A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!

Did you know that on average, 46 vessels cross through the Panama Canal a day? The captains of these ships definitely know, as they wait 24 hours or more to enter:

Two days before our arrival in Panama, I had finished the book “Path Between The Seas” by David McCullough and came fully loaded with historical facts to lecture Phil with as we went through the canal. It was absolutely fascinating and truly a wonder to go through it, especially after learning in detail about the sacrifice, struggle, and ingenuity behind such a engineering marvel. Crossing the entire Panama Canal can take up to 12-15 hours, so we did a half day tour. After a bus ride to the town of Gamboa in the middle of the canal, we boarded the lovely Panama Queen:

To go through the canal, one must pay a toll based on the weight of the vessel, and also have a “Canal Pilot”. The pilot drives the ship the entirety of the canal. So even though we were on a tour that does this every single day, we still had an official canal pilot that hopped onto the boat and steered us through. The average toll today is around $126,000 dollars. The largest toll to date was $400,000 for a cruise ship, and the smallest was $.36 from Richard Halliburton in the 1920s. Richard swam the entire canal, and was no exception to the rules. He was accompanied by a Canal Pilot (in a canoe following him) along with a sniper who watched out for crocodiles.

Our tour began in the Culbra cut. This cut is the narrowest and shallowest section of the entire canal and was the most difficult to dig, as landslides and dynamite accidents drove the cost to over $90 million for the 9 mile stretch. Once completed, the cut formed the only gap in the Continental Divide. You can see the terraces they had to put in place to stop landslides.

We stayed on the scenic Amador Causeway, which extends out from the mouth of the canal with amazing views of the city. We were quite grateful for the Culbra cut as some the displaced dirt was used to build the causeway. To picture the scale of the canal excavation, a train of dirt cars would circle the earth 4 times at the equator. Most importantly, the causeway is now home to many kitties, and they just want breakfast!

The canal that was built 100 years ago (August 1914) is still being used today. Not a single lock door or lock chamber has been replaced. Of course, as time goes on, more and more ships are being built larger than the locks, so Panama is building larger locks to go alongside the original. If you stood an original lock up on its side, it would be taller than the Eiffel Tower. Crazy to think that more than 700 ships are larger than that!

Click here for a short video of the Miraflores Locks in action

We ended the tour by crossing under the Bridge of the Americas. Because of this bridge, you can drive from Panama all the way up to Alaska (next trip, Phil?)

After our canal tour, I greedily wanted to see more history so we went to the old town of Panama. Phil agreed, as he greedily wanted some street food.

Mustard and Passion fruit ceviche along with Blue Mojitos. Delicious!

Panama City had an impressive mix of old and new:

Some buildings in old town were renovated and turned into luxury buildings, while others were run down and had multiple people living in them:

Our next stop is in Quito, Ecuador, as we prepare for the Galapagos Islands. Quito is a beautiful city located almost 10,000 feet up in the Andes mountains, featuring giant statues of angels,