Howdy all. Before leaving home I had THREE main bucket list items I was hoping to achieve in terms of travelling this year. I added a fourth as I went – well it was something I realised I’ve been hoping to achieve for a few years now and I was going to doing it, all things being equal, on this trip so I thought a little bit into the trip ‘Why not consider another bucket list item?’ So before I talk about the first one I ticked off the list, here is the list –

1/ Visit/see the Panama Canal

2/ Visit the Original Disneyworld in Florida

3/ Get to my 100^th country (I added this one)

4/ See the Gorillas in Africa

So I don’t really know what’s left after this year I will need to come up with some more bucket list items, because I did achieve all four in 2025. And the first on the list was checked off in mid-April.

The Panama Canal is one of humankind’s most impressive achievements. Made with American money and management, dreamed of by many for many years, built on the backs of labourers from many countries in Central America but principally the West Indies over a 30 year period starting in the 19^th century and being finished in the 20^th. It was begun by the French in 1881 but that effort stalled and failed in the end, then the USA, seeing how advantageous it would be for them took over the project in 1904. It was conceived a long time earlier, back when Panama was part of ‘Gran Colombia’, a short lived state (1819 – 1831) that encompassed not only Panama and Colombia but many other modern day countries after independence from Spain who had controlled the region for over 300 years.

The museum in Casco Viejo is an excellent starting point to learn about the history and building of the canal from inception and earlier when it was just an idea, to the present day including 1999, only 26 years ago, when it was handed over to the country that it is in, Panama. Up until 1999 it was technically part of the USA and there were towns and settlements along it where Americans lived who worked/controlled it. Terms and agreements made earlier between the two countries clearly favoured the USA, who had incredible financial gain from the Canal. There was a belief the Panamanians could never run the canal, but 26 years on from it being put in Panamanian hands, they are doing okay.

Building the canal principally was about two things – making sure it was long and deep enough for giant vessels to pass through, and building locks at either end. Locks – if you don’t know, are parts of the canal that ships enter, they are closed off to the direction the ship came from and then filled with water to lift the ship up to the level of the canal, or if heading to sea lowered to take the ship down to the level the ocean, then the other door of the lock is open and the ship sails out. I saw the same thing in Northampton, England but clearly these were tiny locks in comparison from a small lake to a river.

The canal at parts is actually a lake (Atlantic Side) which technically is a dam. It stores extra water as well that can be let into the canal for times when rainfall is scarce because should the level fall too far it would not be deep enough for ships. Most of it was there in some form pre-1881 but not passable. I am seeing a number of different figures of the cost to build the canal from $8 million USD (which doesn’t seem right) to $500 million, worth over $15 billion in today’s terms. It opened in 1914, and sees thousands of ships pass through yearly. Estimates on average say 10,000 to 12,000 per year, 2008 was the peak with more than 14,000.

I could give you loads more facts too but I think it’s time to concentrate on visiting the canal. Now visitors tend to visit the locks and see the workings of the canal, rather than just the canal itself which makes sense as these are the most interesting parts of the 82km canal. Panama is a thin country, and on one side you have the Atlantic Ocean and the port city of Colon, on the other is the Pacific Ocean, the port of Balboa just outside Panama City, so this side is the more visited side.

However, I wanted to see BOTH sides. And I was super excited to take the Panama Canal Railway which runs a tourist train from Balboa to Colon. So warning – if you want to take the train best to do it on a weekend, because we went to the Balboa station but there was no train for the day. Information online and even on the ground, though sketchy, said the train left at 730am. We got there before 7am, there was a train on the platform and it was warming up. Someone came out and told another group waiting for it that it left at 830am. Okay, well another hour at the station.

At 815am I think the same guy came out and at first he was saying 930am. Then there was no train today. It was pretty disappointing I am not going to lie. It is unclear when the train runs. Perhaps there were only about 8 – 10 people there and they cancelled it, but I think it was never running but the communication was all over the shop. 930am on the weekends I believe is a definite departure, but I still can’t be 100% sure.

So it was Uber to the bus station and then a bus to the other side of the country – Colon. It was okay, left quickly, took a little over an hour or and hour at half at most. Not much to see but jungle really for most of the journey it didn’t sit next to the canal, but then we had the last two seats on the bus and I couldn’t get a good look out the window.

At Colon it was another Uber to the Agua Clara Locks, a bit further from Colon than I had expected. Colon has a bit of a reputation as not being 100% safe, I’m not sure how accurate that is because we never went far from the bus station, but something to keep in mind. It was probably 20 – 25 minutes by Uber to the locks, and I should mention it’s harder getting back and we had to get a taxi which was shared with others and we paid a LOT more in that direction as the Ubers weren’t going out to Agua Clara.

The cost at Agua Clara was $10USD, and although most prefer the experience at Miraflores at Balboa, I rather liked the one here. There were a lot of tourists there when we arrived, coming off cruise ships on the Atlantic Coast and being bussed to the locks. It’s quite open and you see Gatun Lake before you and several boats dotted on the horizon and some closer.

There’s an information video as you enter, a few gifts for sale but nothing amazing I guess, and then you can proceed to the Agua Clara sign in front of Gatun Lake. The viewing area of the lake is spacious, people get their selfies but it’s not the main viewing area with is a little further along to the right because this viewing area is at the locks.

We watched the locks in action, which is what you want to see. There is another set of locks obscured from this viewing area too. We were lucky enough to be there when a giant Evergreen Container Ship was passing through, seriously massive! It was passing from the lake into the lock, then the water level was dropped and it went out the other side but there was another set of locks a little while along for it to be lowered a second time, the level between sea and lake is clearly too great to be done with a single lock. All in all the process took a bit over half an hour, maybe forty-five minutes. It is very slow but incredibly impressive.

The bus back to Panama City and another Uber to the Miraflores Locks at Balboa. The visitor centre here is bigger but not much too see because they were renovating or building here. The viewing platform is more elevated, you are I think a bit closer to the locks and we watched a smaller Korean tanker pass through also out to the ocean (Pacific) this time from here. They also have a film that’s a little extra to watch which we declined and a food area with a few options including pizza. We declined the film because it had been a long day and we needed to wait in a long queue for probably two screenings to get it, which was time we could be viewing the locks. This was super busy too to get in, ticket was $17.25USD – by the way Panama uses USD as its official currency although they do mint their own coins, US coins or Panamanian coins are generally accepted and card of course.

The ships seemed to move more quickly on the Pacific, Miraflores side but it was smaller and we were slightly closer. I’m glad I got to both sides. I think go next year or possibly now and the Miraflores Visitor Centre will be bigger and offer more.

And that’s that I guess! Awesome experience and well worth the visit. Two very full days in Panama including Casco Viejo. Didn’t really get to know much about Panama as a country or life there, which was a pity. But a bucket list item completed! And another new country loomed in the form of El Salvador… But that’s for another blog! Thanks for reading today, take care wherever you are in the world and… May the Journey Never End!