9/7 Riding the Panama Canal

Several months ago, I booked a day tour with panamadaytrips.com after an exchange of emails with Jerin, a former Kansas City native who joked that he moved to Panama City as his Panamanian wife's 'souvenir.' After working in finance for years, he started the tour company so he could share his love and knowledge of  all things Panamian: he said his office was the jungle and that every day he went to work not knowing what he'd see anew. His assistant, John, who was raised in Venezuela, but spent ten years in Miami, spoke flawless English and was an avid birder and perfect complement to Jerin.

Just 15 minutes after being picked up at 7 and collecting the other six tourists from nearby hotels, we were already in the rainforest. The city is so close, Jerin remarked, that he sees sloths and toucans in the city of 1.5 million people. He added that half the country's population of 3.7 million lives within a half hour of the 50 mile-long Panama Canal, much of which we'd see on our tour. Panama, the size of South Carolina, has the third most amount of rain in the world; there is so much rian and it's so common, that no tv station has a weatherman! Panama also has the most bio-diverse rainforest, in terms of species of reptiles, amphibians, tree, butterflies and flora per square mile. 

As we entered Soberania National Park, just 15 minutes north of the capital, Jerin mentioned that the park holds the world record for the most bird species counted in one day at 356. If that wasn't impressive enough, the park broke its own record 11 years in a row!

As we stopped for a toucan sighting and to admire the omnipresent birds of paradise flowers on either side of the narrow two-lane road, Jerin cautioned us to stick to the side of the road as pedestrians have no rights in Panama and drivers use the road as a racetrack. Yikes!

Before 8, we had arrived at the port in the old US canal town of Gamboa located halfway up the canal. A boatman was waiting there to take us on a ride up the Chagres River, the only river in the world that flows into two oceans because of the building of the Panama Canal back in 1914. The river is the most important one in the country because it supplies water and electricity to Panama. 

While Jerin stayed with the van, John accompanied us on the 90 minute boat ride on the canal. He explained that the water level at the Caribbean/Atlantic side where Panama is located was just 18" while it's 18' on the Pacific side.

Dredging operations in the Chagres River take place 24 hours a day. 

80% of the canal workforce came from elsewhere. The Chinese and Irish workers in particular didn't get along well, we learned. After the Irish workers complained to US Canal Authority officials in NY that they were trafficking in drugs by supplying opium to the Chinese workers, 415 of them committed suicide by tying themselves to rocks and throwing themselves into the river after suffering from opium withdrawl.

Being on the boat on the famous Panama Canal was like a fantasy for both of us and had been on Steven's 'bucket list' for a good while.

The crane is able to float up and down the canal when needed to make any repairs to the canal operations. It was built in Germany in 1941 and was used to haul Howard Hughes' airplane, the Spruce Goose.

John explained that grass from Vietnam was used to prevent erosion and a landslide on this hillside.

After riding upriver for a while, the boatman led us into a grove to see White-faced Capuchin Monkeys, named after Capuchin friars after John had made sure that no one would be scared about coming into close contact with them.

John lamented that there's a huge problem with pet trade in Panama even though they are protected animals. The problem is that the authorities don't do much to protect them.

John gave us red grapes to feed the monkeys; it was fun to do that as they darted from one passenger to another after they'd jumped aboard.

It had been a dreary morning with a steady drizzle but that didn't dampen our enjoyment of the vistas that surrounded us. 

A few minutes later we stopped at another tiny island to see baby Tamarinds. We fed them chunks of unpeeled bananas after being told by John to make sure to hold tightly onto the bottom of the banana so one could take pictures while the tamarind slowly unpeeled the banana and ate the soft fleshy fruit. Male tamarinds help raise the young which is rare in the mammal species.

Isn't this 3 month old adorable?!

There were lots of royal palm trees along the banks; they are relatives of the bamboo tree.

John made sure that the boatman didn't get any closer than this to this forest grove because the white-faced capuchin monkeys here were very violent and he didn't want them on the boat. None of us complained about that!

Seeing them at a safe distance was just fine.

