Panama
Today we hade time to explore more of the Isthmus of Panama. We started early and left the ship as the sun rose in the east over Pacific. The railway between Balboa and Colon was our aim. This was the first transatlantic railway in the Americas and was opened in 1855. The push to build it was, of course, the 1849 Gold Rush in California.
Instead of sailing around South America and rounding Cape Horn, traveling these mere 50 miles overland now made the whole trip 9,000 miles shorter. So as the train left Balboa we traveled along the Panama Canal.
As Balboa reached the Mar de Sur (the Southern Ocean) in 1513, and later named the Pacific Ocean by Magellan in 1521, the idea arose to find a shortcut to get the wealthy Spice Islands in Southeast Asia. Spanish, English, and Dutch explorers went out to find the waterway, which would bring wealth to their country, but of course it did not exist.
In 1880 the French engineer Ferdinand De Lissups and the builder of Suez Canal, was asked to take the task to build and create a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For about two decades they worked moving material, but nature was cruel and finally they were forced to give up. Yellow fever, landslides and lack of money all made the task impossible.
At the same time, the U.S. military was looking into the possibility of finding a better way to move their troops and navy. Perry, the man who later became famous for achieving the North Pole in 1909 went to Nicaragua to look into the possibility of using Lake Nicaragua as an option to create a waterway between the two oceans. In 1904 the U.S. Army took charge in the building of one of the major engineering achievements in the 20th century, and in 1914 the Panama Canal was finally in operation.
Our tour took us over the Gatun locks and one of the swing bridges and we traveled through the damp rain forest on the Caribbean side. Along the road we made several stops to watch birds and mammals. The slow moving three-toed sloth was, of course, our highlight.
We also saw several pre-U.S. Army camps, which were left in 1999 as the Canal was turned over to the Panamanians. Finally we reached the old Spanish fortress of San Lorenzo, nicely poised above the Caribbean Ocean and controlling the river mouth of the Charges River. The fortress was sacked by the buccaneer Morgan in the early 17th century. Of course nowadays the remains are reclaimed by the tropical forest and both sloths and birds are ruling the area.
Our lunch was served at the hotel and restaurant Melia, a former center for the CIA in Panama and important for the U.S. influence in South America. Today they had a nice setup, but the house probably holds some interesting stories for the history books. For some of us the pool became too much of an attraction and was our final chance for water activities, but soon we had to leave and head back to Balboa and board the ship.
As we prepared ourselves for the Captain’s farewell cocktail and dinner, we had time to reflect on this, our final leg of a long odyssey which has all too soon come to an end. Starting in Valparaiso, Chile and following the long west coast of South America, we have traveled 3,232 nautical miles.
And still now our very last adventure is to sail through the Panama Canal. Tomorrow as we wake up to Tom Ritchie’s voice we will be on the Caribbean side in the Atlantic Ocean, and as I write this, we are heading into Miraflores, the first set of locks in the Panama Canal.
Today we hade time to explore more of the Isthmus of Panama. We started early and left the ship as the sun rose in the east over Pacific. The railway between Balboa and Colon was our aim. This was the first transatlantic railway in the Americas and was opened in 1855. The push to build it was, of course, the 1849 Gold Rush in California.
Instead of sailing around South America and rounding Cape Horn, traveling these mere 50 miles overland now made the whole trip 9,000 miles shorter. So as the train left Balboa we traveled along the Panama Canal.
As Balboa reached the Mar de Sur (the Southern Ocean) in 1513, and later named the Pacific Ocean by Magellan in 1521, the idea arose to find a shortcut to get the wealthy Spice Islands in Southeast Asia. Spanish, English, and Dutch explorers went out to find the waterway, which would bring wealth to their country, but of course it did not exist.
In 1880 the French engineer Ferdinand De Lissups and the builder of Suez Canal, was asked to take the task to build and create a waterway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. For about two decades they worked moving material, but nature was cruel and finally they were forced to give up. Yellow fever, landslides and lack of money all made the task impossible.
At the same time, the U.S. military was looking into the possibility of finding a better way to move their troops and navy. Perry, the man who later became famous for achieving the North Pole in 1909 went to Nicaragua to look into the possibility of using Lake Nicaragua as an option to create a waterway between the two oceans. In 1904 the U.S. Army took charge in the building of one of the major engineering achievements in the 20th century, and in 1914 the Panama Canal was finally in operation.
Our tour took us over the Gatun locks and one of the swing bridges and we traveled through the damp rain forest on the Caribbean side. Along the road we made several stops to watch birds and mammals. The slow moving three-toed sloth was, of course, our highlight.
We also saw several pre-U.S. Army camps, which were left in 1999 as the Canal was turned over to the Panamanians. Finally we reached the old Spanish fortress of San Lorenzo, nicely poised above the Caribbean Ocean and controlling the river mouth of the Charges River. The fortress was sacked by the buccaneer Morgan in the early 17th century. Of course nowadays the remains are reclaimed by the tropical forest and both sloths and birds are ruling the area.
Our lunch was served at the hotel and restaurant Melia, a former center for the CIA in Panama and important for the U.S. influence in South America. Today they had a nice setup, but the house probably holds some interesting stories for the history books. For some of us the pool became too much of an attraction and was our final chance for water activities, but soon we had to leave and head back to Balboa and board the ship.
As we prepared ourselves for the Captain’s farewell cocktail and dinner, we had time to reflect on this, our final leg of a long odyssey which has all too soon come to an end. Starting in Valparaiso, Chile and following the long west coast of South America, we have traveled 3,232 nautical miles.
And still now our very last adventure is to sail through the Panama Canal. Tomorrow as we wake up to Tom Ritchie’s voice we will be on the Caribbean side in the Atlantic Ocean, and as I write this, we are heading into Miraflores, the first set of locks in the Panama Canal.
