Panama Canal, Fuerte Amador, & Panama City

            We awoke about 8:30 AM on Wednesday, 5 Feb.  On our way to breakfast in the Horizon Court, we stopped on deck 7 and took a few photos of the canal.  Passengers lined the windows at the front of the ship in the Horizon Court, as we sailed towards the Gatun Locks, the first set of three locks that we would be passing through to the Pacific Ocean.  After breakfast, we went out on deck with the other passengers and snapped photos of the locks and scenery.  After passing though the first two locks, we returned to our cabin.  From our 5th floor window, we could see the wet concrete walls of the channel.  Then we watched the walls as the ship rose with the water level until we could see the blue sky and the sunlight shining on the dock and the green vegetation bordering the canal.  Soon, we became bored from watching the ship sail through Gatun Lake and lay down for a nap.

Gatun Lake, created as part of the Panama Canal construction, is one of the largest manmade lakes in the world.  It lies 26 meters above sea level and provides the navigation channel between the Gatun and Pedro Miguel Locks.  The Gatun Lake concept facilitated the construction of the Panama Canal, which otherwise would have been next to impossible, even with modern construction techniques and equipment available today.  According to the ship’s narrator, the Island Princess was charged $150,000 to pass through the Canal.

The Panama Canal will be celebrating its 100th year of operation this year (1914-2014).   The canal took more than 34 years to complete and cost the lives of more than 25,000 people, who died from either tropical diseases or landslides.  Although the Canal Expansion Program was also scheduled for completion this year, it is now 1-2 years behind schedule.  The expansion project will open two new sets of locks that will accommodate much larger ships, and facilitate maintenance of the other existing locks.  A Spanish construction company won the project with a bid so low that one of the competing American companies claimed their bid would not cover the cost of the concrete!  Of course, now the project is at a standstill as the Spanish company asks for more funds to complete the project.  The two new sets of locks will include one from the Caribbean Sea to the Gatun Lake, and the second directly from the Gatun Lake to the Pacific Ocean.  (The existing lock system consists of three sets of locks.)

We awoke for lunch about 1:00 PM.  Passengers were still lining the deck, watching the scenery around the canal, without conversation going on other than pointing out interesting scenery.  We passed through the Pedro Miguel Locks from 2:20 to  3:40 PM to the Miraflores Lake, then through the Miraflores Locks  to the Pacific Ocean from 4:10 PM to 5:25 PM, both of which were repeats of the Gatun Locks process, only in reverse.

At dinner, we shared a table for six.  Conversation was not as enjoyable as it had been on previous nights.  One couple was from near San Francisco.  We did not get their names; they both seemed to be hard of hearing and were difficult to converse with.  Larry, a retired Air Force physician, had attended medical school after a tour in Vietnam as an Army artilleryman.  Bob, a native of Wisconsin, said he was 89 years old and had played tuba in a Polka band for a few years.  He told Sally that two of his great-grandfathers had served in the Civil War from Wisconsin; one had written a 250-page diary in old German handwriting.  However, mostly, Larry, Bob, and especially their wives, carried on conversations that excluded the other members of the dinner table.

By 7:00 PM we had finished dinner, which was much earlier than usual.  This time, the Princess Orchestra was playing jazz music in the Wheelhouse Bar, which is impossible for ballroom dancing; therefore, we gave the Magnitude another chance in the Explorer’s Lounge.  The band started with 60s music, to which we could do the East Coast Swing; but later, they played a few cha chas and waltzes.  After the band went on break at 8:00 PM, we retired to our cabin.

On Thursday, 6 Feb, we awoke at 8:00 AM and headed to the Horizon Court for a leisurely breakfast.  Since our excursion to Fuerte Amador was not scheduled until 1:00 PM, there was no need to hurry.  We shared breakfast with Peggy and Lou, from near Philadelphia, whom we had met previously at dinner and on the dance floor.  They soon left and were replaced by another couple, Lois and John, from Pennsylvania.  After breakfast, we returned to our cabin to prepare for our day’s excursion (and a little more resting).

At noon we went to the Horizon Court for a quick lunch, then boarded the tender to Fuerte Amador at 12:30 PM.  It was a bright, sunny day of about 86 degrees (about like yesterday), and we enjoyed sitting atop the tender.  Our tour was scheduled to depart at 1:00 PM, but was delayed until 1:10 PM.  Elizabeth, our tour guide, described the sites as we rode through the streets of Fuerte Amador to Fort Clayton, the Army base that once housed the Southern Command Headquarters, and through portions of Albrook Air Force Base, where the new domestic airport is now located.  A section of the base has been converted into a commercial and high-end residential district.  This is the dry season, as we could see by some of the lawns. 

On Ship's Tender

We then proceeded to the Miraflores Locks, located on the Pacific side of the Panama Canal.  The system is slightly over a mile long and the gates are the tallest of all the lock systems, due to the great fluctuation in the Pacific Ocean tides.  Upon arrival at the Miraflores Visitor’s station, we toured the museum, which is a wonderful resource for information pertaining to the canal’s history and operations.  About 5:00 PM we re-boarded the ship and quickly readied ourselves for dinner.

Again, we shared a table for eight, this time with two couples whom we had met previously during dinner and dancing, Peggy and Lou, and Eileen and Scott; a couple from Switzerland, Richard and Monique; and a couple from near St. Paul, Minnesota, Ellen and Mike.  We had lots of interesting conversation this time.  After dinner, we danced again to the Playlist Band in the Wheelhouse Bar, before retiring to our cabin for the night.

Tomorrow will be an at sea day, so we’ll get to sleep in.