One of the two locks at Miraflores on the Panama Canal. You can see an Ecuadorian ship from Guayaquil. The manoeuvre from one lock to the other takes about an hour. The operation requires about 100 000 tonnes of water. Each lock gate is nine metres high and weighs 750 tonnes. The ship is pulled on both banks by 50-tonne tractors - they are called mulas (mules). The tractors are equipped with 75 HP electric motors. The Panama Canal measures 82 kilometres and covers an area of 250 square kilometres. It usually takes six to eight hours to navigate. This waterway was opened in 1914. Since the opening of the extension, which began in 2007, on 26 June 2016, ships with 14,000 TEU can pass through it. To date, more than one million ships of all types from all over the world have used it. - 1977
