Welcome to the final post of Panama and Central America and our Intrepid Trip !!! It is hard to believe that this day has come. Only Colombia is left which Antonia and I will visit on our own.
We set off for our final Intrepid destination and hotel at 6am and it was still dark. I managed to get a good seat and position to enable me to sleep until 830am when we pulled into a shopping centre in the city of Santa Monica for a brekkie break. The coffee was great but the cheese empanada was like a hard bread roll with a bit of cheese inside. No one makes cheese pies (or burek) as well as the Balkans !!! The drive along the Pan-American Highway towards Panama City was very uneventful. Only a few farm and mountain scenes as the majority was simply built-up and commercial. Lots of US style shopping centres. Our lunch break at 1130am was boiling hot. So much so that I stayed in the aircon van (engine running) while everyone else ate – not sure how they could do that in this heat. By 1230pm we were on the Pan-American again and only 90min from crossing the Panama Canal close to the start of the Pacific Ocean end. There is a very crowded tourist viewpoint here where we made our stop for an hour. Thank goodness I booked a separate day-trip along the canal on 4MAR since this viewpoint was completely gringoed out. We watched two huge vessels cross in the 2hrs we were there. 31 cross every day. No one crosses at night for safety reasons. From here it was a very short 20min ride to our hotel in a nice part of town. We arrived at 530pm so Antonia and I were keen to visit the supermarket and then shower and chill out. Another Netflix Dinner and after 4 episodes we dumped ONE DAY – boring as bat shit. Sleep was more interesting.
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82-kilometre (51-mile) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean, cutting across the Isthmus of Panama, and is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks at each end lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial freshwater lake 26 meters (85 ft) above sea level, created by damming up the Chagres River and Lake Alajuela to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, and then lower the ships at the other end. An average of 200,000,000 L (52,000,000 US gal) of fresh water are used in a single passing of a ship. The Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan (which is officially the roughest ocean in the world which I passed in 2010 on my way to Antarctica). The Panama Canal is one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken. Colombia, France, and later the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped because of lack of investors' confidence due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate. The United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal in 1914. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for its handover to Panama in 1977. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999. It is now managed and operated by the Panamanian government-owned Panama Canal Authority. The canal was widened to 3 lanes in 2007-2016.
Here are the key stats on the Panama Canal:
1. 82km long ocean to ocean.
2. Maximum boat length: 366m (1,200 ft 9 in).
3. Maximum boat beam (width): 49m (160 ft 9 in).
4. Maximum boat draft (under water): 5.2m (50 ft).
5. Maximum boat air draft (above water): 57.91m (190.0 ft).
6. No of Locks: 3 locks up, 3 down per transit.
7. Canal opened: 15 August 1914.
8. First ship to cross in 1914: Cargo Ship SS Ancon.
9. No of ships crossing in 1914: 1,000.
10. No of ships crossing in 2023: 14,080.
11. Daily average of ship crossings in 2023: 31. Record high was 51 and low was 18 because of extended drought lowering lake.
12. Total no of vessels of all sizes to cross 15 Aug 1914 to 31 Dec 2023 = 1,021,033.
13. Average time to cross in 2023: 11hrs 23min (82km).
14. Average sailing time to go around the bottom tip of South America: 3 weeks (12,811km).
15. Cost to build canal: $USD500m in 1914 = $USD15.8b in 2023 equivalent.
16. Cost to extend canal 2007-2016: $USD5.8b
17. Usual cost range to cross canal: $USD20,000 for sailboat to $USD1,200,000 for 13,000+ container cargo super vessel.
18. Record cheapest crossing cost: $USD0.36 for Richard Halliburton to swim the canal in 1928.
19. Record most expensive crossing cost: $USD4m, which included extra for this vessel to skip the queue.
20. Total Income (Tolls) in 2023: $USD3.348b
The next morning (Sun 3MAR) was Panama City day. A 10km run at 630am and it was as humid as hell. I enjoyed being alone on an empty Sunday highway cutting through one skyscraper apartment building after another. Panama City is very Miami meets Chicago meets Dubai – a huge modern skyline but with plenty of rubbish and commission blocks in the suburbs. It is very spread out and full of traffic.
Panama City (Pop 4,468,087) is hot, humid and huge !!! The city of Panama was founded in 1519, by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila. The city was the starting point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire in Peru. It was a stopover point on one of the most important trade routes in the American continent, especially the gold and silver that Spain mined from the Americas. In 1671, the original city was destroyed by an arsonists fire. The city was rebuilt by 1673, on a peninsula located 8 km from the original settlement. The site of the previously devastated city is still in ruins, and is now a World Heritage Site and popular tourist attraction.
