2005 Panama Canal Cruise -- Panama Canal, Gatun Locks

Updated July 31, 2005

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The primary reason for this cruise, of course, was to transit the Panama Canal. Riding on a brand new, beautiful cruise ship was also an important goal. The photos here are an extensive record of our (exhausting) day, spent in the Canal. This is truly a cross-roads of the world, with many, many ships both in transit, and in port at either entrance. The engineering that made this canal is a marvel, and the setting is other-worldly. In some cases, the ships run alongside wild jungle, with no humans in sight. A website about that canal that may be of interest is: "http://www.panamacanal.com/map.htm".

Of course, we could not see or photograph a lot of our journey through the locks. We were fortunate that another ship was locking near us for some of the transit. The entire locking operation is pretty amazing, involving men and machines. This page contains the pictures we took as we were entering the Canal from the Caribbean, past Cristobol, and through the Gatun Locks into Gatun Lake.

These pictures were taken primarily with our (no longer) new Kodak DX6490, which we love. The 10x optical zoom is great, and the electronics do a fine job of automatic adjustment and flash operations.

Canal map	Break of dawn, entering Panama Canal by way of Cristobol	More ships in the Cristobol area	The pilot boat	Cristobol Pier. We stopped here in December 2004 on our other canal cruise.
Cristobol is a busy port, too.	Approaching the Gatun Locks. There is a ship in the 2nd lock. You can see 2 ships in the left lock grouping.	Closeup of the locks.	Interesting view approaching the Gatun Locks; jungle alongside a cruise ship.	Our companion is approaching. She will be in the lock set to our left.
Fellow passengers viewing the canal from the bow area. Note the people standing on the small tables [it got worse].	Lighthouse near Gatun Locks	Scenery near Gatun Locks	Our companion approaches closer. She is the Ludwigshafen Express.	Mules used to control the ships in the locks.
Looking at the left-hand lock, soon to be filled by the Express.	A container ship leaves the upper lock to our left.	The lock door opens for the Express.	Lock door nearly open...	Entering the lock. Notice the cables that have been passed over from the mules.
Observe how close we are to the lock walls.	The mule steadies the Pride of America in the lock.	The mule attached to the Express. Note the "Lloyd" containers.	Note that we are alone on our side of the lock set. No one came in behind us, even though Panama is a very busy place. (Security?)	Our companion, the Hapag-Lloyd Ludwigshafen Express.
Another view. Note that the Pride of American was finished in a Lloyd shipyard in Germany, no relation.	The Hapag-Lloyd crew is taking a good look at the Pride.	The gates open for the Express.	Entering the second lock. Notice that a container ship is leaving the upper lock into Lake Gatun.	Pilot and Express officers checking clearance very carefully. The same thing was happening on the Pride.
We've risen up quite a ways. Note another ship entering in the companion lockset.	Closeup of the next ship to go in.	We're up and leaving to go into the next lock of the set.	Looking down at the Express, the mule tracks, and the lock control tower.	We have risen high enough to see over the lock building, over to the visitor gallery.
A few visitors watching us.	Doors open for the Express.	Closeup of the bulb on the bow of the Express.	Lighthouse in the Gatun Lock area.	Good old-fashioned mechanical technology.
Gatun Dam holds back the Gatun Lake. The dam is mostly earthen.	We leave the upper lock into Gatun Lake, the first US-flagged passenger ship to transit the Panama Canal in about 50 years.	Leaving the full lock.	The top of Gatun Dam.

2005 Panama Canal Cruise -- Panama Canal, Gatun Locks

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