PANAMA CITY AND CANAL

FROM BEATING DRUMS TO BUSTLING CITY

Our final full day of sailing in the Pacific Ocean along the Central American coasts of Costa Rica and Panama could not have been more serene. The M/S Panorama, sailing under the Greek flag with Variety Cruises, anchored off Playa Muerto in the Darien Province and there we were immersed in the Embera culture, an indigenous people previously unknown to us. After our tour we sailed for the Pearl Islands, for a final swim in the Pacific. A cluster of 200 islands and islets, many uninhabited, the Pearl Islands are 30 miles off the coast and have been a popular location for several seasons of the reality TV show Survivor.

 

EMBERA GIRL

Well, no one voted us off the boat and we ate our final dinner at sea and drank martinis as we watched the sun set, and when we finally retired to our berth the world was tranquil and peaceful and quiet.  Most of our sailing on this trip was at night and when we awoke this final day we had left behind a world of rainforests, exotic animals and indigenous people and arose to a world of commerce and commotion. We had moored at Flamenco Marina on the Amador Causeway in the capital, Panama City, our final destination

SO MUCH … SO LITTLE TIME!

Our travels along the Central American coast allowed us to experience some of the unique natural beauty of the area and now it was our chance to see how that nature had been changed for the benefit of man. Beyond the marina’s breakwater massive cargo ships were awaiting their chance to enter the Panama Canal and the skyline of a very modern looking Panama City glinted in the sunlight. It was surreal. As quiet and remote every other place in Panama had been for us, there was this jolt back to reality that most of the world is a tumult of activity and it is forever churning.

FLAMENCO MARINA WITH PANAMA CITY

We had one full day on the Panorama while docked at the marina before we had to disembark and we took a last guided tour offered by Variety Cruises. In the blistering heat of midday, we were herded into a van to see the Miraflores Locks of the Panama Canal and then a short tour of Casco Viejo Panama City. That was a lot to see in four hours. The magnitude and history of the Panama Canal alone was enough to inspire a second trip to the area and later a brief foray into the Old Quarter of Panama City left us wanting to do more.

THE BIG DIG

Admission to the Miraflores Locks visitor center and museum was included in our $80 tour fee and we crowded onto the topmost of the three terraces that looked down into the lock to watch a number of smaller ships pass at the same time. There were more people crowded into the visitor center to see this engineering marvel up close than we had seen throughout all of our travels in Panama. It was packed and space at the rail for an unobstructed view was rare.

 

OUR VIEW AT MIRAFLORES 

The water in the lock will raise, or lower, a ship approximately 27 feet, depending on the travel direction. Tolls for the Panama Canal are based on the ship’s weight. The average fee is around $150,000, but can be much more for the larger ships. 

Our tour guide told us to take an hour to watch the ships and then walk through the museum which was four floors of displays about the history and workings of the “BIG DIG”.  Little models of past equipment used were particularly fascinating as was the interactive facsimile of a cargo ship wheelhouse that showed the normally 8-to-10-hour trip through the canal in about 3 minutes on screens. Kids spun the wheel and honked the horn incessantly as the cargo ship zipped through the locks.

 

A NEO-PANAMAX SHIP

While at the Miraflores viewing terrace, we saw in the distance a massive Neo-Panamax cargo ship, nearly double the capacity previously allowed at the Miraflores Locks. This expansion of the Panama Canal system is sometimes called the “Third Set of Locks Project” and was completed in 2016 greatly improving the flow of ships through the canal. The massive ship seemingly slid along the ground easily. We could not see the locks from our great distance.

At this visitor center there was also an IMAX theater that was not included in our tour, and there were two gift shops; one in the museum and the other in the IMAX lobby. All the prices were listed in United States Dollars.

CLOSE UP OF MIRAFLORES LOCKS  

FENCE OF SHAME

Back in the van our guide pointed out buildings that were once part of the Panama Canal Zone administration, neglecting to speak of Martyr’s Day a day of mourning in the country. On January 9, 1964 anti-American riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone broke out when several students crossed the “fence of shame” to erect a Panamanian flag in the zone. The fence was a safety barrier along a busy highway that also served as the border between the zone and Panama. In the ensuing clashes a number of people were killed.

