Day 287: The Panama Canal

We finished off another rainy week in Panama City with a visit to the Canal de Panamá (Panama Canal) on Sunday, May 6. The Panama Canal is an impressive 77 km artificial waterway that runs through Panama, connecting the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The entry was 30 USD (~38 CAD) and we started our visit with a short movie about the history and construction of the Panama Canal. After the movie, we made our way through the 4-floor museum to get schooled in further detail.

The concept of the canal dates as far back as 1513 when Spanish explorer, Vasco Núñez de Balboa, crossed the Isthmus of Panama. Construction commenced in the late 19th century by the French, but was ceased due to numerous factors like tropical diseases and venomous insects, arachnids, and reptiles that accompany dense jungles. Thousands of workers died and the death rate had become as high as 200 a month.

 

The U.S. sought to construct a canal through Nicaragua after France abandoned the Panama project as the latter site was politically unfavourable for the U.S. for various reasons. U.S. attitudes were changed due to influence from a French engineer and financier who had a lot of money to gain from the completion of the Panama canal.

After converting the original sea-level plan to a lock-controlled canal and implementing methods to control diseases, the U.S. completed construction and handed over the project to the Canal Zone government on April 1, 1914. The “grand opening” celebrations were cancelled due to the outbreak of World War I. The canal was officially opened to commercial traffic on August 15 of the same year.

 

After exploring the museum and filling our brains to near-explosion with information, we decided to get some lunch. There was a nice restaurant on one of the upper floors with a ridiculously-overpriced buffet lunch for 45 USD per person so, we sought out a different option. I mean, they didn’t even have lobster and we weren’t going to spend that much on rice and beans. We found a reasonably-priced cafe downstairs so, we had lunch there before heading to watch the incoming boats pass through the canal.

The whole process took about 30 minutes as water level in each section had to be adjusted before the locks opened to let the boats pass through. True to the season, it started raining while we were waiting (boo!), but at least it wasn’t cold rain (less boo).

 

After our day at the Panama Canal, we returned to our apartment for an evening of more home-cooked food and binge-watching Netflix 🙂