This huge machine was a suction dredger; some of the material they vacuumed up was sold to the city of Panama for construction.

Seeing one of the huge ships come barrelling toward us was fun for all of us on board our tiny vessel. John explained that the Panama Canal Authority would charge the boat owner from $300,000 to $400,000 to transit through the canal. However, it would save the owner 22 days in travel as opposed to going around the tip of South America. US naval ships go for free as part of the Torrijos-Carter Treaty negotiated between the two countries in 1977. Under the new laws, some boat owners must pay as much as $1.2 million to transit the canal now that new locks were opened just a year ago to accommodate the even larger ships.

The water got a little choppy as the massive ship passed us as you might imagine. 

This machine was used to dredge rocks to eventually build another small island or add to an existing one in the 60' deep channel. At the peak of building the canal, there were 1500 workers in Gamboa. Apart from the dredging operations, the only people currently working there were staff from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Lab.

I thought we felt dwarfed by the red ship that had passed us a few minutes ago. That was nothing compared to this Maersk behemoth from Denmark that had a capacity of 8,000-9,000 containers. It was registered in Liberia because the registration costs are cheaper there. Two-third's of the world's ships are registered in Panama because of lower taxes compared to the other nations. John said the ship was heading northwest to Colon on the Pacific coast and would be transiting through the new Agua Clara locks. The cost would be $800,000-$900,000!

John next pointed out the 3 toed brown-throated sloth which stays perched in the ceropia tree for two-three months at a time.

We returned to the van and drove next north toward Colon on the Pacific coast; it's the Atlantic terminus of both the canal and the railroad. Colon is the second largest duty-free zone in the world after Hong Kong. Its warehouses go on for miles, Jerin told us. 

Panama is one of two countries we’re visiting this trip that uses American currency because the US has been in Panama since the beginning of the county. The country does have its own coinage, however, minted in the US like 32 other countries.

Agua Clara is the newest set of locks and was completed just a year ago for the world’s largest ships as the other locks built in 1914 cannot now accommodate the newest ships. The old locks are much quicker for the smaller ships.

For the first time in over two months, the bridge was open for us to drive across. It had been closed when a drunk driver drove into the water! Otherwise, we’d have taken the ferry across. John walked ahead to talk with the guard who said he’d allow us to walk across the one lane bridge shortly while Jerin drove the van across as long as we didn’t dawdle and take any pictures. 

While waiting for the guard to motion us to proceed, John showed us a male, White-nosed Baby Coati: a member of the racoon family, active in the daytime and normally a solitary animal.

A black senosar: similar to but not quite like an iguana.

Jerin pointed out the Magnificent Frigate Bird that can stay aloft in thermal gusts of wind for two to three months at a time. It only sleeps in 19 second intervals - I’ve heard of a cat nap before but never a bird nap!

 

For some reason, the guard changed his mind after a good 40-minute wait and after Jerin had already driven across the bridge leaving us stranded. While we waited for Jerin to return to pick us up, we saw a number of gaily decorated Diablo Roja or Red Devil buses also waiting to cross. They used to be the only city buses in Panama City until two years ago when those had been upgraded. Now the Diablo Roja buses are used for inter-city transport. I could see the Blue Bird sign on the side, the same company that makes school buses in the US.

While continuing to wait and wait for the guard to allow to walk across, we saw this huge ship throught the trees.

Interestingly enough, the Panamanian government requires all cars and trucks to get a new license yearly. That explained why we saw so many license plates for sale to tourists by the molas vendors the previous day. I thought it odd to see a street sign in English by the lock but Jerin thought nothing of it, noting it would have been installed by the US so many years ago when Panama was controlled by the Americans.

After waiting for a long time, we were finally given the green light to drive across the bridge where we saw the massive gates up close.

Once finally across the bridge, John explained that the French had attempted to build a Panama Canal before the Americans were tapped to do it in 1903. The French envisioned building it sea to sea without taking into account the different water heights from the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Tragically, 22,000 men died in the attempt, not from construction accidents, but as a result of yellow fever. The Americans needed to eradicate the mosquitoes which caused the disease prior to building the canal. This was part of the French canal.

