Albuquerque to Panama City: 12 hours, 2 layovers, 3 planes, 4 airports. Leaving me quite a lot of time to ask myself if this whole idea was crazy, enough time to see a gate for a flight to New Orleans and to think how much easier it would be to jump on that plane. My stomach was completely tied in knots. Until I landed in Panama. Stepping off the plane to signs all in Spanish somehow made it all seem real. And somehow being real, made me completely calm. I passed through immigration and retrieved my bag and calmly waited outside of customs for Amanda's flight to arrive.
After not seeing each other since May 2009, we hugged, loaded up our packs, and headed out into the humid night in search of a taxi. $22 and 30 minutes later, we arrived at Luna's Castle Hostel in Casco Viejo. After a confusing check-in, we dropped our bags in our room we share with 6 others and headed back downstairs to unwind in the computer lounge. Two Balboas (Panama's Budweiser) later - the gift of another hostel resident, we were sufficiently happy and totally exhausted.
I awoke to the noise of car horns floating in through the open window, rapid French and German spoken loudly outside our door, and the smell of rain. Life is good.
After a 60 second cold shower and a free breakfast of banana pancakes, we spontaneously decided to join our new friend from London to the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal stretches for 80km, from Panama City on the Pacific coast to the city of Colon on the Atlantic. There are 3 sets of double locks spanning the canal that the ships must pass through. We took a taxi to the Miraflores Lock, located about 20 minutes via taxi to the NW of Panama City. The lock was certainly impressive to see. Ships are left with 2 feet of clearance on each side between it and the concrete lock. They are pulled through the lock by train cars and stopped twice to lower and raise the water level to prevent flooding - as the Atlantic side is significantly higher than the Pacific.
This engineering feat runs like clockwork. From 9:30 am to 12:00pm ships pass from West to East, from 3-5pm they pass East to West, and during the night, smaller boats are allowed to pass. Yet not without a fee. To pass through the Panama Canal, one needs a reservation at least 48 hours in advance, and needs to pay according to the weight of the ship. The ship in this photo likely cost $100,000 to enter the canal, a man from Holland explained to us. Yet even this huge fee is somehow more cost-effective than sailing for 2-3 extra weeks around South America.
Panama intends to widen the Canal by the year 2014. Yet it is not so much a widening endeavor, as it is a complete new canal. Back in the early 20th century, France began dredging trenches that have since been abandoned. Until now. The half-dredged trenches that are located North of the current canal are now going to be finished to provide an additional lock to help keep up with the heavy traffic flow. And here's the controversy: the planned canal will be dredging through some of Panama's most protected land. According to our acquaintance from Holland who has connections in the shipping industry, if the construction crew kills a single alligator, construction stops for a while, and there are heavy fines.
So then how can the dredging happen at all? "Economics," our Holland friend said.
Amanda asked if one of his friends in the shipping industry here in Panama wouldn't mind being interviewed. No, he replied, they all work for very big companies. Hmmm . . .Big companies with a lot of money at stake?
And who cares about the environment, when your country is known principally for one of the greatest engineering wonder's of the world?
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