Ace and I were taking our morning walk before church and while walking near the canal, we saw two cruise ships entering into the locks. I guess there are not a lot of cruise ships that actually go through the canal since the tolls can be very expensive. In fact, the most expensive toll ever paid was for a Disney ship that went through one time. The cruise ships have to pay for each person that “could” be on the ship whether the ship is full or not. But right now, many of the cruise ships are repositioning themselves from Alaska to the Caribbean. However, there are at least two cruise lines that do take regular trips through canal.
Saturday, we did the tourist thing and went to visit the Miraflores locks. Actually they are just across the street from our neighborhood, probably less than a mile from our apartment. In one of the pictures, you can see our “city” in the background. It has all the “army” looking building left over from the days when the US was here. I guess the average ship costs over $100,000 in CASH paid 72 hours prior to entering the canal. Some can cost upwards of $300,000 to $400,000 to transit the 50 miles or so, but it can sometimes save the shipping company up to $1,000,000 by not going around South America. New and larger locks are to be finished in a few years and can handle ships a lot larger than the current locks can handle. Toured the museum at the lock’s visitor center afterwards and got to see samples of all the “bugs” that live in the jungle. Oh my. Don’t want to go there. Yet, we live surrounded by jungle. All of it is protected by the government to provide a watershed for the canal. Beautiful, absolutely BEAUTIFUL. But don’t want to step in it. And some people actually go camping in the jungle????
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