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Panama Canal (by Kaylee)

3/18/2018

3 Comments

 
In the year 1880, the idea of building the canal came into reality when the French made a treaty with Gran Colombia (Panama was a part of Colombia at the time) to dig a long trench through the skinniest part of the country. However, the french lost all the money they needed and everyone got sick so they where forced to abandon their work. Before the canal started, it was just a footpath used by the Indigenous. It then became a railroad, and finally, a canal. The U.S picked up the work of the French and made a treaty with Panama a week or so after they declared their independence from Colombia. They built the canal with three sets of ‘ship steps’ or ‘locks’. These locks are pretty much big rectangular prisms that drain and fill up with water to allow the ships to go up into the lake that is in the heart of panama and then back down to sea level. Mom, Dad, a friend and I all went to Panama City (witch is on the Pacific side) to the the first (or last) set of locks called Miraflores. The canal is approximately 80 kilometers long which is about 50 miles. The types of ships that go trough the canal are car carriers, tankers, cargo ships, fishing boats, sail boats, and cruise ships. Do I want to go through the Canal? Maybe if I was on a cruse ship or one of the bigger ships where I could see more, but on our little sail boat, I would feel like a mouse and may still get sea sick. The panama canal has just opened its new locks which are bigger and can fit the newer and bigger boats. Maybe someday they’ll make a cool crane sort of thing that lifts the boat up and over the land from one ocean to the next.
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3 Comments
Roger anderson
3/27/2018 07:17:46 am

Great Blog Kaylee. Keep up the good work. I especially liked your ride in the dugout canoe. Those canoes plied the Caribbean for almost seven thousand years before the Europeans arrived. Some big enough to carry 100 or more people. But, no historical record of sails. They only paddled the canoes.

Ask your parents if I can join you for a passage once you are back in Florida.

Roger

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lizbeth
4/4/2018 11:50:07 am

Thanks for all the updates! The Panama Canal looks amazing, huge, and deep! Did your sailboat go through the locks?

I'm curious about what you mean by traps in the coral where you may get stuck when you snorkel? Are these areas where the waves may pull you to close to the coral? Or something different.

Hope ya'll are having a great week!! Tell everyone hi!
- Lizbeth and Martha Childs

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Danielle
4/7/2018 03:43:13 pm

Ha! I had the same question about the 'traps'. She explained it to me as when they swim into a shallow or dead-end spot and have to turn around to get out without touching anything. And, no, we did not take our boat through the Canal. It would cost about $2.5k each way. We took a land based trip across the isthmus for a 3-day visit to Panama City and the Canal. Thanks for keeping up with us. See you this summer!
Danielle

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