Bienvenidos a Panama

Hola family, I'm writing you from the Panama Canal. It takes about 8 hours to go through and we've gone through a bunch of locks (the tanks that fill up and move the ship). Now we're in one of the man-made lakes which is huge. You wouldn't even realize the lake was man-made if it weren't for the locks we had to go through to get here. There's a bunch of small, densely forested islands in the water and for whatever reason I had imaged Lake Tahoe style water when they said lakes but no it's more like muddy, brown water. Over the next few days I'll just be packing and hanging out. They have random workshops we can attend but I think I'll mainly just finish things up and hang out. The ship will be getting into the port around 8am but I won't be alllowed off until 1 or 2 o'clock but I'll be back in the US soon! Everyone's getting a bit nostalgic which is sweet and sad though I'm still looking forward to being home. I can't wait to decorate for Christmas and everything. I hope you're all doing well.