Monday, July 28, 2008

Panama Canal


This was an experience I will not forget.
We entered the first lock at about 8.00 am and it was dark when we sailed out into the Caribbean Sea.
There are only three sets of locks and most of the transit is through the cut and a huge natural lake - Gatun Lake.
The canal has only 3 sets of locks at the western end, middle and eastern end.
They lift the level 26 meters to cross over Central America. The cut is on a north/south axis (not east/west as I had imagined).
Passing through, it is hard to imagine that 22,000 of workers died of yellow fever when the canal was built almost 100 years ago (opened 1914).
Photo: Container ship passing through Miraflores Locks ahead of us

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