The Panama Canal Night Visit

For SHAME!! I'm not done with the Panama posts. How could I be? I could I forget the Panama Canal??



After our visit to Casco Viejo, I went to work the show from 1-9 p.m. David grabbed a cab from the hotel around 6 p.m. and came to show, where he had dinner with me at one of the show's food dealers, and walked around *coughstaringatboothbabescough.*



During the evening, one of our customers who was helping us with the show learned that David and I would be flying out the next day back home and that we had not been able to visit the Panama Canal, so after the show he drove David, another co-worker and me to the Canal.



(Ignore the camera date. It was the 20th. The camera was set to the 19th in error.)





Here we are arriving at Miraflores Lock. There is a restaurant here open until late. We went in just for drinks. Beer for the gents, coffee for me.



The history of the Canal is amazing. Our tour guide (customer of my company) knew so much history. It was so impressive to hear him discuss whatever topic my husband David or my co-worker threw his way. I wish we were as versed in our American history as he was in his Panamanian history.


(image from howstuffworks.com)





A large vessel waits for the lock to drain down so it can pass onto the next level.


A view of the lock, with high water on one side, low water on the other.

Here we saw a tugboat pull up. They won't open the canal for just one boat, so this one had to wait for three or 4 more boats to arrive in order for the lock to be drained down. Notice the other side that held the rather large vessel has been drained low and the vessel moved on.

It was a great experience to see, even at night, and we were grateful to our customer for taking us here before we left on Sunday.