MIRAFLORES LOCKS

Well, the tour guide said Panama has the safest water in South America because the Americans made processing plants while stationed here so it would be safe for them.  It is safe!  The mint in my Mojito last night was safe also.  Yay! 

Today strated off with a trip to the Panama Viejo. It was a very organized city built in the 1500's by the Spaniards with 7 Catholic Churches.  Unfortunately, the pirates who plied the Pacific waters liked it also.  Times were not smooth.  The city has been moved 2X.  The older homes in the current PC have lots of barb wire to prevent unwelcome entries. When the older families finally sell their home it is razed and a high rise apartment complex is put in.  It is guessed a lot of drug money is being invested in the city growth. Dubay and PC started their growth at the same time 15 years ago. This city has even built up the swamp area by the Pac O and put in parks along the waterfront. Citizens are very proud of the new area.

There are 3 hospitals in PC. Punta Pacifica is a privte hosp with an exchange program with John Hopkins. 

Today, as we were pulling out of the hotel parking lot we could see the many runners of in International 10K Marathon.  Good thing they started at 8am b4 the heat of the day.

Interesting - I was told one of the richest families in Mexico City built and owns this hotel and the huge mall next door.  They now live in El Salvador. Wonder why?!
Later in the day, we visited the Miraflores Locks and saw 3 huge ships loaded with sea containers move from a small lake thru the 3 sets of double locks at Miraflores into the Pac Ocean.  The main middle section of a ship can go up 7 stories and the containers can go as high!   There is a limit now of 4,000 containers. The new locks will allow for 10,000 containers.  This overwhelms me!

The canal cuts right thru the Continental Divide with the Carib Sea being higher than Pac Sea.  It is built on a gravity system so they also lose fresh water (a staggering 52 million gallons per ship) to the Pacific Ocean. The canal generates huge money for Panama.Nearly 14,000 vessels pass thru each year. Shios pay according to their weight, with the average fee around $30,000 US.  The highest amount paid was US$200,000 in 2001 for a French 90,000 ton cruise ship Infinity. The lowest amount US$0.36 was paid by Richard Halliburton in 1938 when he swam thru.

Plans for a new, second set of locks which are wider, longer and use tug boats to move the ships, as well as a deeper canal are in the works.  The new locks will recycle the water. Yay! The Tour Guide said 76% of all new ships in the world are being built to the new docks' specs. Currently, the smallest lock is 305 m long and 33.5 m wide. The ships we saw today had barely a foot clearance on each side!  There is also a very busy Panama Canal Railway that runs across the isthmus carrying cargo boxes from ships which do not fit thru.  Even tho countries all over the world use the canal, the main users are the USA, China, Japan, Chile and South Korea.  Interesting!  Today in an hour we saw Morovian, New York and Greek ships.  This is called Transisthmusian travel.

Oh, I didn't tell you ... tonight I am sipping the local 12 year old Panamanian rum called Abuelo and coke. This is a good life!

Manana is the other end of the canal - Gatun Locks and Portobello.

Hasta manana!
Claudia