A delightful day trip just outside of Panama City is a visit to the Miraflores Locks on the Panama Canal. The Miraflores Locks are at the Pacific end of the Panama Canal, just a taxi ride North of Panama City. At the Miraflores Locks is a large, modern visitor center from which you can watch city block long container ships enter and leave the locks.
At the visitor center be sure to watch the English language movie showing the history of the Panama Canal. This serves as a reminder that trade has been passing across the Isthmus of Panama from before Columbus. The movie starts with the French effort to build the canal, defeated by the thousands of deaths from Yellow Fever, to the eventual completion in 1914. The movie documents the excavation of the previously unheard of amount of rock and earth necessary to create the passageway.
Following the movie, visit the very comprehensive Panama Canal Museum Exhibit. The museum by itself is worth the trip to Miraflores.
After the museum exhibits, you may spend as much time as you like on the observation deck as the world’s container vessels, tankers, cruise ships and the occasional recreational vessel pass beneath. You will be able to look down into the locks as the waters of Lake Gatun flow into the locks raising Atlantic bound vessels and as they empty again allowing ships to pass to the Pacific.
There is a rather nice restaurant from which you can also watch the ships of the world pass. However, to be kind, we will say that it is a trifle pricey.
If you are interested in a cruise on the Panama Canal, ask the concierge at your hotel for help. You can book a boat trip to the Caribbean end of the canal and a return on the Panama Canal Railroad, all in the same day.
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