“Oh where have you been, my blue eyed son,
Oh where have you been, my darling young one...”
Bob Dylan’s song may have been talking about a figurative downpour in his song, but we were faced with a literal torrent during our visit to the Miraflores Locks at the Panama Canal yesterday. Whilst in the neighbourhood we had decided to swing by and possibly see a big ship or two passing through the locks. The day had started late with an enjoyable sleep in, and the weather was hot and sunny as always, hence no packing of any rain gear into our bags. After getting lost yet another time trying to exit Casco Viejo, we soon found our way to the visitor’s center and museum, and proceeded to learn all about the excavation of the canal that was completed nearly a century ago.
The French had originally been granted the contract after their work on the Suez Canal through Northern Africa into the Indian Ocean, but after suffering over 22,000 fatalities during construction due in large part to malaria and yellow fever, the Americans took over and finished the job. Working our way up each of the three floors of the museum we then emerged onto the top observation deck just as a large container ship was preparing to cross through the locks. The procedure takes quite a bit of time, time I feared we may not have before the heavens opened up. The southern wind was bringing vast quantities of moisture our way off of the Pacific, and the skies quickly grew dark. Initially, a few sprinkles fell here and there, but this then gave way to a full bouncing off the concrete downpour. We made our way down to one of the covered observation areas, now crowded with others trying to avoid the elements of the weather, but this perspective wasn’t nearly as interesting photographically. I noticed that although the wind was coming from the direction of the darkest clouds at ground level, the clouds themselves were moving in the other direction. From the looks of it, we had maybe ten more minutes of rain before we would hopefully get a dry window to utilize the top deck.
Denielle and I made our way back up the 4 stories of stairs to the now empty observation deck, and with a backpack cover protecting my camera, I went out to the railing to get some pictures. The rain began to let up, but not before I became completely soaked, or so I thought. The site of such a large ship, a Panamax class referring to the maximum size that can fit through the locks, this ship had only two feet of clearance on either side and a few feet front and back (965 by 105 feet ship dimensions). Loaded with containers filled with what I can only imagine, the boat was connected to four electronic train engines that helped keep it in place and move it through the series of three locks. The locks serve to bring ships from sea level in either the Pacific or Caribbean Oceans up to the 27 meter altitude of Gamboa and Gatun Lakes which supply the water for the operation. Each time the locks open their massive steel doors, 197 million litres of fresh water is released into the ocean. That’s crazy. As the giant ship started dropping down, the heavens opened up once again, and I became soaked once again. We retreated to the inside of the building and I dried off with some paper towels in the bathroom, just in time to make the long walk through the even harder rain to the car. This rain was intense, and the walkway leading back to our car became flooded about six inches deep, so now my shoes were completely soaked as well. Denielle was fortunate enough to be wearing sandals, so here feet were dry by the time we would return to our hotel several hours later, while I just started my old man feet wrinkling procedure.
After the Miraflores Locks, we decided to drive the next 28 kilometres up the road past the Pedro Miguel Locks and to Gamboa Lake. We became lost once again because I missed the turnoff sign for Gamboa while I was busy stuffing my face with a peanut butter sandwich. We couldn’t turn around for nearly 10 kilometres, so finally, upon reaching a complicated overpass structure, we pulled over and made a u-turn into a vacant lot/bus stop to gather our bearings. Thankfully a police car had noticed us make the u-turn and came in to the parking area with its siren going. The officer in the passenger side of the police car got out and approached us saying that what we just did was bad and could have caused an accident. This is how it always starts before getting a ticket, so I just thrust the Panama guidebook at him and asked him how to get to Gamboa before he could give me a ticket. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but apparently it did the trick, and they offered for us to follow them there. So we had our own private police escort back to the turnoff, and had the pleasure of not getting a ticket. Bonus. Once in Gamboa however, we realized there wasn’t much to do there, so we turned around and made the voyage back, briefly stopping at the Pedro Miguel Locks to take pictures of a giant crane they were moving along the canal. The crane was one of four of the world’s largest cranes that used to be owned by Adolf Hitler. These cranes were split up at the end of the war with each of the main allied countries getting one. This particular one used to belong to the US, but was sold to the Panama Canal Port Authority to be used to move the giant lock gates for repair. It was quite a site.
We then came back into the city at rush hour, and managed to find our way out to the causeway, built during World War II which connects three islands to the mainland. Walking along the causeway at sunset gave us some great views of downtown, and we enjoyed a nice supper, followed by gigantesque desserts. After returning home, we packed it in early to prepare for our early morning transit of the canal on our boat tour. Thankfully we were awake a full three hours before actually boarding the boat, which left from the causeway we had just visited the night before. So we had ended up taking a taxi from our hotel into downtown Panama, where we waited for almost an hour for a bus to pick us up and take us back past our hotel out to the causeway, where we then waited another half hour for the boat to be ready. But the wait was worth it, and despite the hypnotizing slow soothing voice of our tour guide, the trip was very pleasant and informative. We even made it onto Korean Television as the camera man from the crew filmed us drinking out of tiny orange juice boxes, so if you’re in Korea and watching a show about Panama, keep your eyes peeled as we’re internationally famous. It’s amazing how large the locks actually are from the inside, as I thought our boat was rather large, but it did not fill nearly a tenth of the capacity. Such a waste of water, but a unique experience none the less. Passing by gargantuan ships led by tugboats through the winding canals was also quite the site. They are deceptively quiet as they slowly push through the water. So our boat was raised 27 meters through the series of locks, and we ended our boat ride at Gamboa Lake, then boarded a bus and returned to the city. We just got back to the hotel now after walking around downtown for a while and checking out another shopping centre. There is so much construction going on downtown, with high rises scraping the clouds everywhere you look. Towering cranes swing materials precariously overhead, as you cringe at the thought of the 46 deaths related to construction in Panama City just last year. Even this week while we were here, a large beam was dropped and crushed a taxi cab, killing two people. Anyway, I think this skyline rivals that of any major city in the world.
Tyler.
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