Thursday, February 21, 2013

The Miraflores Locks Museum


Current location:  Panama City, Panama

Miraflores Locks
By J.P. Doolittle

Our adventure all started when Serendipity invited me and Mickey to the Miraflores Locks Museum.  We were informed that Sundancer (our friends on another boat) and Annie’s cousin would be coming too. A day later, me and Mickey packed.  Dad gave each of us $15. We met up (I can’t remember where) and took a taxi to the locks.  When we arrived, Ann paid for the tickets to the museum and we went to the locks.
The thing was; Sundancer wasn’t there.  We waited for another while, but then the rest of the group came in without Sundancer.  Once we met up and got through the crowd, we went to see boats transit the locks.

The boats were huge! It was amazing how they got through the locks.  I was surprised how long it took.  Once we watched two more go through, Ann bought us hot dogs. 
After that we went to the history section. We saw a model of the first boat to go through the Canal in 1914, the Ancon.  Once we left the history section, we went to the souvenir shop.  I looked around and decided to not by anything.  And then we left, and that was my Miraflores Locks experience.
Here is the website that has live webcams at the Panama Canal.  You can watch us when we go through the Canal on our boat (in a couple of weeks).


Here is the website for the visitor center at the Miraflores Locks.

2 comments:

  1. Hello Doolittles! My boat, s/v more JOY everywhere, is on the OTHER side of the Panama Canal, and we are going through to the Pacific side in a few weeks. Maybe we'll meet in real life! I have really enjoyed reading your blog. I help with a site called "The Monkey's Fist" that collects blog posts, and one of the topics we are asking about is "Kids as Crew." The question is - because sailing is serious business - what responsibilities do you kids have? I just read the post about Mickey shopping with mom - that's a big responsibility. What about watch-standing? Do you have other regular chores? I would love to publish your answers on The Monkey's Fist, if you have time to write back. http://themonkeysfist.blogspot.com/p/future-topics_19.html

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  2. Hi J.P., Nice article. I heard a story about a man who swam the canal. He had people with guns with him for protection against crocodiles. You're not thinking of swimming it are you?

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