Panama Canal - March 21, 2013

After a day at sea we arrived at Panama City early in the morning.  It's always a shock to see such large buildings after the other places we've visited.

 

This was an interesting building. 

We continued to the entrance to the Panama Canal, where the pilot boarded at 6:15 a.m. and we were on our way.

As we approached the first set of locks at Miraflores we noticed the construction of the new set of locks on the west side.  The plan is to build these locks bigger so larger ships can pass through.  The target date to finish is 2014, but it looked like they have a long way to go.

These little powerhouses (two on each side of the ship) pulled us into each lock and held on to us so we didn't move around.

The trip was slow, so we were able to enjoy the passing scenery and wildlife.

We passed through the second set of locks at Pedro Miguel, which apparently are not going to get a wider set.  Not sure how that will work...

I love this bridge.

At the Gatun locks we saw the widening project again, and again a long way from completion. We finally cleared the last lock at 5:00 p.m. and sailed off into the Caribbean.