Gatún Locks

On the Pacific side of the Panama Canal it takes two sets of locks, Miraflores and Pedro Miguel, to raise or lower ships 85 feet (26 meters). Gatún Locks, on the Caribbean side, do the job by themselves. Each lock chamber is the same size as those on the Pacific—1,000 by 110 feet (almost 305 by 34 meters)—but there are three pairs of them on this side, versus two (at Miraflores) and one (Pedro Miguel) on the Pacific. That makes Gatún Locks absolutely massive, a little less than a mile (more than 1.5 kilometers) from end to end. All this is by way of saying that the Gatún Locks are an especially impressive sight. An observation platform up a long flight of stairs gives an excellent view of the locks, the Caribbean entrance to the canal, and Lago Gatún.

There’s another observation spot downstairs, next to a building on the edge of the locks. It has a small scale model of the entire canal. Bathrooms for tourists are in the building behind the model.

The locks are open to visitors 9 a.m.–4 p.m. seven days a week. The number of tourists visiting the locks was increasing at the time of writing, but the free bilingual talks on the canal offered regularly by the Panama Canal Authority at Miraflores were still sporadic here. Best bets are Thursday, the occasional Friday, and whenever a cruise ship disgorges its passengers for a tour of the locks. Contact the Panama Canal Authority Guide Service at Miraflores (tel. 276-8325 or 276-3187, cwm@pancanal.com, www.pancanal.com) for information on the current guide schedule at Gatún Locks. Call at least a week ahead of time to arrange a tour.

If time and transportation allow, take a quick spin through the townsite of Gatún, next to the locks. The area is still under control of the Panama Canal Authority, and during my last visit it was still being well maintained—the grass was neatly cut, and the old houses and employee facilities were still in pretty good shape. A visit will give a taste of what life in the old Canal Zone looked like.