The group began a walking tour of the city at 10am. Great. Had time to shower and relax after my pouring sweat run and even nip down to a local coffee shop. We caught the metro to a station near the Pacific coastline fish markets. This metro is new, completed in 2014 and being expanded. The heat was huge. The fish market was smelly and loud. We enjoyed a beer and ceviche (raw fish, lime juice and onion) before continuing on foot for 30min to the Old Town (Casco Viejo). We spent the next 2hrs visiting the following places: Basilica Metropolitana Santa Maria la Antigua, Parque de La Catedral Metropolitana, Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus, Panama History Museum, Panama Canal Musuem, Casa Diwz, Casas San Francisco, Park, Bolivar Palace, Iglesia San Francisco, Teatro Nacional, Viewpoint near Beach, Viewpoint southern tip, Leon Boyer, Pablo Arosemena, Playa El Tuco. The highlight was the Central Plaza with the magnificent Ascension Cathedral. At 430pm we caught Ubers back to hotel and the shower was like a saviour bringing our Lazarus heat stroked bodies back to life !!! We blogged until our farewell dinner leaving 7pm. Our last supper was at a fancy Italian restaurant with surprisingly fast service for Central America. This was it. Our last official day and night with Intrepid.
The next day (Mon 4MAR) was our last day in Panama and Central America. It was also Canal Day. We joined 11 others in a large private minivan at 625am, the last to be picked up. We drove 60min out of Panama City and passed the Pacific Locks we had seen two days ago and arrived at a boat launch in Gatun Lake, which is the man-made lake in the middle of the canal. This used to be a huge jungle valley with a very small rived snaking through it. President Roosevelt appointed US Army Major George Washington Goethals of the US Army Corps of Engineers as head engineer to take over the construction of the canal from the French. This engineer came up with the brilliant idea of damming this river at its extreme ends and flooding it instead of trying to dig a straight channel as the French tried to do and failed. The only drawback from flooding this area is that the water level sat 26m above the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. No worries. Three sets of locks were built on either ends of the lake to lift the ships up from ocean level to lake level and then lower them back down to ocean level at the other side – you can see this in a diagram at the end of this post. This ingenious plan enabled the canal to be built much faster and at significantly lower cost. We set off on a 90min wildlife cruise on the lake since it still has wild lush jungle throughout it. It was so strange seeing two huge vessels strolling past what otherwise was a lake surrounded by wild jungle. We saw two types of monkey, several birds and even a crocodile. Only 10min drive from the boat is the town of Gamboa, which features the canal dredging station. This station ensures that the lake is deep enough to enable extra large vessels to pass. After a brief banos and brekkie stop here we drove another 60min to the city of Colon where the Atlantic canal locks are located including a major port. Before the canal was built vessels would dock at ports on the Pacific and Atlantic and their cargo would be transferred between the ocean via railway, which still exists and is used today. We saw this railway line from the boat and minivan. The landscape on the way to Colon is wild, thick, lush jungle. We arrived at the Atlantic side locks called “Agua Clara” just in time to watch the huge cruise ship liner “Princess Cruises” make its way through the last lock into Gatun Lack coming from the Atlantic (southbound). It is was a sight to behold. The observation deck here is much better than the Pacific side since you are higher up and can wee the entire lock system at a glance. You can also see the end of the canal and a full view of the open Atlantic Ocean (Caribbean Sea). We were then lucky enough to see a huge LPG tanker pass the other way from Gatun Lake into the first lock towards the Atlantic. We were gazing on the more modern super-locks finished in 2016 and able to support ships 60% wider and 150% longer that those in the 1914 locks which are still operational for smaller vessels. We were disappointed not to have travelled in the canal itself but we did see both ends and the middle. From here we drove another 60min through absolutely lush green thick forest to San Lorenzo on the Atlantic. We had a delicious typical Panamanian hot lunch of coconut chicken, rice, lentils and fried plantains. Delicious. We then visited the San Lorenzo Fortress built by the Spanish in 1599 to protect their gold and silver from Pirates. It was abandoned in 1821 and UNESCO protected in 1980 with extensive restoration still taking place at the moment. At this point it was 1pm and the sun was blasting down. Intense heat and humidity. The ride back to the hotel was a welcome relief taking 90min and straddled into our hotel at 330pm. Tonight was happy and sad. Sad that we had to say goodbye to a great Intrepid Guide and Group and of course Central America but happy because tomorrow we would be in Columbia, starting with the much talked about seaside town of colourful Cartagena.
Enjoy our last images of Central America via the eyes of Panama City and the Panama Canal…
PACIFIC END OF PANAMA CANAL (Below onwards)
.jpg)
MIDDLE GATUN LAKE OF PANAMA CANAL (Below onwards)
.jpg)
ATLANTIC END OF PANAMA CANAL (Below onwards)
No comments:
Post a Comment