5am and we were on deck, in time to see the lights of The Panama Canal Entrance, 40 odd ships and the city of Colon in the distance.

Because we we were on a cruise ship, and we paid per passenger - approx $250,000 compared to about $17,000 for a freighter waiting for its turn .

As the daylight appeared, it looked like an impossible feat to fit our ship into the canal.

The Panama Canal crossing took 12 hours to go up through the Gatun Caribbean locks, raising the ship 27 metres then through the enormous lake system and finally exiting back down into the Pacific Ocean via the Pedro Miguel and Miraflores locks.

We were guided through the locks by enormous Mules - train like engines on rails, no mean feat given there was only about 1 foot to spare on each side of the ship, in the locks.. Ropes have to get from the ship to the mules, despite trying many hight tech methods, they have returned to using a row boat with 2 men.

The Gatun lake system was the largest man made lake when it was built in 1914.
Now Lake Kariba is the biggest by volume.

On board, there were plenty of activities - Starting with Panama Rolls and coffee, later there was a special souvenir sale - souvenirs brought on board from local Panama communities, and special cocktails, etc.

Sue befriended a girl with some birding binoculars, but alas there was not a lot to see as the jungle around the lake system was some distance form the ship. The most exciting was the Tropic birds that followed the ship constantly.