Welcome to a special ' Panama Canal' edition of the blog. We were only in Panama for 4 days (in our rush to get to Colombia) and apart from my first glass of bubbly in 4 months and a questionable haircut the canel was the highlight.

Here a are a couple of canal facts:

- The first boat pictured paid $100k to pass through the canal. Tarifs are calculated on weight, the lowest being 36 cents paid by a swimmer in the early 1930's
- In the morning boats travel from the Atlantic to the Pacific and vice versa during the afternoon.
- The canal was completed in 1914 and in 1999 responsibilty for it's running passed from the U.S. to Panama.
- Everytime a boat passes through, 52m gallons of freshwater are pumped into the sea.
- An ongoing widening project has lead to several archeological discoveries. The most significant calls into question current theories around the age on the Isthmus and it's role in bringing about the ice age.
- The gift shop sells Panama canal T-Shirts.

Enjoy the photos...