On the first day I did a tour to the Miraflores lockers of the Panam Canal. Really impressive to see a ship going through there. I have seen the movies before – but it is different if you are standing there! There was also a museum and a movie about the Panama Canal – and I have to admit it is really impressive.
I took some fotos every minute or so when the ship went through and I’m trying to make a movie out of it (later……..).
Then we (the tour) went to Amador in order to have a nice view of the city skyline.
We also went to the old town – but for me that wasn’t that impressive – just a lot of very old buildings 🙂
The next day I took a tour to the canal itself. A taxi brough us to Gamboa – where first of all I was impressed with that hotel (you will see in the pictures) – REALLY nice 🙂
Then we got onto a speedboat and navigated across lake gatun. Well, only the “small part” – but this was already huge. Considering that all this little islands once where mountain-tops. The whole lake “man-made” (second biggest man-made lake in the world after lake Mead if I remember correctly). And I have seen on my GPS that the “real” lake is further away – we just saw maybe 5% of it! IMPRESSIVE!!!
The lake was created between 1907 and 1913 by the building of the Gatun Dam across the Chagres River. At the time it was created, Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world, and the dam was the largest dam on earth.
We went around and searched for animals (which were stuck on these mountain-tops). Originally there was an island: “Monkey Island” (this was the reason for me to book the tour – anyone who know the PC-Game from the 90s knows what I mean 🙂 ) – which was an Island where a lot of monkeys where more or less trapped. But in the meantime there is way off the island and the monkeys left…
Still, we did see a monkey, crocodiles, sloughs, turtles, etc… but for me the lake and the big tanks going across were more interesting….
Again, a fantastic day which I don’t want to miss! Navigating on the panama canal!!!!
