The Canal

Yesterday, a co-worker and I decided to make a trip to the Canal. The weather was nice, the birds were chirping, and....hahaha! Just kidding. It was raining as usual. Nevertheless, we hopped into a cab and trekked over to the Miraflores locks, which are the first set of locks on the Pacific Ocean side of the Canal.

When we arrived, a large ship laden with petroleum was on its way out.

Then another ship came in, which happened to be one of the largest cargo ships to transit the Canal all day.

The way the process works is like this: These little electric locomotives (called "mules") go up and down their little tracks on either side of the ships. The mules are then attached to the ships with steel cables. You may be thinking, much like I was, that the mules tow the ships through the locks. That idea, however, is incorrect. The mules only keep the ships in the middle of the lock so that the ship doesn't ram into the side. This huge ship actually only had 2 feet of clearance on either side! They also function to slow the ships down before they reach the next gate. The ships actually move along by their own power. The number of mules used depends upon the size and weight of the ship. The large ship required the maximum amount, which was eight - four in the front (two on each side) and four in the back.

The ship is slowed and stopped right before the gate. The water is drained by gravity through large pipes - no pumps at all are used.

In each of the locks at this location, the ship is lowered down 27 feet. When the ships go from the Atlantic side to the Pacific side (or vice versa), there is actually a huge change of elevation, so this is why they have to lower or raise the ships. There are two locks at Miraflores, so each ship is lowered 54 feet before it exits out into the Pacific Ocean.

When the water level inside the locks equals the level on the other side of the gate, the gates get opened.

Then the ship moves through the lock into the next lock where the process is repeated.

There are two lanes at Miraflores. In the following picture, you can not only see the amount of rain we got, but you can see a few ships lined up to go through. The ships must wait outside the locks and aren't allowed to go through until they pay the fees...by direct bank transfer. In other words, the ships basically have to pay for the transit in cash. The fee is determined depending on the tonnage of the ship. In the case of this huge cargo/container ship, the fee was around $360,000. The ship before cost about $357,000. In the two hours we were there, we saw over a million dollars of tariffs going through the locks - 4 ships.

It takes a ship on average 8-10 hours to go from one side to another. Ships going from the Pacific to the Atlantic travel through the locks in the morning, while those going the other way travel in the afternoon. You are able to see the ships lined up waiting their turn all across the horizon. There was even a cruise ship. I don't know how they determine how much a cruise ship has to pay.

The museum wasn't much to write home about. We decided to go to the little film presentation that was in Spanish (the English one was just ending). The film described how the country took the Canal back over from the United States in 1999 and there were huge celebrations, and that the Canal is a huge source of pride for everyone. It kind of made me wonder if the movie in English showed a huge source of gratitude to the United States for helping them out with the construction and payments and such, because I didn't see any of that in the Spanish version.

Oh well.