As you cruise the canal, it becomes more than a feat of engineering: it is a miraculous bridge between two worlds. On one side of the Canal is the bright blue expanse of the Caribbean where each emerald has a story to tell. On the other side is the Pacific Ocean with the lush jungles of Costa Rica and the sun- washed beaches along the Mexican Riviera.

The Panama Canal is one of the great technological achievements in history, an engineering masterpiece. But as you travel this 51-mile waterway through some of the densest tropical rainforests in the Americas, it seems much more than that. Threading through vast canyons and cruising broad lakes that were all made by the hand of man, rising and lowering in locks that move the mighty ship with marvelous ease, you sense the courage it took to imagine such a project.