Panama

I woke up to the sounds of blowing horns early New Year's Day (ok so it was like 6:30am, but definitely early for our late night and also for a cruise schedule).  But I was excited to see the whole Panama Canal crossing process.  So out to our balcony I went.  And this lovely, little tug boat greeted me.

And all these tankers in the distance waiting for their turn.  Apparently cruise ships and passenger ships gets first priority since they're on a schedule.

It got lighter out as we all woke up and came out to watch.  Approaching the first lock.  

Taylor has a great time teaching the kids a little about the engineering and the history.  

But let's be honest, these kiddos just wanted to use their binoculars.

And we got a chance to use our sign as we passed other ships.

There are 2 sides to the locks and it was neat to watch another ship go through as it entered, got raised up to our level, then seemed to lower as we moved forward and got raised ourselves.

Here's another cruise ship entering the lock behind us.

And after about 2 hours we were through and out cruising Gatun Lake which is just the lake created by the locks.  Apparently the country of Panama used to have extreme problems with flooding but the canal system has been able to control that because they can easily let more water out to keep it at the level they want (of course they flooded a lot of wetlands to create the lake to begin with).  Each side of the canal has boats coming in to the lake in the morning and then boats going out in the afternoon, so there's lots of waiting in the lake in the middle of the day. 

Taylor's aunt warned us that it would be interesting to our kids one time through the locks but that we should get off at the lake and spend the rest of the day doing an excursion.  Boy was she right.  So off we went on an adventure.  Sunscreen first.  Taylor is the pro here and Isla waits patiently for him and doesn't protest the face massage too much.

Isaac is another story entirely.  Totally funny to watch him melt down each and every time he has to get his face sunscreened.  And Miles didn't even get a picture because, let's be honest, you have to practically hold him down or threaten him to get any on him.

Our first stop was a boat ride around the lake to look at animals.  

Didn't see much but it was a nice river boat cruise.

Amazingly there were a wide variety of animals- sloths, monkeys, etc. right along the side of the river just up in the trees.  The skeptics among us were sure they were planted there.

The kids were just excited to use their binoculars again.

Then we stopped at an island to visit a Native tribe's village.

We sat in their pavilion and learned about their society.  Ok so some of us watched movies on phones instead.

And they danced for us.

And invited everyone to join in.  Isla was all over the dancing.

Miles not so much.

And Isaac was a resounding "heck no!"

It was cute to see Isla interested in and interacting with the other kids even though they couldn't communicate.  Finding friends is more about "you like about my size, let's go run and play".

Then it was back on the bus to drive back to see the locks from the outside.  We got to stop and see the new construction of larger locks.

And then we amazingly got to the locks at exactly the right time to watch our own cruise ship going through the last lock.  We tried to yell to Esther and Ezra who were still on the ship but they didn't hear us.

Pretty amazing to see how it all works from on the ship and off as well.

Isla and Miles were not as interested, but happy to climb on the old locomotive trains that used to pull the ships through.

And then unfortunately we had to wait in basically an airport waiting area while our ship took another 3 hours to get back and dock.  We were exhausted and hot and hungry and this was just a little too much for us at the end of a long, hot, day without much sleep.