Day four: The Canal!

(3/29) History in action. My visit to the Panama Canal on Monday was absolutely surreal. Kelly and I scored some $5.00 student tickets to see the canal in its entirety: the museum, the informational video, the Miraflores Locks. It was totally worth it.

The history of the Panama Canal is quite intriguing. Ever since Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Coast, world powers have been imagining the creation of a passage between the two great oceans - first the Spanish, then the French (many of whom died trying), and finally, the United States who broke ground on the Canal in 1903. The first transit took place on August 15, 1914, and took 8 hours. The cheapest price to traverse the locks was 36 cents, paid by Richard Halliburton who swam the Canal from August 14-23, 1928. President Carter signed the Torrijos-Carter treaty in 1977 in order to cede the American owned and orchestrated canal to Panama; officially on December 31, 1999, the Panama Canal became truly Panamanian. The canal has been a fabulous source of revenue and tourism for the Central American country. We visited the Miraflores Locks on the Pacific Coast, near Panama City, where we saw a 7 story boat pass through the locks. This boat, the CSAV Chicago, paid about $160,000.00 to pass according to local employees. A neighboring sailboat's fees were $500.00.

History in the making at the Panama Canal!

Our evening brought us to Bocas del Toro on an Air Panama flight. More to come on Bocas as the adventures unfold...