Day 6 of 111. The Panama Canal
We got up at 5:00 a.m. to watch the ship enter the Panama Canal. I learned from a documentary shown the night before that the entire project is much different than a just a couple of locks that the ships pass through. I am very impressed with the entire project, the ingenuity of the designers of the project and the hardships that people had to go through to create the Canal. The passing through the locks was very interesting. I think we entered about seven different chambers that filled with water or emptied in only about eight minutes! The ship gave us Panama Hats to wear, and they came in very handy once the sun came out. Watching the gates open and close and fill with water was fascinating. To think that this canal is a little over 100 years old already. The lake that was created to make this project possible is 84 feet above sea level and crosses the Isthmus of Panama. You use the locks to get from sea level to the lake level and back down again. Amazing.