Visiting the Panama Canal on my 40th Birthday

It's still hard to believe that I just recently turned 40! I still feel like I shouldn't really be that old, but maybe having a 3 year old around makes me still feel youthful! 40 years ago, I was born on my dad's 25th birthday. This year, he turned 65 while I turned 40. It was a fun time for us to celebrate and we decided to meet in Panama City for a vacation - each of us traveling 7 hours to get there.

Happy birthday to us!

My dad's dream has always been to see the Panama Canal, so we decided to do that on our birthday. We were told to arrive early so we could see the boats go through. We got there right at 9:00 and the last boat was just making its way into the Locks...on the other side of the building. We were able to see some of the workings of the canal, but I wish we could have had a better view!

Checking out how far up the boats are raised!

After you watch the boats going through the Miraflores Locks, you can go to the museum. This is a three story building where each level has some different information. The first floor has a lot of the history and information about how it was constructed. Going to the second floor, you see a lot of animals, fish, and insects that have been found around the canal area. The fish are in tanks, but the others are either pictures or dead insects. On the top floor, you can see a few models of ships and a few hands on activities. You can pretend to be a captain going through the canal with TV screens making it feel like you are in a boat.

A large ship entering the canal.

The last part of the museum is a video that lasts about 12 minutes and talks about the canal. It explains some about how the canal was built, the different parts of the canal, and how it works. It is an interesting video available in English and Spanish each hour.

The same ship and tug boats exiting the Miraflores Locks.

The canal was constructed to raise the boats from sea level up to the level of the lake in the middle of Panama. Boats can now pay a huge fee to cut through Panama instead of going all the way down around the tip of South America. There is another set of Locks that was opened in 2016 that allows for larger and heavier ships and it is visible in the top left corner of some of the pictures.

We had a great time this last week and experienced a lot, including a 5.3 earthquake while in an apartment on the 37th floor of the building! We also ate out a lot at American restaurants, shopped at huge malls, sat in a lot of traffic, saw some monkeys and a Harpy Eagle at the metropolitan park, and did much more! I hope to post about more of our time in Panama City in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back!

If you're interested in a video through the whole canal in time lapse, check out this 7 minute YouTube video below:

And another on how the canal works that is 1 minute long:

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