We cruised under the Bridge of the Americas and had to stop just before we got to the first set of locks, the Miraflores Locks, because we were scheduled to go through the locks with a “smaller” Panamax ship.
So while we were waiting for our turn to go through the locks, we saw huge container ships being loaded with all sorts of containers. This ship below had 78 containers just in the last row!
The sun set while we were still in the Bay of Panama awaiting our turn through the locks.
The lights below are from the construction site of the third canal that they are currently working on.
When it was our turn to go through the first locks, we pulled in behind the red cargo ship.
Since they were pretty wide, they had to be hooked up with cables to keep it from hitting the sides of the canal.
Once we were in the locks, the gates shut behind us. Everything is original on the Panama Canal. So these doors that shut and keep all the water in are almost 100 years old!
You can see in the picture below how high the water will rise in eight minutes!
The first set of locks that we went through were called the Miraflores Locks. There is also a visitor’s center and restaurant there overlooking the locks.
The water has risen up and the front gates will now open to allow us to go on through.
Again we will have to rise up in this set of locks and it will put us at the level of the Gatun Lake.
Once through the Pedro Miguel Locks, we cruised under the Centennial Bridge, up through the Culebra Cut and across the Continental Divide. We got off of the ship around 11pm that night at Gatun Lake. Then it was just about a 30-40 minute drive back to Panama City.
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