December 26. Panama Canal from land.

We had the privilege of going back across the isthmus of Panama (about 50 miles) to the beginning of the canal and see it all by land.

The beginning of the Miraflores locks.

A ship going through the Miraflores locks from the Atlantic to Pacific. Ships go from Pacific to Atlantic until noon. After noon, the ship goes from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

This ship is about as wide as a ship can be in the locks right now. The newer super ships have to wait until the new canal is built to cut through.

Panama Canal Museum. Excellent displays about the way Panama looked when the canal was first dug, how the canal was dug, how it works, and how it will work in the future.

It was raining all day on the Atlantic side. By the time we got back to that side, the streets were flooding.  Earlier this month there were huge floods that closed the canal for the third time in its hundred year history. The water table is still very high.

The city buses in all of the Central American countries we visited use painted old American school buses for mass transportation. They can get pretty wild looking.

Walked into our room and there was a Panamanian flag flying outside our window!

Turns out, the ship was gassing up!