January 11, 2025–The Panama Canal

Today our ship is at port on the Pacific Ocean side of the Panama Canal near Panama City.  We are waiting overnight to go through the Canal beginning at 5:30 tomorrow morning.  It takes about ten hours to traverse the lock system and come out on the Atlantic side.  Some people are getting up at 5:30 to watch, but that seems rather excessive.

Today we went on a tour that was called something like “Behind the Scenes:  The Panama Canal.”  First we traveled by bus across the Panama Isthmus to Colon (pronounced cologne), which is close to the Atlantic Ocean side of the Canal.  (Actually, Colon is by the Caribbean Sea which then turns into the Atlantic.)  Our tour guide, Jorge, told us the entire history of the Canal, which is interesting, but much too complicated to go into in much detail here.  A shortened version is that in the 1800’s, several countries had an interest in building a canal because all ships had to make the harrowing and long journey around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America.  The French were the first to start building the Canal in 1891, but gave up after nine years due to engineering problems and a high mortality rate.  Something like 20,000 people died either from accidents or malaria and other tropical diseases.   

After the French gave up, the United States bought the rights in 1904 and finally finished the Canal in 1914.  An interesting fact is that French engineers were trying to dig deep enough to build the Canal at sea level.  This was almost impossible because the Canal goes across the continental divide, and the center of the Isthmus is higher.  The lead American engineer on the project had the idea to make the locks like stairs.  The system of locks at each end of the Canal lifts ships up 85 feet above sea level to an artificial lake, Gatun Lake.  Gatun Lake was created by damming the Chagres River.  There are no pumps—it is all about gravity.  No shade on the French, but it was an amazing engineering feat by the American engineers.  

In the pictures below, the first one is a picture of an electric “mule” that runs on tracks along the Pacific side of the Canal. Cables are attached from the mules to the ships to pull them through the Canal and make sure they don’t crash into the sides. There can be 4 to 8 mules pulling a ship, depending on how big it is. The last picture is on the Atlantic side of,the Canal, where the Canal is wider and tug boats move the ships.

In case you are wondering, Jorge, our tour guide, was extremely defensive about both the idea Trump floated about taking back the Canal and the idea that the Chinese have too much influence.  I couldn’t hear everything that was going on when we were walking around looking at the lock systems, but someone must have asked him some hot button questions.  When we got back on the bus, he gave a little speech and categorically denied that the Chinese are involved. He also said several times that the Panama Canal belongs to the people of Panama, not to the government of Panama.  (Not to split hairs, Jorge, but the government does run it.) And he did fail to mention that in 1996, the government of Panama granted a concession to operate the ports of Balboa and Cristobal, on the Pacific and Atlantic sides of the Canal, to the Hong Kong company Hutcheson-Whampoa. I liked Jorge because he was young and idealistic.  He apparently wasn’t a huge fan of the Panamanian government. And I thought it was tacky for my fellow travelers to challenge him, but that’s what happens in tour groups.  There’s always someone with a big mouth.

Last night on the ship we ate at a restaurant where you cooked your own food on a hot stone. I opted to have the kitchen cook mine, but Doug chose to cook his own shrimp. They gave him an apron/bib thing. When I saw him in it, I asked if he had just recently stepped out to take the vows for priesthood.

Oh, I saw Heather yesterday, and she couldn’t even stop to chat because she was off to play some more Bridge.  Oh, Heather.