Time Goes By So Fast!

Both Alex and Emily have now returned to Portland.  We are extremely glad they came.  The time went by so quickly.  I can't believe that we have only 10 days left in Panama City.  We still have plans to drive to the Pacific coast to see where we will be staying in February as well as (try) to use the Metro system to visit the downtown area.  We are grateful to Alex for leaving us his Spanish/English dictionary so that we can put together semi-decent Spanish sentences on-the-go. 

Since we haven't traveled to a specific attraction in the past few days, I thought I would write a bit about the Panama Canal just outside our window.

Panama Canal Fun Facts:
- The Canal is 48 miles long
- It runs basically north/south connecting the Atlantic side (on the north) with the Pacific side
- France began working on the Canal in 1881, but had to give up because of engineering problems
     and too many people dying from disease
- The US took over the project in 1904 and completed the Canal in 10 years
- The Canal was run by the Americans from 1914 until 1999 when it was returned to the Panamanian
    authorities
- There are three sets of locks that boats pass through
- Right now the largest boats are not able to pass through the Canal because of the size of the locks
- Much larger locks are now being built for those ships.  These locks are being built right down the
    road from our condo complex.
- Once a ship is to enter the Canal, one or more special Canal pilots come on board (there can be up
    to 4 Canal pilots depending on the size of the ship) - to pilot the ship all the way through the canal
- A Canal transit takes approximately 10 hours
- It is extremely expensive to go through the Canal.  Cost for the transit depends on the size of the
    ship, the weight and if you want to cut to the front of the line.  Cargo ships pay anywhere from  
    $100,000 - $300,000.  Cruise ships pay about $115 per passenger.
- Around 15,000 ships transit the Canal each year.
 

Things We Have Noticed from our Balcony:
- In the AM ships proceed from the Pacific side to the Atlantic side (from our right to our left)
- In the PM ships come from Pacific to the Atlantic
- The Canal is not wide enough in many spots to accommodate two-way traffic - so there is a break
    in the middle of the day for re-aligning everyone
- Generally there seems to be about 5 kinds of ships that pass through

Huge container ships

My personal favorite, ships that carry cars and other vehicles.  They are HUGE and are all lit up at night.

Fuel (like propane, natural gas) ships

 

And of course cruise ships

The 5th kind are small cargo and pleasure boats.
We hope you are all doing well.  We think about everybody often.
Submitted by Peggy