PANAMA AFTER NORIEGA

                         Some of Panama's Changes 

            How can Panama be only 13 years old if Columbus discovered it in 1502, and Old Town was established in 1519?

            I learned on a recent trip to this Latin American country that Panamanians consider the country wholly free and  independent only from the time when the canal was turned over to them in December 1999. Being such a young country many say the population is searching for a national identity.

            In 1997, soon after Noriega was deposed and arrested, Panama City had 1400 hotel rooms. Today there are over 15,000 rooms and many more on the drawing board.  National and global chains started building hotels a couple of years ago. International visitors increase every year and are approaching a million annually.

            The economy has not only expanded, it has exploded. The canal is undergoing a 5 billion dollar expansion that will double its capacity. Wealthy Americans and South Americans are buying second and retirement homes. Some things are moving a little more slowly. Slums are slowly being removed and replaced with high-rise apartment buildings. People are buying old buildings and renovating them for affordable housing, often getting youth off the streets to fill jobs while teaching them skills.

            Proper addresses are still difficult to find; people still refer to the old XYZ building on the corner, then turn right for a block and a half and at the big tree turn left. You get the picture. There are almost no street signs.

            Traffic grid-lock is a 24/7 problem, although a new two-billion dollar subway system is due to open soon and should alleviate some of that problem. In contrast sidewalk disrepair is common and reminded me a lot of a similar situation in Cuba. It is wise to watch your step!

            Old 16^th century ruins, the result of Henry Morgan’s rampage, are still visible and visitable, standing in contrast to a forest of green, blue, yellow skyscrapers. In Panama City a hundred skyscrapers are completed and another 150 are under construction with still more on the drawing board.

            A new museum has opened. The first international film festival took place last year, and the 10-year old Panama Jazz Festival is going strong. The first micro-brewery is a year old.

            Petty crime and poverty still exist and probably always will to some degree, as it does in most large cities. Old Spanish Colonial Casco Viejo is quaint with its newly cobbled streets, plazas and rum bars. Within its 40 blocks, on the far end of Panama City, there are 7 squares, 6 churches, including the San Jose Church with its golden altar, and a multitude of new restaurants. The area is becoming a popular tourist draw.

            Panama is not a culture built around the dining table. But the old adage of the food being starchy, fried and basic is slowly changing, and will continue to get better as chefs have better access to better ingredients.

            The canal has been the attraction in the past. It is a long full day transit all the way through the canal. Today many large ships enter on the Atlantic side, go through two locks into Lake Gatun and then turn around to exit as they entered. If you want to make the full transit read the literature carefully!

            Today Panama is trying to change and make the once ho-hum destination into a world class metropolis and a major leisure destination, and it appears to be well on its way of reaching that goal.

This is a general overview of Panama City so more detailed posts will follow in the weeks ahead.

PANAMA CANAL

                     The Canal Transit

            At 7:15 AM our Panamanian narrator was already on the loud speaker. He kept us informed all day during the eight hour, 50-mile canal passage. During breakfast we learned that forty ships a day transit the canal bringing 500 million dollars to Panama. In a year over 13,000 ships from 79 countries make the trip. The canal is often referred to as lifting a ship up and over Central America. If all the excavated dirt was put on a train it would circle the earth four times! The Canal saves 2000 miles if ships had to sail around the tip of South America. All arrangements must be made and paid for in cash in advance of transit and fees are based on tonnage; a different fee scale is used for laden ships and for ships in ballast.

It was a beautiful day and we spent all of it up on deck taking it in all the activity. For those who have not read any of the books on the building of the canal I’ll relay a few of the many things we learned.

In 1850 a canal railroad was built over a 300 year old mule trail. In the late 1800s a French Company attempted to build a canal but disease (malaria, plague, and yellow fever), rain, mud, scandal, corruption and the loss of 16-20,000 lives eventually bankrupted the company. The US negotiated a favorable treaty with Panama in 1903 and started construction. The geographically   stable area was a big consideration for the site of the canal.   

In 1904 Col. William Gorges undertook the problems of sanitation and the task of eliminating mosquito breeding areas in the jungle. Ten years later, in 1914, the canal was complete. It had taken 75,000 men to build this marvel, often referred to as one of the man made wonders of the world.

There are three locks 110-feet wide and 1050-feet long on each end of the canal. Each lock has two chambers, side by side, so ships can go in either direction at the same time. Four and a half million cubic feet of concrete were used for the locks and dam. The gates are seven feet thick. The drop and rise in each lock is 28 feet. The water drops 39-inches a minute through 18-inch culverts. All the water in the locks and lakes is fresh fed by the mighty Chagras and two smaller rivers.

The ship captain gives up  control of his ship to a canal pilot before the beginning of the transit. In the lock all operations are under the control of the lockmaster who sits in a small ‘lookout’ building—kind of like an airport control tower. Electric mules manage the lines once they are attached to ships in the locks. Each mule has an engineer sitting in the cab. General Electric built the original 39 mules for a total cost of $528,680. The new mules, built by Mitsubishi, cost  $2- million dollars each.

Miraflores Lake, at the end of the second lock, is a small lake with a yacht harbor at the north end. The Gaillard Cut, named for the engineer in charge of construction of this section, is now 500-feet wide, having been widened from its original 300-foot width. The cut is nine miles long and 40-feet deep.

The cook moved his kitchen onto the deck to provide us a wonderful BBQ lunch. He didn’t want us to miss any of the scenery.

In 1914 a mile long dam was built at the north end of Lake Gatun. The concrete spillway is clearly visible as you enter the Gatun locks. The dam is ½ mile wide at the base tapering to one hundred feet at the crest. It is 105’ above sea level and 20’ above the normal level of the lake. On the Atlantic side of the canal Gatun Lake is 87-feet above sea level. Gatun Lake was the largest man-made lake in the world until Lake Meade was created. It is a huge lake with many islands within its 164 square miles. The Smithsonian has a research center on Barrocaro Island, one of the larger islands. There are 140 miles of trails on that island, and it takes three to four months to obtain permission to land there.

The Atlantic entrance is 22 ½ miles west of the Pacific entrance. Because of the snake like direction of the canal the sun rises in the Pacific and sets in the Atlantic. The cost to build the Panama Canal was $400 million.

I made my transit before the canal control was handed over to Panama and there was a lot of controversy about it at the time. There also was a move afloat to enlarge the canal so newer bigger ships can transit it.

It was a long, hot, but exciting and informative day. I’m sure it becomes routine for the ship’s crew after a couple of transits, but for us it was a thrilling experience.

Columbus once described the Atlantic coast of the canal as a coast with contrary weather as it is most often rough. On our exit of the canal we were greeted with seven foot seas on the breach-- Columbus was right!