Saturday was broken up into two parts. Aaron and I had planned on going to the canal at 10am, but since we had been out late, we didnt end up getting there till a little past that, maybe 11ish. Its tough to say since I dont wear a watch while I am on vacation. I love that. We did eventually make it over there, and it was actually really really impressive. We got to see a couple of differnet boats go through it, and as you can see from the photo I have posted, the size of some of these boats that go through is amazing. this one that I showed had to be at least 10 stories high from the water level up. Who knows how deep into the water it went. I learned a lot of things about the canal as well. It costs about 240,000 dollars to cross through it. Boats are charged by their size. Smaller boats, less money, etc. The most ever paid was some norwegian cruise liner that got milked for 380,000. They´ve also begun work on expanding the canal. They´re going to be putting in 2 other sections of locks at both ends, and these will allow for boats 2x the size of hte current canal to cross. The total time to get through the canal system is about 8 hours, but with wait times adn all that usually as much as 24 hours. We watched the movie, and went through the museum, and the whole thing blew me away. The canal opened in 1914, and it had begun in the 1870s by the French. The amount of man power that went into building it, especially with the type of machinery that they had to use, it was amazing to look at it and know that it was built so long ago. They talked a lot about the immigration of thousands of workers from all over the world. It is so obvious to see the influence and diversity of the immigrants that came in to work on the canal in the population of Panama today. Their is such a mixture of cultures in the people, it is amazing. A mixture of African American, Indian, Asian, Latino, and Native Panamanians. The beginning of the day was great, but by the time that we had finished with the canal, I was exhuasted. I didnt sleep much,or very well the night before, and from traveling all day the day before. So when we made it back to the hostel, I laid down and took a nap for about 2 hours. I love naps!
Saturday was broken up into two parts. Aaron and I had planned on going to the canal at 10am, but since we had been out late, we didnt end up getting there till a little past that, maybe 11ish. Its tough to say since I dont wear a watch while I am on vacation. I love that. We did eventually make it over there, and it was actually really really impressive. We got to see a couple of differnet boats go through it, and as you can see from the photo I have posted, the size of some of these boats that go through is amazing. this one that I showed had to be at least 10 stories high from the water level up. Who knows how deep into the water it went. I learned a lot of things about the canal as well. It costs about 240,000 dollars to cross through it. Boats are charged by their size. Smaller boats, less money, etc. The most ever paid was some norwegian cruise liner that got milked for 380,000. They´ve also begun work on expanding the canal. They´re going to be putting in 2 other sections of locks at both ends, and these will allow for boats 2x the size of hte current canal to cross. The total time to get through the canal system is about 8 hours, but with wait times adn all that usually as much as 24 hours. We watched the movie, and went through the museum, and the whole thing blew me away. The canal opened in 1914, and it had begun in the 1870s by the French. The amount of man power that went into building it, especially with the type of machinery that they had to use, it was amazing to look at it and know that it was built so long ago. They talked a lot about the immigration of thousands of workers from all over the world. It is so obvious to see the influence and diversity of the immigrants that came in to work on the canal in the population of Panama today. Their is such a mixture of cultures in the people, it is amazing. A mixture of African American, Indian, Asian, Latino, and Native Panamanians. The beginning of the day was great, but by the time that we had finished with the canal, I was exhuasted. I didnt sleep much,or very well the night before, and from traveling all day the day before. So when we made it back to the hostel, I laid down and took a nap for about 2 hours. I love naps!
Comments
Post a Comment