If you come to Panama, you want to see ships go through the canal. Just knowing the canal is there isn't enough — I wanted to actually see one transit.
Researching ahead, the official Panama Canal site (visitcanaldepanama.com) has a page called "¿A qué hora pasan los barcos? (What time do the ships go through?)." The Miraflores Locks split into morning and afternoon transits; afternoon ships pass after 14:05. With that, I went in the afternoon.
To the Miraflores Locks
The Miraflores Locks, on the Panama Canal's Pacific side, are about 15–20 minutes by car from Panama City. There's a visitor center where you can watch ships transit step-by-step as the water level adjusts.
Admission is 17.22 balboas (US dollar equivalent) per non-resident. I went up to the viewing deck overlooking the locks and waited.
Empty Locks and Electric Mules
At first the lock was empty. Just a long rectangular channel with water in it. Small yellow trains running on rails — "mules," the canal's electric locomotives — moved along the sides. They run cables to the ship to keep it centered through the lock.
Here Comes the JIUYANG BLOSSOM
After waiting a while, a white hull appeared in the distance. The car carrier "JIUYANG BLOSSOM." A large RoRo ship operated by a Chinese logistics company, its boxy white hull just barely fitting the width of the lock as it slid in.
From the deck, the size was overwhelming. Almost no gap between the lock walls and the ship's sides. Controlling something that large to centimeter precision — the engineering is on a different level.
The moment the ship entered the lock, every camera on the deck went up. Snapping photos, all I could think was "this is what I came to see." I'd seen the Panama Canal in news and textbooks plenty of times, but the real thing is on a different scale.