**Panama Canal! 9.5 hours

AMAZING PANAMA CANAL

And The Ships Line Up

But First : Minor Detour ... On hold in Colon

View of the Port (town) of Colon .....


We overnighted in Colon, the Gateway to the Panama Canal. This port seemed to cause quite a bit of caution from people in the know. DO NOT VENTURE OUT ALONE- No jewelry. Only go out with an organized tour. The port was very industrial and the town not much. Instead of my original 7 hour tour (part of which was in a canoe) to see native Indian’s,  I opted out. I had enough heat in the last two days. I reminded myself of my going to see an authentic voodoo ceremony a few years back only to discover all the “players” in back of their huts on cell phones and on the internet. Maybe it’s real this time but too those mosquitos are pretty big n this neck of the woods. OK I puppied out.

We are 6 miles from the Panama Canal. We docked at 9AM and will wait until 5 AM tomorrow when it is our turn to go through. It takes 9+  hours At a cost of $250,000 for our ship. What is really cool here is seeing all the ships lined up in wait for their turn through the canal. The Panama Canal is 50 miles long. It cuts off 8,000 miles for ships traveling from New York to California. I don’t know, a few extra sea days…… on a cruise ship…… hmmmmm.

Today I sat at the pool and listened to an audio book, quite content.

Dinner at Silk Road

PANAMA CANAL

It took us 9.5 hours to transit the canal.  I was up before the sun. It was pitch black on deck. Just a few people up and about. Some people were starting to put chairs at the rail up on deck 12. I wanted to say Hey, people.....It will be over 9 hours to get through .... in the blazing sun. They did not need to set up shop. I let them be. First timers. I love seeing the line up of all the ships waiting their turn. I could see all the lights from the ship stretching for miles, waiting for hours and hours in line for their turn to pass through.







Our ship is hooked to cables on each side of us and then to trains on each side which pull us through the canal. They stay by our side the whole way, letting us go when we are safely through.





We wait for the ship in front to go through. We wait some more while the ship moves forward and our lock empties down so we can flat in. In back of us another ship is getting ready for his turn. The gate opens, ship enters, gate closes, water fills to raise the ship to the next level, second gate opens, ship is pulled to next lock, gate closes, water empties, gate opens for next ship...something like that...... you can see the water level as the ship in front moves to the end lock....

It is really really important to run from the front of the ship to the back of the ship as each gate opens in front and closes in back....

You want the full effect....

I may have been the only person on the ship this got this memo.....








Anyway. I hope you got idea. If not, I have 100 very short videos I took of the whole day....maybe someday I will make a movie!


People on the ship hear constant updates and information on the canal and its history all day. It is on TV too. People on board spend time outdoors on deck, or at the pool, on their balcony and at the same time have a sea day. It is interesting, fascinating, long and hot. It was too hot to b outside for long. It always is. I was bitten by mosquitos and I was not out long. I just can't imagine the people who worked to build this and what they faced. How people figured out how to build a shortcut from one ocean to another will amaze me for life.