We were up at 6:00 am on the bow of our ship to watch as we entered the first lock of three that would lift us 85 feet from sea level to the level of Gatun Lake. There was another cruise ship in front of us and a large container ship behind us as we went through. Each lock is only 110 feet wide and 1000 feet long. For us that left very little room on each side. There are two "mules" which are small trains, on each side and two on each side in the back, 8 in all that are attached to the ship by cables to keep the ship centered so that they do not damage the walls. The ships travel through on their own power. It took us about 2 hours to go through the 3 locks. Once in the lake we turned around and came back through the same locks as we were not going through to the Pacific. Ships are charged by size, our ship has to pay $300,000 each time it goes through the locks. The canal has been open for 95 years and runs much the same way as in the beginning. It was run by the USA until 1999 when it was tuned over to Panama. They are building a set of new locks for bigger ships.
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