Issue 13 - April 12, 2000

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Location: Panama Canal - Atlantic Side - City of Colon - Republic of Panama
We are in a holding pattern for transit of Panama Canal. So again we don our land exploration uniforms and head back to Panama City. This is the third time that we have traversed from the Atlantic to Pacific Ocean. We choose a later bus, and have a quicker trip.  The weather was unsettled - dark overcast and rain squalls all around. We are near the beginning of the rainy season and you can tell that with each passing day the weather is more unpredictable.
Instead of waiting for the end of the line we exit the bus after we pass the Sears shopping mall. It seems that we have found North America if it weren't for the armed guards with pistols and automatic weapons. There is no apparent crime, but prevention seem to be everywhere. Most restaurants and businesses have guards or electric lock on the doors.  We catch a cab and head to the only hotel that we remember the name for: the Radisson. They give us a great rate - and we relax in a bath tub for the first time in 3 weeks..
One of the great compromises of living on a boat is the absence of bath tub. Granted that the water is bath tub temperature, but it is not always appealing, especially in bays surrounding 2nd world industrial cities. Nothing is perfect. The hotel is located in an area that was reportedly built with drug money. There are a dozen or so high rise buildings, many of them empty. But North America has a strong representation here with Hagen Daz, Subway and Blimpy Subs as well as numerous banks with very familiar names. According to tourist brochures there are 160 banks in Panama City. Where this money comes from is not always to apparent, but with Columbia on the southern boarder, the drug money theory seems very credible.     
The next day we hire a English speaking taxi driver to give us a tour of the city. First stop is Miaflores locks, the first set of lock on the Pacific side of Panama. It's a regular tourist attraction with English and Spanish monologue. We climb the stairs to the loft level observation stand and with a full view of the locks we watch ships come and go with the monolog in background giving us a play by play description. Small locomotives on each side of the lock called "mules" provide line handling for the large ships. The mules are electric and run on cog railways. We will use human line handlers when we go through on Thanks Larry on Tuesday.
Our next stop is Balboa, the past US suburb of Panama that housed and supported the Panama Canal. Everywhere are empty buildings and vacant streets. We proceed out a long causeway that leads to Flamingo Islands, an ex Navy Base. There is haphazard development everywhere. The road it self processed in fits and spurts with small sections in either lane missing or uncompleted. Again the aspect of degeneration competing with development live side by side.  
From Balboa we head into the heart of the city. The cab driver tells us that that taxis don't come in here during the night. We feel uneasy with the doors unlocked. It's obvious that the infrastructure is neglected. The building are not attended to. Paint is peeling, where there is still paint that is. The concrete buildings look as if they were about to melt away. Wooden structures with bare weather worn clapboard siding defy gravity as they lean up against adjacent sturdier structures. But the people still seem to have a spark in there eyes and go about their business as if this the city has always been like this and always will.
In middle of the decay is the French embassy and the Mayors home. Two islands of wealth in field of poverty. Panama a country of contrast. Poor and rich side by side in relative harmony. Among this decay is the Panama Canal Museum - though all in Spanish - we could appreciate the scale and effort of the endeavor through pictures, diagrams and maps.  
Our  last stop is the old relic of Panama past: Panama Viejo - in 1635 Captain Morgan, yes the same as the rum, ransacked the city and burn it to the ground. What he had against this Spanish outpost is left to the imagination of the reader. But one would think gold would have been his the reward for his plunder. All that remains is a few stone structures. Through the long abandoned dwellings and churches the shape of the city appears. In patches where the sod has been stripped back cobblestone streets are just as they were left in 1635. A three story bell tower lofts high about the remaining ruins looking in better shape then many of the decrepit building in old Panama.