In our continued pursuit of doing all the touristy things, It was time to visit the Panama Canal (again). During a previous visit we’d visited the MIraflores Locks, located right outside Panama City. Miraflores, which is on the Pacific side, has an impressive visitor center, and IMAX theater that shows a documentary about the Canal’s history, and some close up viewing of ships going through the locks.

We decided to travel across the country to look at the locks that open to the Caribbean Sea. Fortunately, traveling across the country isn’t as daunting as it sounds – we were able to make the drive in just over an hour.

Panama has a very quaint thing that every city and attraction has its name spelled out in big letters; Agua Clara was no exception. The view beyond is of Gatun Lake, where the boats arrive after traveling through the canal.

The view was lovely, even though it was a cloudy day. We agreed that we need to go back on a brighter day. We can well afford to do that, as admission for us as retired Panamanian residents was $1.50 each.

The visitor center is not as grand as Miraflores, but the viewing area is much larger and more comfortable. There’s also an IMAX theater there showing the same documentary, so we skipped that part.

If you wanted your pictures with the Panamanian soccer team, that was available.

Agua Clara is the newer Canal and was built to accommodate ships up to three times larger than Miraflores.

We were there just in time to see a container ship go through the locks.

Another features of this visitor center is the rainforest walk, where apparently wildlife such as toucans and sloth have been spotted. No such luck for us, but there flowers were lovely.

The whole visitor experience was really nice and well thought out. We’re definitely looking forward to returning.