Passing through the Panama Canal/Carlos Pueblo
After Cartagena,
Columbia overnight sail, the ship entered the famous
Panama Canal.
Passing through the 1st lock with its own force, and waiting
for the rise
of water level from the nearby water reservoir, all with fundamental
physic
channel effect principle, a small powerful tug boat would tow the huge
ship forward
to the 2nd lock. 168,028 Gross Tons plus the weight of 4000
passengers,
1700 ship
staff, and their luggage, etc. We could
see the old Canal of the original
edition of
1904 on the right and the new expansion of 2016 on the path. It takes
10 hours and
1 million dollars fee to complete the pass. Huge containerships are
waiting on
both entrance on the Atlantic and the Pacific. I proudly pointed out
two
container ships from Taiwan, Yang Ming and Evergreen. The U.S. purchased
the right to
continue to build the Canal from a French company in 1904, finished
the great
construction in 1904, put in good use for a 9000 sea miles short cut. In
1977. the
U.S. yielded the right of the Panama Transit Authority to the Panama
Government.
After the expansion, actually there are two Canals now, the newer
one is for
heavier ships while the old one still for the regular ships.
The Bliss,
our cruise ship, is designed for the Alaska route; therefore, many
Observation area
are available both inside and outside on board. I watched the
passing on
Deck 15 Observation Lounge with U shape huge windows and shouted
many photos
with my two cameras, Pentax and Lumix. The project is amazing
engineering.
It has made the ports of Chile and Argentina on the Straight of
Magellan and
Drake Passage from global significant to diminished area in business.
I saw some
of them become the penitentiary centers for both nations.
The Panama
Canal Transit Cruise is only a minor part of the usage of this waterway.
The most
ships passing through are for the trade of Asia and North America. We
ship the
U.S. products to the Asia and import Asian goods to our market for
consumption.
The Panama Canal has been existed for 105 years and is still going
very strong.
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