The Canal

Into the car, off we go to another MUSEUM! I expected this to be another BORING trip to the museum. But... afterwards, i fuguried out that this wasn't any museum, it was the museum about the eighth wonder of the world! THE PANAMA CANAL!!!

AS we walked into the musem, we were shocked to be ushered out to the balcony to watch the LOCKS of MIRAFLOR (the first set of locks on the pacific side) in MOTION! First, the boat would enter the first SET of locks (there were 2 sets at Miraflor) which was at the same level as the ocean, then... the gates would close and the water level of this set of locks would be hired to the next set of locks, (am I making any sense?) where the second set of gates closed, and then that set of locks would be raised. (There at Miraflor, a ship is raied 52 feet above sea level in these two STEPS!) After it was at the same level as the Canal, it would head into the Canal and the sycle would happen AGAIN for the next boat, and what endless work but...the PANAMA CANAL runs 24\7! After it traved through the Canal for a bit, the boat would then go to another set of locks caled San Mugelito. The same would happen, the boat wuld be raised, but only once, and then, it would go through Gatun Lake, the largest MAN-MADE lake UNTILL 1936! It would continue thruogh Gatun Lake, which provides 50 MILLION galons of fresh water for each lockage! it had finneshed it's travle through Gatun Lake, it would decend 85 in the gatun locks till it hit sea level. THIS IS HARD TO BELIVE, but... the Panama Canal is approximatly 50 miles long and its locks work as elavators. It takes a boat 8-9 hours usually and... 58% of the water produced in the Panama Canal Watershed is used for the lockages, 36% is used for hydropower generation and an amazing consumtion of 6% is consumed by humans. If you didnt already know this, any boat going through the Panama Canal has to reserve a space befor had and pay a toll, the highest toll ever payed wae $236,000 by a huge boat and the lowest toll ever payed was $0.35 for someone to swim through the locks.


THE MUSEUM
As we entered the actual museum, they had a display about the history of the Canal. In the CULEBRA CUT ( the hardest spot to construct in the Canal), they had to use dynamite to cut through the "culebra cut" and to do that, they had to drill more than 6000 holes a day, and between 1905 and 1912, they used more than 60 MILLION pounds of dynamite!


Got to go! i will write more about the museum latter, or... you can check on thr blog!

Coming from the PANAMA CANAL,

Noelle

panama

Hey guys,i miss u all soooooooooo much! As you all know were in panama city,we will be leaving on the 26th or 27th of febuary and heading to the island of bocas del toro.We have had soooooooo much fun here in panama city and have learned aton about the canal,went horseback riding,visited the gamboa resort,went to a AWSOME waterfall,visited a embera village and SO much more! For me the horse backriding was definatly the most exciting.

THE CANAL,
There are three sets of locks on the panama canal and we had the pleasure to watch the miraflores locks lower and higher,the miraflores locks are the first set of locks and are located next to the miraflores mueseum.This is were we were able to watch them open and close the locks! When we got there we went straight out to the viewing deck and were lucky we did cause there was a ship in both lanes one was exiting the canal and one entering,the gate was closed for the ship that was entering and we watched the water leval higher and then the ship pass through.After that we went to the mueseum and got loded with info about the canal,(im gonna share some with you later but my jornel is locked in the landury room so i cant right now) later we were able to see a cruise ship coming down the canal.It was pretty cool!


FISHING TRIP,
Okay since im vegitarian and wouldent fish this trip was slow and kinda boring for me.But I really enjoyed monkey island were we set bananas on the front of the boat and the monkeys came and took them!Also we got to ride down the canal wich is illigal but are boat driver felt bad that we haden't caught much so he took us right down the canal and right next to a ship!


WATER FALL,
awsome! i had so much fun swiming in the water fall and exploring around it!


EMBERA VILLAGE,
As we arrived sevral of the village members greeted us and lead us to the presentation-resturand area.We were seated and the guy started passing stuff around and talking.Then we were surved are lunch i decided id pass im not gonna mention what it was but i just decided id live with out it.Once we were all done eating they took us to there dance hut and im sure my mom will give you a better desripcion on this. But they started dancing and asking for partners my mom dad and treava danced but me, noelle, kenna and jamie decided to um just watch!

HORSEBACK RIDING,
oh my gosh it was sooooooooooo much fun! On the way up we went through the woods through rivers through mud and much more.On the way back I had a totel blast as soon as we were on the road my horse took off so fast and she stayed that fast for awile(she even made me lose my pony tail holder!)Once the first sight of the gravel road could be seen I was swept away soooooooooooo fast and she wouldent stop!We trotted for about well 15 minutes non stop and I was ready for a break but she wanted more!So off we went agin intil I turend her around and made her stop after 1 or 2 minutes of walking we were both ready to run agin so we trotted and galloped for quite awile intill she must have been really tired so I got off and walked her. After a few minutes she was ready to go agin so I was on agin,mine definatly liked the lead anytime anyother horse came up he would start galloping so he was always in the lead except for once when kenna and me were kinda well not really racing but are horses were and she was infront for a cople minutes,it wasen't that mine was faster or anything just most eger to get back I guess.

