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So here we are in Panama, which is very famous for the Panama Canal. Dave and Emily are a bit geeky and have been superexcited about visiting, but even those of you not into concrete and dredging must admit that the following story is quite impressive...
This part of the continent is what you call an 'Isthmus' (neither Emily nor Dave can pronounce this word) which means the narrowest point of land between two oceans. It didnt take long once this land and the Pacific Ocean was "discovered" for people to start to speculate about a shortcut between the oceans. A canal only 50 miles long (rather than 8000 miles to go round the bottom of Chile and back up again).
It was a crazy undertaking. Both good and bad and impressive and sad. The French initially gave it a go, but being French favoured the "pure" option of an entirely sea level canal, which was entirely impracticable. (The panama continental divide is a range of very high mountain which would require cutting through a sea level) They were beset with difficulties, particularly deaths from Malaria and Yellow Fever. In the end (after 13 years), the French were broke and defeated and the US jumped in.
They opted for a more sensible approach using locks, which meant a lot less excavation, making a canal that goes over the mountains and back down again on the otherside.
We assumed it would be like in England where there are many small locks evenly spaced out, but there are actually only 3 sets, and a large part of the "canal" is a massive man made lake. The Americans finally figured out the link between mosquitoes and disease, which was key to their eventual success. Even so, a conserative estimated is that 500 people lost their lives for each mile of the canal during construction.
It is believed that the then mighty empire of France fell out of power due to their canal failure. And the emergance of USA as a world superpower took a significant step with the completion of the canal, therefore taking control of a chunk of Panama (called the canal zone) which gave them military and political might in Central America.
USA owned the canal zone up until 1999 when it was officially given back to Panama. We had the pleasure of staying in the canal zone for a few nights and it was very interesting to see (and live in) the houses that were built for the 75,000 people who worked on the project.
A few more geek facts for you:
The most expensive toll paid was $375,600 for a cruise ship last year
The lowest toll ever paid is 36 cents, by a man who swam the canal in 1928.
The ship in the photo paid $300,000 to pass through. Sounds a lot but it would of cost them $3,000,000 to navigate around the continent rather than cut through the canal.
So enough history, what did we do?
Well we went to a great museum in Casco Viejo which was very interesting but very patriotic (no mention of the deaths, diseases or hardships, just triumph!)
We went to the Miraflores locks, where an excellent museum is located, we were happly wandering around the exhibits when a call came over that a ship was coming in, so we all ran to the terrance to watch. Was a bit of a scramble to get a view but everyone cheered as the massive ship worked its was through the equally massive locks to decend 8 metres to the sea level.
On another day we took the Panama Railway to cross the Isthumus. Built in 1855 this was instrumental in the construction of the canal. It was a great experience to travel along such an historic route, all along the canal from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean in a hour.
The train leaves Panama City at 7:15am, and returns at 5:15pm. Unfortunatly it arrives in Colon on the Atlantic coast which is described as ´a dangerous slum´ in our guide book. Which we can confrim is accurate description.
So we jumped off the train, into a cab, and straight onto a bus back to Panama City, spending all of 10 mintues in Colon.
So we crossed the whole width of the country from ocean to ocean and back again before 10 in the morning, you cant do that in many places!!
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