Transiting the Panama Canal

 The JR passing through Miraflores Locks (thanks for screen cap Tom!)

It is surprisingly low-tech.  Here are rope handlers bringing us the tie line in a dingy.

 Boat is tied to "mules", little cog railways cars, on either side.  They will pull us through locks.

As we get into narrow section of lock the rope from other side is thrown aboard.  The ropes are used to haul on the steel cables attached to the mules.

 

Approaching the second set of locks, San Miguel Locks

 On the Chagras River section.  It's really hard to believe these container ships don't roll over all the time.

 On Lake Gatun, the large artificial lake formed when the Chagras River was dammed.

Going back down to sea level through the final set of locks, Gatun Locks.

The Atlantic in the distance!  Another successful transit over the continental divide and lots of sunburned faces in the mess hall in the evening....

Will it? Won't it?

Apparently we were being buffaloed by the bunkerers.  The refueling (bunkering) process continued through the night due to faulty pumps on the fuel barges resulting in us missing our midnight low tide window to go under the bridge.  So twelve hours later we went under it at mid-day.

 the approach...

The pile of girders that will eventually morph into a fabulous new Frank Gehry museum devoted to the natural world.

passing under the bridge...

 believe it or not, this was incredibly exciting!

We are now at the head of canal but since we missed our morning passage window we need to tie up for the night.  My brother alerted us to www.shiptraffic.com where you can search for Resolution (JOIDES) and see us tracked in real time on google maps.

First Full Day on JOIDES Resolution

Approaching the JR yesterday morning....pilot boat alongside for scale...

Four of us successfully board up rope ladder from heaving boat....felt very "survivorish".  Here's my bag getting hauled aboard.  I think we all looked awkward enough that they later lowered the gangway with the ship's crane to accommodate the departing scientific crew.

 They all seemed pretty happy to be leaving after six weeks at sea.

 A few hours later a fuel barge showed up and began the fueling process which continued throughout the night.  Mid-morning today a second fuel barge tied up and also began refueling us.  Apparently the weight of fuel, combined with this evening's low tide will give us the necessary clearance to pass under the Bridge of the Americas at the entrance to the canal.  From wikipedia, the clearance under bridge is 201 feet at high tide.  According to the IODP website the "air draught" of the JR's derrick, the height above the waterline, is 205 feet!!!   This is gonna be close!

The locks of the Panama Canal

Tomorrow morning we board the JOIDES Resolution, JR for short, for passage through the Panama Canal then onto Curacao a few days later.  I had never really thought about how locks worked before....they are all gravity-fed.  The French built the Suez Canal (1869) by cutting a passage at sea level between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.  They later tried same technique in Panama and failed at that Sisyphean task.  It was the ingeneous use of locks that allowed the Americans to succeed, at a now Herculean task, where the French had earlier failed (with an estimated 22,000 deaths and a near ruined national economy).

(click to enlarge)

 By damming the Chagras River a huge lake, Gatun Lake, was formed that provides a continuous source of water (thanks to the surrounding rain forest) to first raise massive ships to 85 feet above sea level and half a day later drop them back down to sea level.  Tomorrow I'll post pictures of JR going through the locks, lakes, and the infamous Galliard Cut (also known as the Culebra Cut).  You can also follow the progress of ships through the locks live on the Pancanal.com webcam.

Friday morning update:  The JR will actually go through the locks tomorrow, not today.  Today will be spent taking on fuel for ballast that will allow the boat, at low tide tomorrow morning, to fit under the Bridge of the Americas.

Panama hats...

click to enlarge

Las Cruces Trail, The Treasure Trail

Wild carob, chocolate gold...

Today my dad and I hiked 12 km along Las Cruces Trail, built by the Spaniards using native slave labor around 1585.  It was the new "improved" highway, paved by river stones and replacing an earlier trail, over which Inca gold and silver was transferred from the Pacific to the Atlantic enriching Spain and, ultimately, all of Europe.  We walked in the footsteps of conquistadors, Sir Francis Drake, Henry Morgan the pirate, the gold rush 49ers, Ulysses S. Grant and, quite literally, in the hoof holes left by the thousands of mules that trekked across the stones over the centuries hauling Inca treasure to waiting Spanish galleons and later California gold to waiting clipper ships. 

 

Las Croces, the crosses laid in the path....

cute little capuchin monkey

The trail remained in constant use until the construction of a railway by the French canal builders in the late 1850's.  Rough, wet, slippery, and humid (99%?) with the sound of howler monkeys in the canopy and thousands of special little creatures and plants along the trail (including poison dart frogs and tarantulas), we saw no one else the entire hike.  Our naturalist guide Ivan, from Ancon Expeditions, was super!

water filling in the holes worn by a thousand donkey hooves....

 mysterious rock....have no idea how it got here....need a geologist...oh, wait, I am a geologist....

forest gold...

Molas, you've seen them before....

It was only after I arrived in Panama that I realized that these reverse appliqued fabrics, known as molas, originate with the indigenous Kuna Indians of Panama.  The Kuna are fiercely independent and tribal and have successfully resisted, sometimes violently, all efforts to assimilate and westernize them over the centuries.  Walking around Casco Viejo I was struck by the beauty of the Kuna women walking in pairs or selling crafts on the promenade.  I wondered why I didn't notice any Kuna men until I read that only the women dress in traditional clothing....the men wear western clothing.  In addition to being a strongly matriarchal society, the Kuna are also a very slight people, second only to the Pygmies of Africa in size.

I bought some molas and also some of the arm beads which a Kuna woman "wove" onto my arm (it doesn't come off).  If I was a real Kuna, I'd have these full up both my forearms as well as my calves.  The men would admire my slender limbs (ahem) accentuated by my beaded decoration!  My nose ring and tattoo down my aquiline nose would seal the deal!

Panama City, new and old

 

 

Have arrived in Panama to board a vessel that will transit the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic.  Panama City is a modern wonder...a boomtown with far more skyscrapers than Boston, with dozens more rising upwards, topped with cranes.

But, on a promontory between the new city and the canal is Casco Viejo, a 17th century historical district built up by the French in the late 19th century during their first, failed attempt to build a canal through the Isthmus.  In a twist of fate that William Morris and the Anti-scrape would be delighted with, conscientious developers decided to rehab, restore, and renovate the dilapidated district rather than bulldoze it.  Almost immediately, artists, cafe, craftspeople, and tourists began arriving.  The process is ongoing with old, impoverished buildings, many no more than ruined shells, being beautifully restored in this UNESCO world heritage site.  Now its world heritage status is threatened by specter of a huge highway encircling the district, cutting its famous seawall, built in the 1600s to protect Panama from pirates, off from the sea.  You can read more about the local effort to stop this short-sighted plan here:
"Whether you are a Panamanian or not you are entitled to a voice on the treatment of World Heritage Sites, so speak up!"

 It all looks very French, oui?

 a work in progress

 

The old jails now housing art galleries and cafes.