We decide on the grand tour of Panama with stops at one of the locks and a boat trip on Lake Gatun. We drive through Colon one of panamas two major cities. We pass the mixture of a modern business district, some very wealthy areas and a lot of slums.

Our guide tells about the country and its history especially the building of the canal. As our bus drives through the countryside, we pass small villages and plantations. Many of the buildings were left over from the American ownership of the canal zone (turned over to Panama in 1999). Some of the barracks have been made into civilian housing and swimming pools and a golf course have been converted to public use. .

We pass major construction sites where a new lock is being built so the canal can handle the monster bulk carriers, container ships and cruise ships that now have to either travel around South America or off-load on one coast. The original canal was completed in 1914 and according to our guide building the canal was the equivalent of building 63 great pyramids. .

We stop at the control tower of the Gatun locks to watch the operation of the canal. We are lucky enough to arrive when two ships are in the locks, one heading north to the Atlantic and the other heading south to the Pacific – the canal does not run east-west as many of us assume. Watching how the locks operate is fascinating, the opening of the gates, the opening of flooding chambers, especially with two ships heading in different directions. Tolls are calculated in various ways and containerships are charged for each container – toll for a big fully-laden container ship can run half-a-million dollars. .

After reluctantly leaving the lock command center we travel to the Melia hotel on Gatun Lake for lunch. Then we board a boat for a trip on the lake. Since the lake is man-made, it is filled with tree stumps, the ruins of drowned villages and other structures. We stop at an Embara village one of the indigenous tribes of Panama), mainly so they can sells us souvenirs. It’s not a hard sell and the kids are incredibly cute.