The Canal

Oh, my gosh! Our day of travel started early. We were up on the Explorer Deck of the ship just as the sun peeked up over the horizon and just under the clouds. This is the day we check another “I’ve always wanted to…” off our list and make our way from the Atlantic to the Pacific via the Panama Canal.

As we cruised toward the canal locks, we met ship after ship staged and waiting for their turn to go through. We were told that the canal is a cash-only business and if you have a crossing slot and you can pay the amount required for passage, in cash, then you are allowed through. Many of the ships we were passing were anchored waiting for their funding to come in… they may wait a long time.

The first attraction is the unfinished bridge that crossed the canal entry. This bridge is being built by a French company and is way behind schedule and way over cost. It was supposed to be completed in 2007. Oh, those French!

After passing under the unfinished bridge, we could look ahead and see our first locks. Prior to getting to the locks, we passed, on our starboard side, the original canal that was an attempt by the French to build a flat canal (a canal with no locks.) They gave up on it due mostly to unstable cuts in the taller land masses. There just was no way to do a flat canal here with the terrain being what it is. Hum, I am seeing a French theme here.

We moved slowly forward toward the Gatun Locks. In the pictures, notice that ships passing through the locks move much like cars on the road. One passes through the right canal locks and another ship passes the other direction through a second canal. There also is the newer canal that moves the larger ships across Panama that became available last year. We could see it off our port side.

When we approached the locks, the Viking Sun would toss two lines from the bow of our ship and one line from the stern, to a waiting rowboat and this boat would carry the lines to workers on the edge of the canal. These men would attach a steel cable to the lines and the cable would then be pulled up to the ship and secured. The cables ran from the electric trains, the Mules, which would pull and guide the ship through the locks. Our ship was guided by six Mules, four at the bow and two the stern.

This process would happen three times during our canal crossing. After the Gatun Locks, we entered Lake Gaton and moved slowly (under ship’s power) on to the Pedro Miguel Locks and then finally into the last set of locks, the Miraflores Locks.

We were very excited all day and moved about the ship taking photos and learning about the process. We had great weather for the crossing with temperatures in the 90s, but with a humidity to match. I have never been is that much humidity.

This truly was an engineering marvel – the number of people needed to work to make all this possible, the lives lost (in the 10s of thousands), the number of materials used and carted away… it really is hard to wrap your head around it all.

When we exited the Miraflores Locks we were in the Pacific Ocean. From the Atlantic to the Pacific in one day, what an amazing thing to do!

Back in the comfort of the ship, we all gathered for a wonderful dinner at Manfredi’s, one of the ship's restaurants. Manfredi’s specializes in Italian cuisine.

We were very tired at the end of the day; lots of time out in the sun taking pictures can really take it out of you.

Colón and Panama City

Our afternoon tour took us through Colón and along a highway to Panama City where we did a short walking tour of the oldest part of that huge modern city. Funny thing is that most of our travels took us through the many slums where the lower class people of Panama live. It was a real eye opener seeing so many people together is such run down conditions. The people looked happy and you could tell everyone was ready for the Christmas holiday.

Our guide for the day was a young lady who grew up as a military baby and was educated in the military education system.  She spoke perfect English, but the information she provided us seemed to be lacking in content and depth. We learned some slang words and she spoke of some of the historic events of the two towns, but most of what we learned was just not that interesting.

Our first stop was at a shopping pier area where we had a view of the sky scraper skyline of Panama City.  We were given time to shop and use the restrooms and then we were traveling to the oldest part of the city where the President’s residence was located. The area was a very old fort and much of it was in disrepair but in the process of being reconstructed. We couldn’t get near the President’s residence, so we were shown the street where it was located. After that we walked past a huge church but it was entirely covered with netting and was being refurbished.

Finally we ended up at an old fort that was built to protect the city many years ago.  We were able to see a little of what it was like and even walk around on top of the walls, but most of the structure was not accessible.

We loaded back on the bus for the ride back to Colón. We entered the city and they gave us another tour of the slums and then back to the ship.

We enjoyed looking at the two cities we drove through. All in all the tour was not the best. However we did get to start at the Atlantic Ocean and drive to the Pacific Ocean, which is something we have never been able to do or will probably never get a chance to do again!