Laninga's Travel Blog

Certainly the Panama Canal was one of the highlights of our trip. After reading all about it, listening to lectures about it, and seeing the old movies about it, the trip through the canal was fantastic. Just seeing the place that had the huge political history, emphasized by the thousands who lost their life building it was thrilling.

Our ship, the Celebrity Infinity, was a “Panamax” ship, meaning it was as large as was allowed. Our ship, 985 feet long, just fit in the 1,000 foot locks… with 1 1/2 feet per side!

We were lucky enough to see the new locks being built on both the Atlantic and Pacific side. They are huge, each gate weighs over 350 tons! Once these are finished, shipping capacity will be dramatically increased.

It will be interesting to see if, and how, the proposed Nicaragua and Northwest Passage canals could affect the ongoing Panama operations.

As usual, all albums may be found by clicking on the Flickr link (lower right) and then clicking on Albums.

The museum at the Pacific side of the Canal

Panama City is a major city

The Pan American bridge

A good view of the Pacific side new locks

Entering the locks

Hooking up the mules

Almost all the way in

Guiding us through the locks

Culebra Cut, where thousands died

“Gold Hill” – workers were told they could keep any gold they find. Of course, there is no gold in volcanic rock….

Approaching the Gatun locks

Original mule

Second generation mule

Look! The Caribbean Ocean!

Watching a huge tanker go through

Working on the new locks