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Panama
I found Panama to be full of contrasts. The complete Caribbean feeling of Bocas del Toro's houses, landscape and people in the northeast; the European mountainous landscapes and people in Boquete; and the strong American influence in Panama City, and the wonderful Kuna San Blas. Reena was in her first trimester, Amal and myself took special precautions to make the journey as comfortable for her.
Americans were here between 1903 when building the canal from the French was taken over, and 1999 when it was turned all over to Panama. The French had just finished building the Suez Canal and tried to put in the same kind in Panama, a sea level canal with no locks. They got bogged down because of the deaths of workers from malaria and yellow fever, and they had financial problems because it was being funded by public offerings. So they sold their right to build the canal to the US. At that time Panama wasn't an independent country yet, it was part of Columbia. The US supported Panama's bid for independence and was willing to back it up with warships, so Columbia acquiesced and Panama became an independent country. Later on, the US had to pay 25 million to Columbia for this after Roosevelt admitted publicly that he had "stolen " Panama from Columbia in order to acquire the canal (part of the ongoing Monroe Doctrine). The Army Corp of Engineers built a lock-type canal because the tidal differences are so great between the Caribbean and the Pacific. The unit of currency here is the Balboa, but everyone uses American dollars. They make their own coins, which look a lot like the American, and they use the American coins as well.
In Panama the obligatory stop is the Panama Canal. We went, we saw the ships, we left. Actually it’s quite a feat of engineering, and has some slick methods to speed-up two-way shipping. After the Canal we hit the big Metropolitan Park. Nice naturally wild place right in the city, and at the top of the hill. Reena took a lot breaks getting to the top, Amal did really well. The views of the city was fabulous, we saw a sloth, leaf cutter ants and lots of insects. All this in middle of metropolitan park!
Portobello is one of the most important cities in the Western Hemisphere. It is also the place where Francis Drake, the great 16th century English pirate died in 1595; his body was thrown into the bay. Portobello was to many of the major historical developments in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East during the 16th and 17th century. Columbus stopped in the Bay of Portobello on his fourth journey to the New World in 1502. There had been a terrible storm out to sea and he pulled into the bay for protection; that is how the bay was given its name: “Portobello” or “beautiful port”. He was only able to continue on to Nombre de Dios, which is fifteen to twenty miles from Portobello. But he would have seen that Bay of Portobello might be a valuable to the Spanish as a trading and shipping center. But Portobello doesn’t become important until after the Spanish set up a permanent presence in Panama. Portobello became the most important city in the Spanish Empire of the 16th century, because it was the Spanish administrative center for all of the wealth that was being taken out of the silver and gold mines of Peru and Bolivia. All of the gold and silver of South America came up the Pacific Coast of South America, was unloaded in Panama City, and then taken by mule train across the Panamanian Isthmus to the town of Nombre de Dios. But after realizing that the bay in Nombre de Dios was not as easily defended as the bay in Portobello, the Spanish started to fortify Portobello and to bring all the gold and silver from South America to Portobello rather than to Nombre de Dios. The change from Nombre de Dios to Portobello occurred towards the end of -16th century. An Italian who must have knowwn what he was doing laid out the city of Portobello: the town was built on a type of coral stone that was impervious to canon fire. As one friend with whom I talked to about the history of the city told me “It was as though the canon fire was hitting a giant mattress which soaked up the force of the cannonball. And the force of the cannonball only help tighten, strengthen, and reinforce the coral stone foundation of the city”.
