The Panama Canal

Taking everything down

We got up early because today we went on a trip halfway up the Panama Canal. We went by taxi to the dock. From there we got on a big boat. It had three decks. We got seats on the top one. After a while a while we reached the area where the ships wait until the operator gives them permission to head into the locks. Someone in a little boat has to come on board ship just to make sure you go into the locks right.

Along the way the guide said a few interesting things such as that they were going to make a bigger set of locks because some ships were too big to go throw the ones that currently exist. We also saw a giant green chopping device with a blade which was dredging the bottom of the canal so that bigger ships could go through.

Eventually we reached the first lock. Most of the big container ships have to have two trains on each side with steel cables connected to them to stop the boat from crashing into the sides of the chamber, but since our ship wasn't so big we didn't need trains. The same time we were going through there was another little fishing boat going through as well. It took approximately eight minutes for them to fill the chamber. We got through and continued on.

Giant green chopping device

We saw a lot of other big container ships heading the opposite way. The ships have something called a Plimsoll Line on the hull. It shows if you've put the maximum amount of containers in. Above the line the hull is one colour and below it is another. When you can only see the top colour it means the ship has been filled with the maximum amount of containers it can have. Panamax ships, the largest ships that can pass through the canal, can carry 5000 containers. The tower over the boat blocking out some of the sun and make you feel very small. But there are now bigger ships called post-Panamax ships that can carry 14,000 containers maximum, so that's why they have to make the canal deeper so the post-Panamax ships can go through.


I had a good time and it was very enjoyable. I recommend doing it. Altogether we went through three locks. The banks were very jungly. On the side of the lake you could see the train tracks for the train we took yesterday.