Panama and the Canal
Trip Start
Sep 28, 2007
1
30
33
Trip End
Ongoing
Panama,
Panama
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
We had a good half day in the big smoke on the day we arrived, which Nancy and I spent wandering down the local shopping district and into the old district. It was quite an interesting day in the end.
Panama City was strategically important almost from the time of its founding [1521?], as providing the port at the shortest overland route between the two oceans. A large amount of the Inca treasure, and much silver from South America's mines, went to Spain via the city and then overland to the the Atlantic coast. This overland route attracted plenty of interest from pirates, and the city was heavily fortified against sea attack. But Henry Morgan sacked it in1671 anyway. He came overland and left with 70 mules laden with silver.
And the ship is free!
After that they moved the city to more defensible position, and this is now known as Panama Casco. This is where we went on day one, and we had an interesting and perfectly safe wander around (guidebook warnings heeded but not justified). In short, it is a bunch of buildings, some very old and quite ornate, others empty shells, plus monuments to Bolivar and important people in th canal business.
We ran into an interesting character who lives in an abandoned shell on the sea front and appears to make his living selling junk from a stand on the beach. I wasn't clear if he actually sold things but he did explain that he had about 60 unmatched shoes on display. He lives about100m from the president.
The Presidential Palace is the other notable point, though only for the giant grey herons on its veranda. Apparently they come from South Africa. There are also local white egrets.
The next day a tour that we regrettably signed up for and which was hopeless, surprisingly also took us here, contrary to everyone's expectation. I preferred our independent wander around, but the highly recommended guide couldn't make it so we got a substitute
Iglesia San Jose
.We persuaded him to take us to the original Panama, as sacked by Morgan, a fair bit of which still remains, although much has been wallowed by the city. The site was closed but the juxtaposition f old and new is interesting.
The Canal
The canal is pretty impressive. The idea is simple, but the work needed to put a channel aross 80 km or so of Panama is staggering. The site of the canal is a low saddle between the two coasts, but the saddle still rose 95m according to something I read (but I am not sure whether this had to cut down to the present lake level). It is 26m today.
You get some idea of the desirability of the canal when you consider that the Spanish contemplated one in the 16th century, and the fastest way to get to California was to take a detour to Panama, cross overland and then take another boat. When the railroad went in, just before the Californian gold rush, tickets sold for $25 one way.
The French had a crack at it starting in 1880 which was abandoned in 1889
Old Panama (cathedral)
. The French were defeated by an optimistic design of trying to put a channel through at sea level, and by diseases. A second consortium was unable to raise funds, and the US bought the rights to the canal. When Colombia refused to let the US build the canal, the US engineered Panama's succession, and then concluded the canal treaty with Panama's envoy, on amazingly favourable terms (Panama still feels let down by this foreign born diplomat), including the right to control a large chunk of territory around the canal. The succession from Colombia is celebrated on 3 November as Panama's second independence day. The American effort began in 1904 and they completed it ten years later. Huge amounts of rock had to be moved, the inland area flooded, and a system of locks installed to allow the ships to climb over the land mass. The Gaillard Cut, which I understand to be the Pacific side lock system, required the excavation of153 million cubic meters of rock and soil, in addition to the 69 million already removed by the French. But perhaps the most impressive part of the effort was the mastery of disease. Yellow fever and malaria were effectively eliminated by an assault on mosquitoes and the installation of clean water systems. Panama still benefits from these measures. Its tap water is safe, one of the few places in Central America where this is so, and it has no yellow fever
Old Panama and New Panama
.Watching the ships be raised from sea level 18m to the level of Lake Miraflores (they then climb another eight to Lake Gatun), but the figures are all unreal. It is surprisingly fast. They flood the lock with 3m liters of water a minute to raise each ship, and I think that the lock needs 50m liters in all (but is never empty). It is an awful lot of water that ends up in the sea after it reaches the bottom lock.
the charge is by carrying capacity, and the one that we watched go through was charged close to $100,000.
