Topic Tuesday: Panama-Business Hub of the Americas

While Kevin and I were in Panama earlier this month we were able to take a dinner cruise on the Panama Canal.  It ended up being on Valentine’s Day, so we had a romantic dinner for two along with 300 of our closest US Grains Council friends!  

According to The Panama Planner Travel Guide that I received while on one of my tours there, the Panama Canal is #5 on National Geographic’s 100 Journeys of a Lifetime.  It has also been called the 8th Wonder of the World.  It took 250,000 people from all corners of the globe (including Kevin’s great grandfather) more than 10 years to build.    

Today the Panama Canal stands as a monument to mankind’s ingenuity and the power of conviction.  You can see 5,000,000 ton vessels rise and drop more than 50 feet in the locks as they make their way over the Isthmus from one ocean to another.  

According the The Panama Canal brochure from the Miraflores Visitors Center, the French began their effort in constructing the canal back in 1880, but financial troubles and diseases made the initiative fail.  After its independence in 1903, Panama negotiated an agreement with the United States for the construction of the Canal which the U.S. would finish on August 15, 1914 and then managed the waterway until 1999.

At noon on December 31, 1999, Panama took over full operation, administration and maintenance of the Canal, in compliance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties negotiated with the United States in 1977.

The Panama Canal serves as a maritime shortcut that saves time and costs in transporting all kinds of goods.  The 80-kilometer waterway connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in one of the narrowest points of the Isthmus of Panama and of the American Continent.  

Since it’s opening in 1914, more than one million ships from all over the world have transited the  Canal.  The interoceanic waterway uses a system of locks with two lanes that operate as water elevators and raise the ships from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake, 26 meters above sea level, to allow the crossing through the Continental Divide, and then lowers the ships to sea level on the other side of the Isthmus.  

The water used to raise and lower the vessels in each set of locks is obtained from Gatun Lake by gravity and poured into the locks through a main culvert system that extends under the locks chambers from the sidewalls and the center wall.  

Approximately 40 ships go through the Panama Canal each and every day.  It is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.  Currently the Panama Canal is undergoing a $5.3 billion expansion expected to be completed in 2014, 100 years after it began its operations.  This added third lane of traffic will allow the transit of longer, wider ships called Post-Panamax.  This will bring the total ships to cross through the locks to about 52 each day.  

After September 11, 2001, it became impossible for US and foreign companies to predictably get US visas for their employees for meetings in the USA.  A new business meeting and convention center was needed and Panama fit the bill for a number of reasons:  it has one of the most modern infrastructures in the Americas and the highest level of security for both tourists and businessmen in the region.  It is also called the Hub of the Americas, because it has the best logistical connections by air and sea of any country in the region.  It has over 80 direct flights every day, has three major ports on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and is the second largest Free Trade Zone in the world.

Once overlooked as nothing but a canal, this tiny Central American nation of 3.5 million is attracting residents, businesses and investors from all over the world.  The Panama Canal has been such an important part of the trade industry for the past 100 years, I can only imagine what the next 100 will bring!  

Below are the pictures from our dinner cruise through the Panama Canal:

We boarded the boat around 5:30pm.

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.