So the French and the English both attempted to build the canal but failed… The US successfully built it (costs US 375 million) and in the process also helped Paname became independent from Colombia…… Total of around 27000 people sacrificed in building this canal… What a history
Pic above From Wiki as well as: “The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.”….. We were very excited to cross it today
The whole crossing took about 9 hours, we were going through the old locks that opened since 1914 (an expanded canal opened in 2016 that can fit bigger ship) old locks can only fit ships up to 1000 feet long, our island princess is 964 feet, one of two older smaller ships of Princess fleet that can fit into the old locks of Panama canal
The first lock we crossed is the Gatun Locke which had three chambers that raise us a total of 85 feet to a man made lake : Gatun lake
After exiting the first lock, we were at Gatun lake which was surrounded by dense forests with wildlife activities… It was sunny at first, but then it starts pouring rain….beautiful rain or shine..
Took about 3 hours to arrive at the second lock Pedro Miguel lock to begin our descend into Pacific ocean
3rd lock is called Miraflores locks
After we exited the locks and level up with Pacific ocean, breathtaking view of Panama city and Frank Gehry’s museum was in sight
We were so happy to be able to cross the Panama canal since we were diverted and couldn’t cross the Suez canal (Suez canal is a sea level canal that does not require locks and chambers to transit) … Panama canal is truly a man made wonder and we are grateful for the opportunity to cross it…. If it was not build, all ships needs to go all the way down to Cape Horn, risk the treacherous sea near Drake passage that surround Antarctica and loop back… And that’s a much scarrier and longer voyage….