Its not a trip to Panama without checking out the Panama canal.  This is a true engineering feat which is still considered one of the biggest and most complicated projects ever undertaken.  The canal was completed in 1914 with 27,500 casualties from malaria, yellow fever and landslides.  

It was a dream of my grandparents to see the Panama Canal, which they did finally get to see in their 70s.  It must have been a common dream of their peers, we saw many from their generation touring the locks.

The canal still serves as crucial part of international trade and transportation.  There is new project underway to make bigger locks and canals to accommodate ships nearly twice as big and also recycle the water used to fill the locks.  It seems the canal created an interesting effect on Panama, its diversity.  Panama was easily the most culturally diverse of all the countries in Central America we visited.  People form all over the globe have emigrated and  become a part of Panama.