So after three days we have finally made it to the gateway of the Panama Canal; Colon City. Time for another land tour.
These are all boats waiting their for their designated appointment to go through the canal
More boats waiting to go through; They can only process a max of 43 boats in a 24 hour cycle. And they only go one direction during a 12 hour cycle.
Another group of boats waiting their turn. Ships just about as far as the eye can see.
Our tour bus await, ready to take us to the first set of canal locks
Howler monkeys lazing in the trees right next to the road. We saw more animals just driving to the locks at Colon then any other tour we went on.
Native lizard living under a bus bench. He lived inside the pipe. He ran in it when we got too close to him. Another reason to not stick your hands down dark places.
Finally made it to the tour; now to see the first set of locks of the Panama Canal; Gatun Locks.
Welcome to Gatun Locks; Opened in 1913
Kerry is ready to go!
Panama Canal route information.
Panama Canal lock information
First set of locks opening up at Gatun Locks. They were moving a fright ship through when we were there. The gates actually float and contain over 5 million rivets. The original gates are still in use, but the motors to move them have been converted to hydraulic power over the last few years.
Boats waiting to get into the first set of locks; This set of three locks raise the ships 85 feet to the level of the man made lake that they will travel through to get to the Pacific.
Mule trains; While the ships go through the canal under their own power the mule trains keep the ship straight while they go through the locks. They do not pull the ship through the locks only prevent them from touching the sides of the locks.
Not much room between the ship and the side of the locks. The largest ship that can currently go through locks are called 13 contain ships. Because they can only stack 13 cargo containers side by side. There is a flat fee for each ship, plus a charge for each container. Cost of going through canal adds 75 cents to every television set we buy today.
Still not sure what good that little bitty life vest is going to do for that big dude.
We were up on that observation deck.
That was one big ship; In less then 24 hours we will be making this same trip in our Celebrity cruise ship.
Kerry is ready to get back on tour bus and soak up some AC.
Work on the new canal continues. They hope to be done by 2013 for the hundred year anniveresery. We will have to see how that goes. They are building new locks and canal for the super tankers, will keep existing locks and canal for smaller ships. This will allow Panama to bring in much more revenue when the expansion is finished. Unfortantely there are already ships on the seas that are too big to fit through the new expansion.
Kerry over looking the lake near the Gatun locks
This used to be a school for American childern that were living in Panama while their parents worked on the canal. It has since been turned into a hotel and casino. The grounds and building were just gorgous.
We thought we would confuse everyone by wearing our Cozumel and St Thomas shirts to Colon. Did seem to work on a few people.
Wish I could grow some of the trees and flowers that I saw in Colon back in Florida..Even the bugs were pretty. This little guy was just hanging out on the window.This was the lobby of the hotel when you looked up. Way cool.
Driving back to the ship we spotted a sloth hanging out in the trees by the side of the road.
Then we noticed that the sloth had a buddy on a different tree getting something to eat. This was a great find for us because these creatures are nocturnal and rarely seen during the day light hours.
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