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