Tuesday, April 27, 2010

THE Panama Canal




I never really understood why anyone would want to go see a canal... I mean it really cannot be that exciting right?

Well that is what I thought until I was given the opportunity to spend a week over the New Year's holiday visiting Panama. At first I wasn't very excited for the trip. In my mind the highlight was laying by the pool at the resort for the first few days. I looked at the last few days of the trip in Panama City as being something we were doing just because we felt badly not throwing a bit of history into our trip. It turns out, I was completely wrong.

Although I learned so much about the Panama Canal while visiting Panama City, the one thing that I truly could not believe was how skilled the drivers of the ships must be to make it through each set of locks. Just look in the pictures attached at how close the ships get to the sides of the canal! It's really amazing that the drivers can get the ships through such a narrow opening, given the ship's size. I was also fascinated to learn that the captain of the ship is not allowed to steer the boat through the canal. A Panamanian driver (or drivers) boards the ship as it is entering the canal by a small boat and then exits after steering the ship through. This is done mostly because of the high level of skill the drivers need to have to make it through successfully. Any minor deviation can cause damage to the canal that is very costly to repair.

Enough with the facts that I learned while visiting Panama. The real idea I took away from this trip is to always be hungry for knowledge. One never knows when they may learn something that really fascinates them or brings them onto a higher educational level.

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