En route to San Lorenzo National Park on the coast west of Colon, we passed through Old Fort Sherman, an US fort operated by Americans from 1911-1999 and known as the Big Green Lab. It was here that the US did jungle training and NASA test-fired weather rockets.

A few minutes later, we arrived at the very remote San Lorenzo National Park, an UNESCO World Heritage site. 

John, who had had his head virtually glued to the front windshield since leaving the city so he could spot animals high in the trees ahead for us, spotted a toucan. Both he and Jerin had phenomenal eyesight and could spot animals and birds high in the trees without benefit of any binoculars. I was constantly amazed as even with binoculars, I rarely saw the animals they saw! I loved their enthusiasm when they said that when they wake up in the morning, they have no idea what they’ll see in their ‘office.’ This tour was fast becoming a perfect combination for us of an eco-tour, a tour of the Canal and the history of Panama.

San Lorenzo Fort, located at the top of a cliff, was commissioned by the king of Spain in 1540 to protect the 60% of all the gold and silver from Peru that came through here before being put on mule trains for its onward journey. 

All but one of the 18^th century guns were Spanish and were pointed outward against the possibility of being attacked as no one could ascend the high cliffs.

The lone British gun:

These indentations were caused by the weight of cannon balls stored next to the guns.

During the1849 California Gold Rush, Jerin explained that wannabe miners from New York spent two weeks traveling to Panama and another two weeks on up to San Francisco as this was the quickest route as long as they didn’t die from yellow fever.

The area across from the fort was a testing ground for the US military during the Cold War. Agent Orange was first tested there and US astronauts trained in the jungle here in case their landing vehicle misfired and they landed in a jungle. 

More of the fort:

This was a light position during WWI, Jerin said.

In one of the openings that had once housed hundreds of military men, we saw lots of baby bats.

We could just spot a reef not far from the cliff. Jerin told us that there were 35-40 shipwrecks there and that one of them was from the famous Captain Henry Morgan of rum fame. Divers actually found bottles of rum in his ship recently.

It was amazing to think that this fully mature balsa tree was just five years old. I had only ever heard of balsa wood when our sons used the wood to make very lightweight, miniature cars during their Boy Scout Pinewood Derby days umpteen years ago.

Jerin and John made a tasty lunch for us overlooking the fort. Jerin pointed out this tarantula in a tree stump nearby. I was sure glad it stayed put!

Jerin and John could determine the horrendous screeching we heard came from a male howler monkey in transition in sexual maturity. As the males grow, they get kicked out of the troop by the alpha males. There are six howler monkey species in Panama and three in this area of the country. We’d been fortunate enough to see/hear all three of them.

As we crossed the canal on the ferry, we had a great view of the Agua Clara locks and of the Gatun locks located upstream. It takes the largest ships about three hours to transit through the Agua Clara locks. 

The gigantic Maersk ship we’d seen earlier was just going through the tail end of the Agua Clara locks. Maersk is the largest shipping company in the world and is owned by the Danes. If this one were tipped over on its end, the ship would be the second tallest building in California and the eighth largest in the US! 

From a photo of the locks at the Agua Clara Visitors' Center to give you a sense of the magnitude of the new Agua Clara locks: One of the lock chambers is 1400’ long compared to the 1200’ high Empire State building which we toured in February when we were in NY to celebrate our daughter's Nina’s engagement. 

Pretty flowers at the Visitors Center:

Jerin generously said that, since he and John didn’t have a tour group tomorrow, they would take us free of charge for an early morning hike in the jungle and then to visit the Miraflores Visitors Center to see a ship going through those locks built in 1914. This was all because Jerin felt badly that we didn’t see more of the ship’s passage through the Agua Clara locks because of the forced slowdown by the guard over the bridge. He warned us though it would mean his picking us up at 6 so we would have the greatest chances of seeing wildlife! Even though we’d had to get up the day before at 3 and today at 6, Steven and I were all in for an early adventure.

Posted from Cartagena, Colombia on September 10, 2017.