Panama Canal Cruise

All pictures on this site are thumbnails which will enlarge by clicking on the picture.

On April 18, 2007 we started our trip for the 17 day cruise through the Panama Canal to Seattle on the Sun Princess which was departing from Ft. Lauderdale on April 19. The flight down to Florida was entirely uneventful and everything went like clockwork. We stayed at the Sleep Inn in Dania which has a shuttle service to Port Everglades and that worked smoothly also. We arrived at the ship at 1:30PM and basically walked on to the ship. There were no lines at all. By 3:00 PM we had had lunch and started to learn our way around this floating hotel. At 5:00PM ,the appointed hour, the ship cast off from the pier and headed out to sea. For dinner we met our table partners, Bob and Sharon from California and Phil and Ginny from Illinois. Bob and Sharon disappeared and on the second night we gained Leo and Caroline from Washington.


Sun Princess in Aruba	Amsterdam Condo in Aruba	Atlas Moth - It was huge	Butterfly at the Farm	Aloe Plant cut showing gel

Rugged Norht Coast - it isn't lush	Baby Natural Bridge on North Coast	California Point Lighthouse	Beautiful beach from Jo-Ann's timeshare	Mom, Jo-Anne and John

April 24, Passing through the Panama Canal

Today we crossed the Isthmus of Panama between 7:30 AM and approximately 3:30 PM. We arrived at the Gatun Locks ready to enter for the approximately 55 foot rise into Gatun Lake in the two chamber lock system. Another Princess ship the Coral Princess was going into the first chamber when we arrived and we were able to get a good idea of what was happening or about to happen to us. It all starts with two men in two rowboats sent to the bow and stern of the ship to retrieve lines cast from the ship which in turn retrieve steel cables tied to the electric "mules" that run on tracks on the wall of the canal. The main purpose of the mules is to maintain the ship in the center of the passage and avoid the ship scraping the sides. The width of the lock chamber is 110 feet and our ship had what appeared to me to be about two feet to spare on the side I was looking at. Most of the propulsion is supplied by the ship with minimal pulling by the "mules. Water in the first chamber has been emptied to the sea and as the ship enters, the rear gates are shut. Water then is let in from the lake via pipes and the water level rises up to the level of the second chamber. The ship then enters into the second chamber and the process is repeated again. When the ship has risen to the level of the lake, the front gates are opened and the ship passes into the lake. It took over an hour to clear the two Gatun Locks. The Coral Princess had cleared the locks when we entered the second chamber on the left and the Coral had been replaced by the container ship Maersk Darby in the right hand chamber. This pattern with the Maersk Darby was to repeat itself throughout our journey in the subsequent locks. The course through Gatun Lake was a zig zag to follow the channel and range lights are in place to mark the course to be set. We met many ships in Gatun Lake on our way through. After we cleared the lake and into the areas of the narrow Gaillard or Culebra cut, ships of our size could only go single file. The Gaillard cut area is under constant maintenance and we observed various dredges and drills working on the sides of the canal. After clearing the cuts and passing over the Continental Divide we crossed under the new Centennial Suspension bridge spanning the canal and headed for the single chamber Pedro Miguel locks which dropped us 31 feet into the Miraflores lake and the two chamber Miraflores Locks which dropped us 54 feet further to the level of the Pacific Ocean. After crossing under the Bridge of the Americas carrying the Pan-American highway we pulled into the breakwater for our evening tour of Panama City. A Panamanian Canal lecturer spoke over the loudspeaker throughout our passage and among things we learned was that the Sun Princess paid approximately $230k for the passage and that all fares had to be paid in advance. No Visa cards here. I don't want to go into the history of the canal as that information is readily available in libraries and the internet. What impressed me was the volume of the shipping that was going through this little "ditch". When we arrived in the Pacific I was amazed to see the number of ships that would be making the northward journey throughout the evening and nightl It must be seen to be believed. Another interesting fact was that all of the water used in the locks is fresh water from the lake and canal. No salt water from the sea or ocean is pumped into the lock system as the salt water would be too harmful to the equipment. Thus each ship passing through the canal passes 52 million gallons of water to the sea. Panama however has abundant rain to keep this a very lush country.

