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....

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...

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.