Panama Canal Revisited

We just returned last week from a wonderful trip that included the entire transit of the Panama Canal from the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Sea. In my opinion, that is the only way to adequately view the magnificent engineering marvel that the Canal is.

It is a 48-mile trip going through 6 locks, and it takes the passenger ships about 8 hours from the time they begin slowing down around the Bridge of the Americas, which connects Costa Rica with Panama, to the exit from Gatun Lake. The original canal was finally opened in 1914, and the newest, largest section just opened last June 29, 2016.

One of the itineraries from Florida ports offers a glimpse of the Canal on 10-day itineraries. They enter from the Caribbean side and turn around in Gatun Lake. This is a massive lake that was created in building the Canal. Because of the heavy rains during the rainy season, the Chagres River which catches all the water draining off of the nearby mountains, was constantly flooding the area designated by the canal builders. So they decided the best way to check the water was to build a dam across the river to hold the water back and in doing so created Gatun Lake. It is a 249-square-mile lake that, as you can imagine, is a wildlife sanctuary. I'm sure there is some fishing going on in that lake, but I never saw any sign of fishing. Mostly there were a lot of ships, mostly container or fuel barges waiting their turn to go through the Canal.

To minimize the chance of accidents, ships approaching the canal are tethered to electric locomotive “mules” that run on tracks parallel to the locks and tow ships from lock to lock. My earlier transition was a opportunity to see the mules operated by diesel engines......electric ones are better.

One of the reasons I wanted to go this time was to see the new canal that was built adjacent to the old one, but was designed much wider and deeper to accommodate the larger cruise and cargo ships now being utilized. The United States spent approximately 5.4 billion dollars for the expansion that began in 2007 and ended with the opening on June 29, 2016. Building the new locks allows for container ships with a capacity of 14,000 containers instead of just 5,000 that the old locks could handle.

The first ship to pass through the new canal was a Chinese ship heading from Panama to Greece and it paid a toll of $850,000 for the almost 9,500 containers they had on board. No doubt the Panamanian economy will realize a boost from this expanded traffic through the canal. Because it's not just the money realized from traffic but also the wide range of new initiatives in ancillary services around the canal that will greatly boost their economy.

Interestingly there has been an increase in U. S. citizens moving to that area to take advantage of the business opportunities. As I mentioned last week, viewing the shoreline of Panama City as we were going under the Bridge of America, with all the skyscrapers dotting the skyline, it looked like a mini-New York City!!!

The experienced travel agents at The Travel Factory will be happy to help you arrange a trip through the Panama Canal....or any other bucket list location, so give us a call at 698-1421 or toll-free 800-760-4040. Our specialty is making you travel happy!!!