The Panama Canal!

On Sunday, the 28th of December our cruise ship went through the Panama Canal! PJ's grandpa really wanted to make this cruise educational, so that's why he picked the Panama Canal one. It akes about eights hours to go through the canal, but it is actually pretty amazing! There are locks on each side and it takes about 45 min. to go through a lock (I think you go through about six all together). When you enter the canal, the locks close around the boat, creating like a giant swimming pool, and then they fill up with water, raising the boat like fifty feet. Then one side of the lock opens and you go onto another. The middle of the canal is just like a huge river, and you get to float along looking at all of the jungle life in Panama! At the end, you go through more locks, except the water is released from it, and the boat sinks back down to sea level. We spent the day out in the sun, watching the locks and the Panama scenery from a sun deck. That night our boat arrived in Panama, and we were able to go there for a bit. We drove to the Temple, which was, of course, beautiful. Then we drove around Panama City, which is huge, and has some parts which were terrifying! There was poverty there like I have never seen in my life, and our cabdriver said that some of the worst crime happened there. Also, somthing interesting, when our cab driver picked us up a police officer took account of how many passengers he had. Later when we wanted to split up (we were with PJ's family), he had to find a police officer who could record that four of us were going in a different taxi. Otherwise, I guess he could have been arrested for not returning all of his passengers safely. It was amazing the amount of protection we had as Americans. Police officers would always stay near us, watching out for us. PJ, Ethan, Maddi, and myself went and ate dinner on the street in Panama City before getting back on the boat. It was a quick visit, but very interesting! And it was the first time that Ethan went into a different country, so we can always remember that!