Another sight he pointed out was the Bridge of the America’s that crosses over the Panama Canal, connecting North and South America. It is part of the Pan-American Highway system and erected in 1962 and quickly became overcrowded with traffic. The Centennial Bridge meant to alleviate the bottleneck of this necessary roadway was completed in 2003, 9 miles north. We drove beneath the Bridge of the America’s on our way to the old city, Casco Viejo.

 

STREET CORNER EL CHORRILLO

NO MAS!

Casco Viejo means “old quarter” and it is a very popular tourist destination, but to get there we had to drive through a dubious neighborhood. Our guide said we would find the best Panamanian food here in El Chorrillo, but it would be wise to get it “to go”. Once street gangs ruled the streets of this area, filling a vacuum in the illegal drug market created when Manuel Noriega was ousted in Operation Just Cause in 1989. Noriega was from el Chorrillo and his neighborhood was mercilessly bombed in the United States invasion. For years the gangs controlled El Chorrillo and though they are still a presence, many gang members work in the tourism industry as guides. Another notable resident from this still impoverished neighborhood is the actor Ruben Blades and the "Hands of Stone" Panamanian boxer Roberto Duran was raised here.  

CASTILLIA DEL ORO

Panama City was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific coast. Established in 1519 and known originally as Castillia del Oro, the city quickly became the launching point for many expeditions including the plundering of gold and silver in Peru by the Spanish. By 1671 there were over 10,000 inhabitants of Panama City when it was attacked and razed by the pirate Henry Morgan. The ruins of Panama Viejo remain as a popular tourist attraction, but on our short tour we traveled only to Casco Viejo (Old Quarter).

STREET SCENE CASCO VIEJO

When Panama City was rebuilt a few years after Morgan’s attack the city was relocated here, on a peninsula. Today the official name of this section of town is called San Felipe but commonly called Casco Viejo. It is a few miles southwest of the original Panama City site. This old colonial area of narrow winding streets was declared a World Heritage site in 1997 and t is a popular tourist destination of shops, trendy boutique hotels, tapas bars and nightclubs. The architecture is old Spanish and French colonial buildings, many now renovated to their original splendor. The area is quite beautiful, but we did not have a lot of time to explore there.

 

GOLDEN ALTAR

The van dropped us off at the Church of San Jose home to a golden altar that escaped the plundering of Morgan and his pirates through the chicanery of a priest who painted it black. Eventually the gold leaf altar was transported to Casco Viejo. It was a popular stop for many tourists and we were elbow to elbow admiring the ornate altar. Next on our mini-tour was a short walk to the lovely Independence Square where we had 20 minutes to step inside the magnificent Panama Metropolitan Cathedral. We ignored the café just across the street; we had no time.

Afterwards we briefly stopped in a Panama Hat store and then stopped by the famed ruins of el Arco Chato, the flat arch that swayed the Americans into keeping the canal in Panama. Erected in 1678 as the Santo Domingo convent, the building was ravaged by two fires which toppled the tower and the interior walls, but the exterior walls and the arch remained. When the United States was pondering Nicaragua as a place to dig a canal, the very presence of this arch standing for hundreds of years proved there was no excess seismic activity and the area deemed more stable for such a massive project like the canal.

 

EL ARCO CHATO

Our final stop on this woefully short excursion was at the Plaza de Francia which commemorates France’s failed attempt at digging the canal. The economic losses for France were in the billions, but it is estimated that 22,000 human souls were lost while France tried to cross the isthmus, including 10,000 French laborers. Many died from accidents but most from diseases like malaria and yellow fever. The beautiful plaza was erected as a tribute to those lost in this monumental effort. We mounted the stairs that circled an obelisk that had a French Rooster atop it and walked the promenade where there were a lot of merchants selling tourist items like t shirts and key chains and colorful molas, the cloth artwork fashioned by the indigenous Kuna people. Ahead was the gleaming modern Panama City glinting in the sunlight and to our right was the Cinta Costera an odd beltway that connects the Pan-American highway with the rest of Panama City, alleviating traffic and preserving the World Heritage status of Casco Viejo.

 

METROPOLITAN CATHEDRAL

MAS?

That was it for our tour. After milling about the merchant stands for a while the van picked us up and brought us back to the Panorama. We were left wanting more time to explore this area of the city.

