Monday, January 12th: Panama Canal passage

What an incredible experience it was to observe and pass through this enormous engineering masterpiece!!!  In 1904 the United States undertook the Herculean project of constructing an inter-oceanic passageway across the Isthmus of Panama to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  It took 10 years and almost $400 million to complete the project but since its opening in August, 1914 thousands of vessels have transited the waterway.  After the U.S. purchased rights to the land to build the massive canal in 1904, and its completion 10 years later, the Torrijos-Carter Treaty was signed in 1977 and provided for a slow and very gradual transition of administrative power from the U.S. to the Republic of Panama.  Finally, after many years of working together as the government of Panama took more control of the canal, on December 31, 1999 the Republic of Panama assumed full responsibility for the administration of the canal.

The Panama Canal is 50 miles long from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  It was cut through one of the narrowest and lowest saddles of the long, mountainous Isthmus that joins the North and South American continents and crosses the Continental Divide.  The canal uses a system of locks, chambers with gates which open and close for the transit of ships.  The locks operate as water elevators which raise the ships from sea level (either on the Atlantic or Pacific side) to the level of Gatun Lake, which is about 77 feet above sea level, in their transit of the channel through the Continental divide.  There were three locks through which our ship passed during the transit, which took about 8-10 hours.  As the ship reached one lock the gate opened until we were completely inside the lock, then it closed behind us.  Very slowly, water started to seep inside our lock until it was even with the water level in front of us.  Once we reached the same level as the water on the other side of the gate, the gate in front of us opened and we sailed through.  We repeated this fascinating process three times until we arrived at the Pacific Ocean.  What a fascinating learning experience.  Now, we are on our way to Ecuador.  We have a sea day before we arrive at our next destination so we have some time to relax and EAT (since it's been at least two hours since we've eaten)!!!!