I was lucky in my laziness. If I had pressed the snooze button on my alarm clock just a few more times this morning, I wouldn't have seen any ships passing through the Panama Canal.
My Lonely Planet guidebook (or rather Carlos the Mexicans Lonely Planet Guidebook that I took photographs of all relevant Panama City pages when I was with him in Costa Rica, since I myself am not travelling with a guidebook for Central American), advises that the best time to see ships passing through the canal is between 9-11AM and 3-5PM. This in mind, I should really have got up this morning when my alarm clock went off at 6AM, instead of hitting snooze many times.
I finally got up at 07:30, making it to Miraflore Locks on the outskirts of Panama City around 09:30, just in time to see two large container ships passing through the canal, and just in time to hear an announcement recommending that all tourists standing on the viewing platform take their photographs immediately, as the next ships were not due to come through the locks until 14:30 in the afternoon.
I would not have been very happy if I had arrived a little later, and had to wait 5 hours to see ships in the Panama Canal. Next time I will not be lazy. Next time, I will not hit snooze.
