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 The Rotterdam cruise ship sits at anchor in this photo taken from the Gatun Yacht Club at Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal. (Barbara Fox photo) |
It's an engineering feat that rivals the great pyramids while paying tribute to ingenuity, determination and spirit.
Richard Halliburton was the first person to swim its entire length in 1928, taking 10 days and for which he was charged a toll of 36 cents.
We're referring to the Panama Canal and the incredible mystique and allure of cruising this spectacular waterway.
As your cruise ship idles in Limon Bay in the Caribbean Sea waiting to proceed through the first set of locks, the sun is rising and a new day begins.
Then, there's the signal - two shrill blasts piercing the warm tropical air - answered by two deep blasts of the ship's whistle and one of those "great moments" in travel begins.
On our adventure of the canal, we sail to Gatun Lake, formed when an earthen dam was built across the Chagres River, making it one of the largest artificial lakes at about 40 kilometres long.
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There are many ways to explore the canal including a complete one-day transit of about 80 kilometres between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in Central America.
Our journey, part of a 10-day roundtrip cruise from Fort Lauderdale, gave us two nights at sea before arriving in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica where we visited Dole's Finca La Esperanza banana plantation.
The next day is the partial canal transit followed by a day in Cartagena, Columbia, island hopping at Aruba and Curacao off the northern coast of Venezuela and a hot, sunny day at the private Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas.
Historian Allen Wrenn gave a running play-by-play commentary as we entered the locks allowing the ship to rise by gravity to be even with Gatun Lake. As most days, the massive locks were busy with numerous cargo ships loaded down with bananas.
Our ship drops anchor about 10 a.m. in the fresh-water lake and transports passengers to shore on smaller vessels called tenders.
Many people dip their toes into the canal waters there, swim or fish for peacock bass right off the dock. There are folkloric shows with dancing by Panamanians and a calypso band and plenty of cooling libations and food.
The Cuna Indians of San Blas offer their crafts for sale along with wood and nut carvings made by the Embera and Wounan Indians.
The first attempt to carve the canal as a shortcut through the Americas was by a French company and ended in failure in 1889. U.S.
president Theodore Roosevelt revived the dream in 1902 by buying the French holdings in Panama. Despite malaria and oppressive heat, work progressed as labourers dug the enormous trench, dammed rivers and constructed six immense locks.
It opened in 1914 and shortened the trip around South America by several months and 15,000 kilometres.
About 14,000 ships use the canal annually, with the toll alone for our ship's use of three locks in both directions amounting to more than $120,000 US.
The trip all the way through to the Pacific Ocean, taking about eight hours, includes Gaillard Cut, a winding, 15-kilometre channel called the ditch that broaches the Continental Divide.
Pedro Miguel locks lower ships to Miraflores Lake where the locks are the tallest of the system because of the extreme tidal variation in the Pacific Ocean.
The 1.6-kilometre Bridge of the Americas is an impressive steel arch straddling the canal on the Pacific side - marking either the beginning or ending of the canal adventure.
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If you sail: Many cruise lines feature full or partial transits of the Panama Canal, with high season September through April.
Sailings are often 10 days but can run to 25 days or more for ships repositioning between the Atlantic and Caribbean waters and the Pacific and Alaska in spring and fall, and on world cruise itineraries.
Lines visiting the canal include Carnival Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises, Princess Cruises, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, Royal Caribbean International, Seabourn Cruise Line, Silversea Cruises and Windstar Cruises.
Cruise Lines International Association (www.cruising.org) is a great resource for researching itineraries and web links for the lines.
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Writers Jim and Barb Fox can be reached at outtosea50@hotmail.com