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And it was the immense wealth that passed through Portobello that kept the cannonballs flying. But the more important aspect to remember is what effect did all of the gold and silver that passed through the Counting House of Portobello have on the development of European diplomacy. The most important consequence of the great amounts of silver and gold that passed through Portobello was that it allowed Spain to pursue its religious wars against Protestantism in Europe; the gold and silver was spent on that great transforming human activity known as warfare. The European religious wars of the 16th and 17th century, which laid the basis for the emergence of the modern nation-state system by replacing religious empires with nation-states, nation-states being the main determinate of human identity to this day - could never have been financed without the safe passage of gold and silver from the Bay of Portobello. But the effects of the movement of gold and silver from Portobello to Europe did not stop just in Europe. The influx of silver and gold into Europe caused the value of silver to fall around the Mediterranean region, so that silver-based economies or currencies such as those in the Ottoman Empire began to experience an increase in inflation, and as a result of inflation, their populations experienced an increase in taxation. Some credit Spanish gold and silver for the slow decline of the Middle East region: to make up for the high inflation and their shrinking wealth, rulers in the Middle East sought credit from Europe and, like Latin America today, once credit was given then political and economic autonomy declined, or worse, colonization began.
We walked around the ruins of Fort Santiago, which is located on the mainland and on the road as you enter the town of Portobello, and Fort San Fernando, which is located across the Bay of Portobello on Drake Island. Both of the forts were built to protect the entrance into the Bay of Portobello from pirates and both forts are built in a beautiful green tropical setting. The forts, especially San Fernando, are built on a number of different altitudes. The parts of the forts that lie at lower altitudes are where the Spanish kept their canons; as you move up in altitudes you encounter small forts known as “casamatas”, this is where the Spanish stored their gunpowder and arms. The “casamatas” are located on incredibly beautiful remote hillsides and it was quite an effort to climb up the wet grass to get a look inside the small forts, but the view from high up is impressive as you can see far out to sea. As you stand there looking out you realize how effective these hilltop forts were in spotting approaching ships. Inside the “casamata” there was nothing, the walls were black and the circular stone steps that led up to the lookout posts were crumbling.
It’s hard to leave Bocas del Toro. It’s a terribly relaxing place, and at the same time it exudes a funky, romantic charm that has something untamed about it. The place is filled with colorful characters nursing drinks in dilapidated wooden bars or running rustic hotels on remote beaches. It’s the kind of Caribbean hideaway. And it’s just gorgeous. It has an abundance of emerald islands, pristine beaches, turquoise waters, dense forests, barely explored mountains and rivers, extensive coral gardens, spooky mangrove channels, and exotic wildlife. Four species of endangered sea turtles still visit the waters of Bocas. They come ashore by the hundreds during nesting season to lay their eggs on the north side of the islands and some stretches of the mainland coast. Little Swan’s Cay, really just a rock in the ocean, is the only Panamanian nesting site of the beautiful red-billed tropicbird. It’s just one of the more than 350 species of birds attracted to the region. Sloths, caimans, dolphins, neon-colored frogs, and, of course, lots of small tropical fish are easy to spot in the archipelago. The people help make Bocas special. More ethnicities and nationalities are represented on the islands than anywhere in the country outside of Panama City. And one is more likely to hear English spoken here than anywhere in the country, period. The islands have long been home to the Ngöbe-Buglé, as well as the descendents of Afro-Caribbean immigrants from the English-speaking islands of Jamaica, many of whom came down to work on the region’s enormous banana plantations. Most of the hotels and restaurants on the islands are owned by Europeans and North Americans.
The history was interesting to me because it meant there had been three African communities that had come to Panamá rather than just two, which had been my previous reading of Panamanian history. The first Africans to come to Panamá had come with the original Spanish conquerors in the 1500s; they had escaped slavery and set up towns deep in the Darien Jungle beyond the control of the Spanish. These runaway slave communities were known in English as Maroon communities and they were located far from Spanish settlements. The original Africans were mostly Catholic and have experienced great social mobility in Panamá through the years. The second wave of Africans came during the building of the Canal with most coming from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago; they were mostly Protestant and lived with U.S. citizens in the Canal Zone, they were very close to the U.S. community. The African community in Bocas seems to have come during the early 19th century and before and arrived from San Andres Island, now part of Colombia, and the island of Provincia.
We went to bed by noon and slept heavy until 5:00 and then took some pictures, took a walk around the town to look at some of the old hotels and back streets that were very nice - some of the more affordable hotels are located on the back streets. We walked around small cottages that were tucked into tropical shade and painted an intense blue; the outside of the houses were dotted with florescent tubes that were just being turned on as we passed by. We stopped at an Indian restaurant where a couple sat with a small dog. There was no one else around and there was still daylight; it was 6:30 or 7:00pm and so we ordered: service was excellent and food also. By the time we left the restaurant the place was packed.
