Panama ... before the canal passage

After a day and night at sea doing our usual, including bingo, watching part of an art auction, hitting the gym and more, the day had just broken as we arrived at Fuerte Amador, Panama, about 7 a.m., February 24.  Our Captain set down anchor and tenders were lowered into the water as this was how we would proceed to the port.



From the ship, Fuerte Amador.

This is one of the tenders used to ferry us back and forth to the docks near town.

Looking around us, there were boats, ships, yachts, fishing boats, catamarans … all kinds, everywhere.  It’s the garden variety of everything.  The tenders loaded up and off we went to shore, through a large boat marina with lots of fancy boats.  These are probably what are known as yachts.  Some of them were quite large, and even carried their own little boats.  It’s like having a spare Harley in the garage just in case, I guess.  There are also many ships anchored in the harbor waiting for their turn to pass through the canal.  The canal allows ships to move one way or another part of the day, and then in the afternoon there is two-way traffic.

We got on our bus that took us to the Panama Railroad, the first transcontinental railroad, and originally completed in 1855.  It’s been rebuilt multiple times, and the cars we were in were refurbished and looked to be from a former era when women traveled in long dresses and hats and men in suits and buckskins.  The cost to ride the train back then was $26 in gold.  But you could walk the tracks for only $10. 

 

It was an interesting ride along the canal as we headed 41.5 miles to Colon for a tour of the Gatun Locks.  From the Pacific Ocean to the Caribbean Ocean it’s about 60 miles total.  Our tour guide on this trip was not our best one.  Harry was hard to understand as he had a very pronounced accent.  He also tossed in a lot of useless information.  He said he’d been a comedian turned tour guide.  I really didn’t need the jokes, that were also hard to understand.  I wanted information.  This sounds not very nice, so I guess you had to be there. But I did find out the average wage is $500, and that taxes are 12 percent and is used at least partially for social security.  Women can collect at 55; men at 63 years of age.  It costs $30 per college semester and $60 for room and board.  Just a few little tidbits.

The train ride was fun and we did get a few facts so it was worth it.  Plus we saw the canal alongside the railroad and could see an occasional ship traveling along.

I love the color of their train.

In looking at the dense brush and trees and thinking of battling diseases such as malaria, you can only imagine how hard it was to clear this land to build a railroad and a canal.  It took a lot of people to make it happen.  Now there are about 10,000 employees for the canal operation. 

Then it was another bus ride to our destination, the Gatun Locks, with a little snack and a sandwich.  It was not up to our usual standard, but the little box the snacks came in was very cute. 

The snack box was provided by the Panama Canal Railway.

The Gatun Locks were very interesting as our Island Princess ship would be proceeding through them the next day. 

This year marks 100 years of service.

The Island Princess is the largest-size ship that can proceed through the locks although there is currently a project underway building a new set of locks that can accommodate larger ships.  The current locks are 110-feet wide and 1,000-feet long.  The new locks will be 180-feet wide and 1,480-feet long with a budget of $5.25 billion.  Right now they are ahead of schedule and under budget in the construction.

About 40 ships pass through the locks each day, and everything is measured and charged for.  The Island Princess passengers pay about $145 per person, which totals about $350,000 for our ship to pass.  It will take about 8 hours to make the trip and Princess Cruises makes reservations for passage time a year in advance.  However, it still may not happen exactly when you’ve scheduled it. 

This ship is in the lock before the water level has been lowered.  You can see the double gates that are in place to protect the water in the event a ship hits the first one.

The water level has been lowered and the engines are helping it through.  There are ropes attached to keep them from bumping from side-to-side and to help pull them through.

The ship has gone through the locks and is heading out into the Caribbean Sea. 

The Gatun Locks have double gates to protect the water in case a ship should lose an engine or have another problem and accidentally ram the first gate.  There has never been an incident.  The water to fill the locks or release the water transfers the water at 26-million gallons of water a minute, in a time frame of 8-10 minutes.  It’s a gravity system using 100 valves. 

After our tour there was a gift shop so I purchased a couple of small items and asked for my change in Panamanian money.  I got Balboas, which are the coins for their money.  Paper money is something different and I didn’t get any of that.  Then it was a bus ride back to the docks and back to our mother ship. 

As a side note to everyone, I’ve not hit a single Harley shop on this cruise … there may be some but I’ve not seen one.

And to finalize a wonderful day, Jaz and I have booked our next cruise … 31 days, on the Golden Princess.  We’re leaving Buenos Aires and going around Cape Horn.  Woo hoo.  Cruising rocks!!

Night set as we lay anchored in the harbor.  We'll pass through the canal tomorrow.