Chagras river

We went on a boat trip on the Chagras river the other day with the Dunns. We all climbed into a dug out canoe with 10 seats and headed up river through the tropical rain froest. Looking out at the layers of the rainforest is amazing. The four layers are the forest floor, the understory, the canopy and the emergent trees. We first went to a beautiful waterfall for a swim in delightfully refreshing cool(not cold) water. Then we were off to an Embera (an indiginous group) village. Here we siphered through a spanish presentation on their way of life, ate their local foods of fish and yucca served in a banana leaf cone and then listened to their music and watched their dances. At one point the Embrera ladies and men came to us and grabbed our hands and encouraged us to dance with them. Imagine Chris's horror or delight that he got to dance with one of the topless women. We all laughed as he turned many shades of pink. The sun was cooking and we had forgotten our flashlights for a cave tour so we returned to the waterfall to swim some more. The ride back was exhillerating as the winds had picked up and some of us got drenched by the spray. We were actually cold at that point.

The next day we set out for a fishing trip in the Panama canal and monkey viewing. The fishing was poor because we got such a late start due to submarine going through the canal (they block and guard everything when the subs go through). We saw white faced monkeys and howler monkeys. The whiteface monkeys came and ate from the bow of the boat. Then we watched all sorts of container ships go by on lake Gatun. The Canal is very fascinating. The girls will post there reports on it on the blog and they are putting together an awesome power point presentation of it to give when we get home.

Love to all lisa

Granada, Nicaragua

hey guys, I miss u all so much!!!!!!! On our way to Panama we visited the most amazing little town on a volcano crater lake of Granada. It looks much like a colonial town or antigua before the tourist ,with a lake. Granada has some buildings that our as old as 425 years there is one hotel named Amilondo that runs for three blocks and is 410 years old.When we got to the town I felt like I was stepping into the 19 hundreds. It is a stunning place with the horse carts on the streets and the old houses making it seem like you have steped back in time. Also the lake is absoulutly amazing, its several volcanos that suround the lake and the lake is centered like a courtyard. We swam in the lake once and decided next time were staying ON the lake! Where we went, the monkey hut, a littel hotel on the lake for a day trip was so much fun!!! You could just relax and play basketball, take the canoes out, go swimming on the dock ,or float around in intertubes plus the water was so pristine you could see the botom out ten feet deep! It was a great place to just chill. Anyway back to Granada, you've heard about the looks of the town oh the people were well just normal, they dont were inuate clothing and most are pretty upper class because when you bought a house 4 years ago the price was around 35 thousand and now in the street called la libertad one of the most famous streets a littel not to nice house will cost almost450 thousand dollars. But just cause there upper class it doesn't mean there not nice. We met severall wonderful pepole and lots of gringos! Our tour guide on the horse carriage said that more gringos then locals live in the actual town ,though lots of locals live on the outskirts cause its cheaper to buy there. I would really like to visit there agin it was so amazing for me!!!!!!!

love vienna

schmitterschrier

schmitterschrier

We are in Panama now with the Dunn family. We feel like we have steped from 3rd world to first A class service at the Dunn Hotel. They arranged an awesome trip up the Chargas river to a beautiful tropical rain forest waterfall and then to a traditional Embere Indiginous village. all was extremely fun. I'll write more later as we are off to the stor now. Love lisa

schmitterschrier

schmitterschrier

Oh my gosh, Karla finaly got here, it was amazingly good to see her, i didn´t realize how much i had missed her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her english has gotten so good. Vienna and i want to go shopping with her at her favorite malls! She is staying her in San Pedro for 1 week and a coulple days, we have had a great time with her and her family!

We had a great time at the San Ramon Festival. From my best knowledge, it is a festival that is about the help Jesus gave to two lost children when they got lost walking 10 miles from San Ramon to here. They belive that Jesus watched over them to help get here, so every year they walk from San Ramon to here, and when the people that walked get here, they host a large festival, and host the people from San Ramon for two days, and then send them on their way! It was a interesting cultural event, and there were tons of people!!!

P.s. heard all the snow was gone, wa

noelle

Hope all of you are well, for we have broncitis still, we have had it for 1 month and a half, and now my ear is starting to hurt! Guess we will have to stay low for a cupple of days, and then we wil be off to panama

Febuary 9th,

Hi all, we are heading out to panama today, but will only make it as far as honduras or nicaragua. We had a busy morning today, and now are finaly off (right now we are waiting for the bus)! We plan to spend some time in Nicaragua and Costa Rica on the way back.

Miss you all, but got too go!! Almost out of time

Noelle