Fun facts about the Panama Canal

A trip to Panama City wouldn't be complete without a visit to the famous Panama Canal. It is, after all, an "amazing engineering feat". 
I had to see what all this hype was about. 
After a short bus ride to the Miraflores locks, I handed over $8 at the entrance and prepared to be dazzled. 
Show me something good!
I arrived in the nick of time, to witness a ship traverse through the beast of a canal. 

 I watched in amazement as a gigantic cargo ship made it's way at a snails pace through the canal. 
It takes 8-10 hours for each ship to pass through. 
35-40 ships make the 50 mile passage each day. 

The Panama Canal works by gravity. Each lock opens and fills with water. The process is so slow, it's barely visible. 
Small vehicles on tracks glide next to the ships, making certain it stays within the canal and doesn't bump into the sides. 

The most interesting fact I was enlightened with that day was the price the ships pay to have the honor of passing through the canal. 
My eyeballs bugged out as the announcer explained that the ship we were watching at the present was required to pay $100,000 to pass through. Holy schnikies!!! You could buy a house with that much moolah!!
And don't plan to pay with a credit card, unless you want to also pay the 7% charge. Ouch!

It's all based on weight. The smallest fare ever paid was 36 cents, which was actually a man who swam through the canal many years ago. Kinda funny. 
The largest amount paid by any ship was $420,000. It was a Norwegian ship. Go Vikings!
A couple other awesome facts:
The Panama Canal makes $2 BILLION dollars a year!!!
Yep. You've read right. $$$$$$$
That's roughly $5-7 million a day

There is a museum you can visit at the locks, which provides lots of tidbits to fill your head.
It's sad to think that 25,000 workers from all over the world lost their lives while building the canal. The jungle was unforgiving. 

A total of 60 million pounds of dynamite were using to blast away the rock. With the amount of drilling performed, a hole could have been bored straight through earth and 900 kilometers beyond.

They are currently expanding the canal on the Caribbean side, near the town of Colon. This will allow larger ships to pass through. I also paid a visit to this part of the canal. Big machines chipped away at the stone and dirt to create another piece of history. Very cool to see with my own eyes. 
The town of colon was a little sketchy. I swear to you I was the only white person in the entire town.
If you ever visit Panama City, for the love of God, don't leave without seeing the canal. 
Oh yea, and don't leave without buying yourself a Panama hat..... you will be the coolest cat around......