My friend and I decided that we would like to go through the Panama Canal. This was in some respects similar to other cruises, but also very different. We made several stops to visit islands and/or sea coast cities or areas along the route that we were on, but of course, the highlight of the cruise was passing through the canal.

The canal is a wonderful engineering marvel. It was so weird to see the ship rising (or falling) little by little. First of all, the sections had to be enormous to accommodate these huge ships such as the one that we were on. Then to watch the water level change. This took a while because there was such a huge area to fill up or empty out. Actually, it seemed slow, but when one considers the area to be filled or emptied, it was not slow at all. To get from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean (or visa versa), a ship goes up three levels and then is lowered three levels. If I remember correctly, it can take about ten minutes for each level. It was fascinating to be on this huge ship and realize that it is being raised and lowered by the level of the water. Since the canal was built when Teddy Roosevelt was president, I was quite impressed by the engineering minds that contributed to this invention. Even though there is a cost to use the canal, it is constantly in use because ships save much time and money since they no longer need to sail all the way around the Cape of Good Hope to move from one ocean to another.

I went on several more cruises. Some of the places that I visited were Nassau, San Juan, Antiqua, Barbados, Aruba,  Cartagena, Kingston, Cayman Islands, Costa Rica and Guatemala. These are the places that I remember anyway.

I haven’t cruised for several years now, but going back in my memories may just have rekindled that desire!