In the evening we took a guided tour of Panama City with shopping opportunities provided by our tour guide. The picture on the left shows the skyline of the city from the park overlooking the city. While there seemed to be a lot of building activity in the center of New Panama City, the older parts of the town seemed to be in shambles. The tour guide explained that wages in the country averaged around $300 to $400 per month with unemployment at around 17%. We drove through various streets and got glimpses of sweat shops with sewing machines going at 7:00pm. In other areas there were stores with goods being sold through iron bars. Many narrow doorways displayed mattresses on floors with dim lights and people watching TV. The tour guide said that many Americans were retiring to guarded compounds and that Panama was about to become a resort mecca on the Pacific. Donald Trump is supposedly building a 104 floor building and casino in Panama City. Condo's in high rises can be had for $80k and up. In the historical restoration district buildings are to be had for as little as $30k but you must guarantee that you will restore it to its historical grandeur out of your own means. Our bus stopped in a small square and we were told that we would be taking a little walk. We immediately thought that this was not a good idea in such a neighborhood but the guide assured us that we would have additional chaperones/guides to insure our safety. We walked through a sea side area where vendors had their goods displayed in semi darkness on blankets on the ground. We purchased some items and Mom said that she will see what she bought when we returned to the ship. Some people were haggling over goods with the vendors but we couldn't see doing so to people of such poor means to begin with. We then went to the Panama Canal Historical Museum where all of the explanations were in Spanish. After this we took a ride through Ancient Panama City(almost 500 years old). All of the historical buildings were rubble with only the restored watch tower in place. A lot of the buildings had been demolished and had the stone used in the other historical district. Altogether this was a very busy and engaging day.


Big ships don't go through without these guys	Coral Princess entering first lock	Mules hooked to the sun Princess	Sun Princess entering first lock	Coral Princess in lake going to anchorage

Looking back at gatun Locks	Range lights on bank of lake	Ever DeLuxe on lake	Panama is lush on the lake	Dredge working in cut

Drilling barge setting explosives	Over the continental divide	Sun Princess heading to the Pacific	Maersk Derby under the Bridges to America	Old watch tower in Ancient Panama City

April 26, Do you know the way to San Jose, Costa Rica

We arrived in Puntarenas, Costa Rica around 3:00 AM> I wasn't awake to witness the occasion but heard that later. Our schedule for the day took us on a tour of the capital city of San Jose. To get to San Jose we had to take a two hour AC bus ride over the Pan-American Highway and climb up to around 6000 feet above sea level. (Will check these facts later). We drove the curvy road with no guard rails and at one point the night before, a gravel truck had rolled on its side and into the steep ditch. Workers were hand shoveling the gravel back into another vehicle. The guide explained that at night there are truck accidents due to weight overloads. It seems that the weigh stations open at 7:00 AM but also close at 7:00PM. The twelve hours in between are open season. Our guide was a native Costa Rican and did a great job of explaining the ins and outs of Costa Rican life. Clothing is very expensive here so twice a year he goes to Sawgrass Mall in Ft. Lauderdale to do his shopping for these items. Nike's can go for up to $250 on Costa Rica. The guide also said that for part of the year he drives a Mr. Softee Ice Cream truck in Queens< NY. He explained that Costa Rica has no armed services. These were abolished in 1949. The big argument in politics now is whether or not to sign trade treaties with the US, which will be on the ballot this year. Coffee had been introduced to the economy in the early 1800's and remains to this day as a major agricultural product along with pinneaples and bananas. Most of the wealth in the country has come from coffee.

We expected to see San Jose to be a very old city but it was not so. Spain kept its administrative capital for the Central Americas in Guatemala City and also developed Panama as a transfer shipping center for the gold from Peru. San Jose was built from coffee money in the 1800's. The most important building in San Jose was the opera house which was built in 1897. It was difficult to get an outside shot of this building as you were immediately set upon by souvenir hawkers when getting off the bus. The opera house is used for state occasions as well as theatrical performances. It is an ornate gold leaved interior. We learned that none of the churches in San Jose are open to tourists and would not be stopping by. From the opera house we went to the museum which primarily displayed the indigenous history of the Cost Rica area. There were many artifacts dating back to the 2000BC to 600AD period. Some of the stone carvings were unbelievable. Three foot high corn grinding tables with three legs and about two feet by two feet or more square on top all carved out of a single block of rock. From the museum we were taken to lunch at a restaurant run by the tour company and then to Saarchi and another stop for shopping opportunities. Funny how they work in the shoppiong into the tour. Saarchi has a history as the place where oxcarts were built and then the practice of ornate painting on the carts grew up. Now they make all kinds of wooden items and the oxcart has been replaced by decorative carts.

Costa Rica evidenced much garbage and litter all along the Pan American Highway and the towns. The littering along the highways in the US has nothing on this place. Also the presence of iron gates, grates across windows, barbed wire and razor wire fences was everywhere. We asked our guide about this and he said that Costa Rica has a low crime rate as evidenced by only 7 murders last year. He would not comment on the non-violent crime rate but I don't believe that people would spend money on barbed wire or razor wire if there was no call for its use. Most of the housing we saw was either concrete of wood frame with tin roofs. Some of it looked quite stylish while others looked like they were ready to collapse. Many Americans are now retiring in Costa Rica either in condo type apartments or guarded gated communities. Next time if there is one we will go see the rain forest if it is still there but we are glad we got experience and learn some of the everyday Costa Rica.