We headed to nearby Coral Cay, in a restaurant that was built over the water and watched rain clouds form far out to sea and then watched as the clouds engulfed Zapatillas Islands in purple and blue rain. We raced another boat back from Coral Cay as arcs of lighting criss-crossed the sky to the north towards the Costa Rican border. It rained a little, though the boat was covered in canvas and we arrived back a little damp and thirsty. We headed to the small hotel bar and had some caprinas.
"The Valley" is surrounded by beautiful mountains and is known for its Indian crafts. Unfortunately, the mountain view was obscured by the torrential rains we were stuck in! A lovely mountain town just two hours from Panama City, El Valle is a a great escape from the hustle and heat of the city. El Valle de Anton, known simply as El Valle. has a geologically unique setting- it's nestled in the secondlargest volcano crater in the world- a five by three mile crater created when a volcano blew its top off five million years ago. A lovely steep valley surrounded by jagged peaks and rich volcanic soil that gives way to flowers and verdant forest is the result. El Valle also boasts a near perfect year-round spring climate.
Beautiful homes and mansions line El Valle's country lanes- it's a preferred place for the weekend homes of some of Panama's wealthiest families.
Thankfully, the market was covered. The Indian crafts, tropical flowers, and vegetables made the trip worth while. Just outside of town lies the Piedra Pintada - large pre-Columbian drawings of figures on huge boulders. The local kids are happy to give you a tour for a small tip. There are no official archaeological explanations of these petroglyphs yet- we had a good time making our own interpretations.
If you look at the map, the San Blas archipelago is in the north east of Panama, in the Caribean near the Columbian border. They are truly one of the world’s treasures. For more detailed info search Kuna San Blas on google.
The Kunas operate the whole province pretty autonomously (a little mainland and hundreds of islands the size no more than a football field with coconut trees and fantastic beaches) And a big part of the history is keeping the outsiders out. They have indeed survived Columbus, the current Panamanian govt and maintained a very distinct identity in the Panamanian mix. Which means the US or the Panamanian coast guard cannot patrol these waters and they are used by Columbian smugglers to move their goods inland. What was surprising to me is that most of the Kuna folks live on an handful of islands in the tight cluster while the rest are open to homestead. There are no phones on any except the airport and the electricity if any is generated and only on couple of islands. Their main source of income is bartering coconuts (about 30 million per year) to Columbia and tourism.
A 5:30am flight to El Povenir took us a little airport on one of the islands. A person from a hotel came to pick us up, transporting us to an island, whose name I cant remember. The main attractions include white beaches, snorkeling, fishing, just the setting and the Kuna themselves. Frankly the most difficult challenge to stay on a castaway island besides abundant supply of water and books was keeping our four year Amal old busy. The sun woke by 6am and by 8am we had done enough stuff (including snorkeling, building sand castles) for a regular day and we had another 12 more hours before sundown. The Kuna get us plenty fish, octopus curry, lobster and other exotica 3 meals in a day. We went up some other island a sunk Columbian ship which made for excellent reef. The Kuna travel by little canoe dugouts. The women wear very pretty clothing, the molas and very distinct hand and ankle jewelry. The culture is changing fast, mostly by tourist dollars (they are ´moving out of the hammock´ as they called it) Frankly the thought of abandoning our identity and homesteading on one island did occur to us, but we gave that up after our fourth day.
Our flight back well, we got into the plane after sitting on the departure lounge (a banyan tree) for while, while the plane was delayed due to rain. And we paid for the flight just as we do on a regular bus-- *after* we arrive at our destination. Oh yes, the New year eve was exciting as well. On an another island, the Kuna burnt effigies of the past year, which included Saddam Hussein, Santa Claus, Bush and an old Kuna woman while we drank our Cuba Libro till the moon went down.
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