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Pleasure cruise through the Panama Canal
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Posted by editor Mon Feb 5, 2007 10:59:07 PST
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0 responses 0 comments The many thousands of men who worked to create the Panama Canal, found little or no pleasure in the act of carving the "Big Ditch" out of a jungle teeming with insects, malaria and physical hardship. Many succumbed to an untimely death to complete this remarkable pathway connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean Sea. This engineering feat was more costly than anyone at the time might have imagined, and although the dollar expenditure exceeded the wildest estimates, the human toll overshadowed all else. Even so, generations since have profited by its completion.

Considering all of these factors, the conditions surrounding our recent trip change the entire perspective. Here’s how. We were passengers aboard Crystal Cruises’ Crystal Symphony, a 51,000 ton luxury cruise ship, as it sailed from the San Pedro Cruise Terminal headed for a final destination in Miami. Already applauded as one of the finest afloat, the ship had just undergone a $22 million facelift, creating one of the finest "six-star"ships afloat.

We had three objectives in mind; To revel in the comfort and pleasure of such a ship on an exotic 16-day itinerary, to visit a variety of fascinating stops along the way and to transit the Panama Canal from a firsthand view. Not a bad combination of objectives.

Our first landfall stop was charming Cabo San Lucas, nestled at the tip of the Baja Peninsula. This once sleepy Mexican village has become one of the premiere pleasure stops for cruise ships. It is renowned as the "billfish" capital of the world, leading in sportfishing. Our stop here helped us reacquaint with this coastal playground.

Our next stop before reaching the Canal would be Costa Rica’s Pacific coast port of Caldera, gateway to the smallish country’s capitol, San Jose.

A few degrees north of the equator, the climate is generally very warm, with a distinct rainy season (April to October) and is tropical in nature, making it very popular as a tourist destination for those eager to escape winter in North America. From nearby Puntarenas, it’s about a two hour drive to San Jose through a mountainous route featuring grassy plains, extinct volcanos, rushing waterfalls, dense jungles and the interesting small towns and villages of a very friendly population. Our only wish was to have had more time here. Activities for passengers include everything from whitewater rafting to "canopy tours" (gliding through the jungle treetops) on a suspended steel cable. Costa Rica offered us a terrific diversion and a close look at the reason so many Americans have elected to retire here.

With a few days at sea ahead of us before reaching Panama, passengers relaxed, attended lectures, played bridge, read and enjoyed the sea luxury of just "doing nothing." We also began absorbing some fascinating facts about the remarkable site we were about to witness.

We arrived near the Canal’s entry point and dropped anchor near the Pan American Highway Bridge. We were assigned a transit position and waited along with other ships of various sizes from dozens of other countries. Our lecturers again prepared us for what would be happening during the day with many canal construction facts and transit procedures.

Among the astounding statistics was the immense amount of excavation necessary in the Gailard Cut alone. It has been estimated that if all of that rock and dirt was loaded onto box cars, the result would be enough to encircle the globe at the equator eight times. To me, that seems a lot more graphic than stated as 152.9 million cubic meters of removed material. The Gailard Cut (the narrowest stretch of the canal) is 12.6 kilometers in length and represents 15 percent of the canal’s total length. There are locks on either end; the Miraflores, San Miguel and Gatun locks which raise and/or lower each ship 85 feet in total, along the canal route.
Ownership of the canal was officially transferred to Panama Dec. 31, 1999. They will operate the canal in perpetuity. Plans are in the works to enlarge the overall capacity of the canal in future years with the addition of numbers of longer, paralleling locks. This will make it possible for larger class ships to then use it. The United States is awarded protective rights in perpetuity to ensure its future The levied fees collected are used for perpetual maintenance and operational expenses.

We passengers seemed awe-stricken by the experience, as we certainly should have been, but no simple explanation of the canal, its history, operation and future is adequate without the actual experience we enjoyed as passengers aboard the Crystal Symphony.

The remainder of our trip was spent enjoying stops at Aruba in the eastern Caribbean’s Netherlands Antilles, thence to the British Virgin Island’s Tortola and St. Martens before disembarking in our final destination Miami. In reflection, there is no better way.

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