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| The iconic Atlantic Bridge The new Agua Clara locks to the left and the traditional Gatun locks to the right Which way is your cruise going? |
Sunday morning breaks with overcast skies as we approach Colón, Panama, the Caribbean entrance to the world-famous Panama Canal. We feel like old hands at this even though this time we are only going through the new locks at Aqua Clara, not traveling the entire fifty mile canal. The MS Rotterdam is too wide for the old, famous, iconic locks at Gatun that we traversed last year, so we will see the new, wider lock system that went into operation in 2016. The tingling of excitement we felt the first time is replaced with an old peaceful, easy feeling.
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| A smaller freighter heads toward the Gatun Locks |
We are currently farther west than where the other end of the world-famous waterway meets the Pacific Ocean. The canal runs southeast from here, not west. We haven’t changed our clocks and watches back so we are still on Eastern Standard Time, the same as New York or Ft. Lauderdale. My hometown of Miami is further west than we are here. Not by much, I admit, but enough to win bets.
We traversed the entire Panama Canal last year as we sailed from Ft. Lauderdale to Los Angeles, a memorable fifteen-day cruise. This is not a traditional canal in the sense of the canals of Europe or even the Suez Canal, which some of my former neighbors think Carter gave away. It is really a fresh-water lake, formed by damming the Chagres River. The canal is mainly red channel markers across the navigable section of the lake.
The original locks were the three-tiered Gatun locks on the Caribbean side and the Pedro Miguel and Miralores locks on the Pacific side. New, wider locks at Aqua Clara on the Caribbean entrance and Cocoli on the Pacific side have increased the size of ships that the canal can handle. The newer, bigger cruise ships are simply too big to use the old traditional locks. The iconic Culebra cut, the eight-mile, man-made valley through the Sierra de Veraguas mountains, is on the Pacific side along with the Centennial bridge and the original Bridge of the Americas.
Passengers may disembark while we are anchored on Lake Gatun, taken ashore by a continuous flotilla of tenders to visit the local attractions of the area. The tours are all sponsored by Holland America, so the ship won’t leave Colón without them. No one disembarked on the full transit from Gatun to Panama City, so no one on that cruise had the opportunity to visit the area.
Several of the passengers we’ve chatted with were unaware we would not see the famous terraced locks at Gatun, with the mechanical mules alongside to keep the boats from scraping the sides of the lock. The new facility at Aqua Clara doesn’t use the lock-side tracks and mechanical, train-like tugs to control the boats, so I am curious to see what else one hundred years of engineering advancement has done to the process. I make sure my camera battery is fully charged, and I have my cellphone on a lanyard to prevent the accidental jostling and joggling from knocking it out of my hand as I head topside in the breaking daylight.
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| The Atlantic Bridge |
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| Entering Aqua Clara locks. There is a huge container ship in front of us |
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| Agua Clara only has a single row of locks, dictating one way traffic. The old locks all have two side-by-side chambers at each lock |
There is no drama with the mules cabled to the boat, climbing alongside the ship, as they simply aren’t used here. Massive skid plates completely line both sides of the lock. The other big difference between the two lock systems is there is only a single row of locks on the new facility, not the side-by-side locks of Gatun. The facility and the grounds are spotlessly clean but the facility seems to be oddly devoid of activity. The only people we see are several photographers and one security guard.
The boats and gates both move so slowly as to be sleep inducing if it weren’t for the warning bells that could wake the dead, used to signal a gate is about to open. Oddly, the place still seems to be on autopilot. There is a huge control center, much like an airport control tower, on the north side that ominously dominates the area. I’m sure they don’t miss much. Off behind the lock area itself, perched on the hill that overlooks the entire operation, is the visitor center. I’m sure, as impressive as this voyage is, many cruisers are surprised by what they see. Or in this case, what they don’t see.
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| The amount of cargo on the container ship is astounding. |
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| The guide "mules" have been replaced by massive fenders and bumpers |
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| The lock operation center looks like the control tower of an airport. |
By 10 O’clock, we are anchored just several hundred yards into Lake Gatun, and the tenders are shuttling passengers to the many different tours. One of the tours includes visiting Panama City on the Pacific coast by bus. By the way. Panama City, Panama, is almost eighty miles EAST of Panama City, Florida. I wanted to put a smiley face right here, but moving on…
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| Anchored in Lake Gatun. The old Gatun locks are to the left, the newer Aqua Clara to the right |
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| Heading back to Colón. Entering the Agua Clara locks from Lake Gatun. |
As we glide out the last lock before entering the Caribbean sea, the remaining five of us on the top deck chat and talk a little about what we’ve seen. We slowly cruise past groups of lights, mounted on huge, tall light poles, when I realize the last group of lights, covered in metal, bee-hive style shields, has two, huge seabirds sitting it, one on either side, and watching the waterway. It is the first time I have seen adult Frigates, sometimes called Man-of-War, roosting.
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| Frigate over Mexico |
I found a young, gray Frigate sitting on the edge of an artificial grass terrace on the top deck of the Island Princess last year as we entered Huatulco, Mexico. A ship’s officer told me it isn’t uncommon for the juveniles to tire on long flights and take the first available rest stop they see. What’s better than a patch of green in the middle of an ocean? The adults watching the traffic certainly were not bothered by the massive cruise ship in their neighborhood.
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| The lock visitor center overlook |
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Colón, Panama
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We dock at the new Cruise port terminal adjacent to the huge, modern, two-story, Colón 2000 Duty Free Mall just at 5:00pm. All of the passengers who took excursions will meet the ship here, apparently while the rest of us shop wildly in an uncontrollable spending frenzy. Or maybe we’ll stroll through the maze of familiar stores and marquees and gawk at the prices.
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| Colón, Panama |
The huge, modern, two-story, Colón 2000 Duty Free Mall appears to me to be a shrewdly designed, state-of-the-art money separation system. The visually stunning mall was about the only place in Colón those of us who stayed on board really got to visit as we were only moored for several hours. The MS Rotterdam docked to pick up the passengers who had disembarked in Lake Gatun. They were being delivered back to the boat by bus after a day of sightseeing.
There were several displays in the walkway leading to an interconnected building with tables and stalls overflowing with locally produced art and souvenirs. The vendors stood outside in native dress and costumes, competing with the glitz and glamour of the mall for the attention of the cell-phone addicted tourists. But, the mall did have free Internet, where it took us less than three minutes to catch up with E-mails. Time for dinner and another trip to the Rolling Stones lounge, fast becoming our go-to entertainment of the cruise.
We are delayed in departing as the tour bus from Panama City was overdue. We chatted with a couple only moments after they re-boarded the boat. Tired, hungry, looking quite bedraggled, they vociferously expressed their opinion of not eating or going to the restroom for hours. Other than that, he said, it was a good trip.
Time for the Rolling Stones Lounge.
My blog about our trip through the old locks of the Panama Canal is at: https://piddlepaddler.blogspot.com/2024/11/the-panama-canal-cruise-part-3-transit.html
A 27 minute video of the original Gatun Lock trip is at: https://youtu.be/-ouMXldv7zY the video
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| Listen Here! |
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