Canal Day: Part Two

 

The mules travel up their ramps via cogs.  Human tourists on stairs.  There are all sorts of tourist facilities throughout the Canal.

Lunch was more pastries as breakfast was still out and lunch wasn’t ready.  Silly us.

Slowly over the morning, my intolerance to the heat got me.  I barely made it inside to the air-conditioned lido before I fell apart mid-morning.  My heat intolerance had stuck with me, and this day it did a good job of frightening me with the threat of collapse.

We took pictures of the passing ships and crews, and they took pictures of us.

   Out on the lock walls in the truly withering heat, ship’s camera persons shot the Island Queen’s transit from every angle…and in the air from a helicopter.

The old style building is the Atlantic side Administrative Center.  The blue and white buildings are Engineering department buildings.

The walkway hand rails drop down on the side of the gates, and the locks move into the walls of the locks themselves.

This type of cogged wheel originally opened and closed the lock gates throughout the canal.

While we rose to the level of the Gatun Lake, the tanker Bull begins its transit downward.

Now a car carrier is heading down while we are almost up.  This is a gravity fed system.  

Even with today’s technology, there are still landslides.  Dredging keeps the canal clear.

New bridge across the Pacific end of the Canal.

While I retreated to a nice cool place, G had a grand time all over the ship and made over 600 shots.  Once through the first set of locks, I took a nap.  That helped.  He came inside, and we sat together by the window to watch the canal and the new construction.  Before dinner we joined a small meeting then ate way too much.  I am keeping track of all I eat, but today had to have been a weight gain day. 

Pedro Miguel, single flight Locks are almost at the Pacific side of Panama.

Dinner in the cool dining room, and after dinner, G was off to the casino while I wrote on the laptop.  I’m truly having a case of internet withdrawal this trip.  We had made a decision to not pay the high fees for internet access.  I write and log our adventures, but instead I don’t know what any of my blogging friends are doing.  He brought a small sum with him to play in the casino.  With this hundred he tried black jack then the Penny Slots.  They liked him this night.

By morning, we were at Puerto Rico.