different ocean areas in one day. It was a cool drive. The Pacific side is flatter than the Caribbean side, so it is more developed. Panama City is on the Pacific side, and it was cool to see how big it really is. The picture of me with the Poncho is on our shore excursion boat. The picture below it is of Panama City. You can see how it was gray and rainy outside.
This bridge is a famous landmark. It is called the Bridge Of The Americas, and it spans the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. It also has some significance to the Pan-American Highway.
This is the husband and I on our shore excursion boat. No trip is complete without a “turn the camera around and take a pictures of ourselves” picture. The picture on the right is of the Panama LDS Temple. I am LDS, and was excited to see it as we rode into the Panama Canal. If you would like to see what the temple actually looks like from the outside, click here.
These are the Mira Flores Locks. They are the first set you come to when you enter the Panama Canal from the Pacific Ocean side.
This is a picture of the construction they are doing on new, larger, locks. The third set of locks project will be completed in 2014, and will allow larger ships the opportunity to pass through the Canal.
This is a picture of normal operations going on at the Canal. It is open and operating 24 hours a day, and it was interesting to just watch the workers and the normal day to day happenings.
In the next three pictures you can see how the water level got higher as we were in the locks. The little train you can see is connected to the ship and stays connected to it while it is in the locks.
These are the Pedro Miguel Locks. This is the second set of locks we went through on our excursion.
This is a good shot of what the doors look like when they are closed and you are inside waiting for the water to start rising.
Before the water rose we were able to touch the wall inside the lock. Slimy and awesome.
This ship was going through on the other side. I cannot believe how big this ship is and how much cargo it was able to bring through. If the Panama Canal was never built, that ship would have had to go around the tip of South America and come back up the Pacific Ocean to get that cargo where it needed to go.
The Panama Canal is an engineering marvel to me. I found myself thinking a lot about the people who sacrificed so it could be there. I am so glad I got to experience it. If any of what I have been saying about the Panama Canal is not familiar to you or if you don’t know how the Panama Canal works, go read or watch a documentary about it. It really is quite spectacular.
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