No matter how many countries you've been to, unless you've gone through the Panama Canal, you're not finished, and my wife, Gwynne, has been hinting we should go for decades. We found a cheap cruise near Christmas time, bought a tinsel ornamented tree for our small cabin, and set off for the trip's origin in Miami. The cruise ship is charged by the cabin, occupied or not, which came to almost $400 for Gwynne and me, but well worth it.
The canal is 82 kilometers long, and is one of the “7 Wonders of the Modern World.” There are a couple of semi-manmade lakes along the way to use as a water reservoir to fill and empty the locks. Interestingly, the region around the canal is barred by Panamanian law from development so that it remains a natural Rain forest to supply the lakes with water. This makes the journey through somewhat bizarre: you're sitting in a hot tub talking to new friends and watching a jungle inhabited by wild jaguars go by. It took us about half a day but as a Cruise ship, we were on the fast-track.
Near the end, we could see the pristine white, almost magical seeming, Panama City in the distance. I imagined that silhouette of the Emerald Castle in the “Wizard of Oz” movie. We looked forward in anticipation to exploring the city later during our connecting flight on the way back; imagine our disappointment when, after 36 hours of plane travel going home, by the time we arrived in Panama City's airport for another 8 hour layover, we were so exhausted we didn't leave the terminal, so Panama City is still on the itinerary.
Panama Canal
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Martin Hash
- Posts: 18727
- Joined: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:02 pm
Panama Canal
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Shamedia, Shamdemic, Shamucation, Shamlection, Shamconomy & Shamate Change
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StCapps
- Posts: 16879
- Joined: Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:59 am
- Location: Hamilton, Ontario
Re: Panama Canal
*yip*