Thanks for reading.

Love Janet and greg

FRENCH PLAZA PANAMA CITY

Here is a link to a webcam of the Miraflores locks.
MIRAFLORES LOCKS, PANAMA CANAL, WEBCAM

© 2020 by GREG DUNAJ

I’LL SEE YOUR BALBOA AND RAISE YOU A DOLLAR

PANAMA MONEY

The country of Panama is complicated and then it isn’t. It became a country in 1903 when it broke away from Colombia with the “help” of the United States, which was employing its Teddy Roosevelt “Big-Stick” diplomacy to get what it wanted, which was to finally complete the Panama Canal. The idea had been kicked around since 1513 when Vasco Nunez de Balboa “discovered” the Pacific Ocean and the latest endeavor by the French failed miserably in 1889 because of the high cost in lives and money.  

The need for a canal across the Panamanian isthmus became very pressing to Roosevelt and the United States when in 1898 on the eve of the Spanish-American War, the USS Oregon, the most powerful warship at the time, was stuck in San Francisco and it took her over two months at full speed to circumnavigate South America and reach Cuba. 

With some political shenanigans, well-placed fake news in the papers, a warship off the coast of Colombia and a whole lot of American Dinero to Panama and Colombia the U.S. got what it wanted and basically “took” Panama for themselves, or at least the part called the Panama Canal Zone.

Beyond the Panama Canal and the capital, Panama City, life in Panama is a lot quieter; brimming with rainforests populated by native cultures; or at least what we were fortunate to see while on a recent visit there in February. Approximately 43% of the country remains forested and despite the dubious history of the canal, a couple of coups and brutal dictatorships, the country now seems easy and uncomplicated and stable.

YO, ADRIAN

Aiding in that stability is the monetary system of Panama. Money in Panama is complicated, but then it isn’t. Since 1903, Panama has been infused with American dollars as the U.S. sought to secure the rights to dig the Panama Canal. Since then the American Dollar is the legal tender of Panama, although at the same time, Panama also created their own currency called the Balboa. No, it’s not named after that boxer from Philadelphia. Like the Dollar, the Balboa is divided into 100 cents or centesimos and the PAB is broken up in denomination coins similar to the USD: 1, 5, 10, 25, 50. The Balboa though stops at 1. Beyond a single Balboa the money is all American banknotes.  

1 PAB

There is no central bank in Panama and usually a country will issue their own currency to “influence” the economy. By regulating the influx of the money supply, interest rates are controlled and money is created when needed. i.e. out of thin air.  But, because Panama has no central bank it has no control on the economy. The PAB is tied to the stability of the USD at 1:1 which means you can pay for your $10.00 McDonald’s meal in Panama City with a $5.00 bill, 2 $1.00 bills, 2 1 Balboas AND a fistful of smaller coins. Hand over a $20.00 bill for a snack of Carimaňolas (stuffed yucca fritters) and a Balboa beer, you’ll get back a collection of Balboa coins, but no USD. It's a smooth economic situation.....

In 1941 then President Arias of Panama attempted to gum up the works and start a central bank and issue 6 million Balboas worth of Panamanian paper money. That lasted 7 days. He was overthrown in a U.S. backed military coup and the bank was closed, all the issued paper Balboas were confiscated and destroyed and Panama went back to a smooth economic situation.

The best part about this is that the Balboa, tied to the Dollar, will always look good, not like Rocky Balboa in his bout with Apollo Creed.

I told you it was complicated.

Thanks for reading. 



© 2020 by Greg Dunaj  

PLAYA MUERTO AND THE EMBERA-WOUNAAN

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF PANAMA

Before the Coronavirus Pandemic, life for Team VFH was merrily, merrily, merrily sailing along the Pacific coast of Central America and we were fortunate to visit Playa Muerto. A modest settlement of the Embera and Wounaan, two indigenous people of Panama, is at this remote area on the Pacific coast of southeastern Panama. 

Before there was a Panama or a Colombia, the Embera and the Wounaan lived in the tropical rainforest that is now known as Darien National Park. This massive, protected area forms almost the entire border with Colombia and is so thick and impassable that the Pan-American Highway, that starts in Alaska, and ends in southern Argentina, is interrupted by this UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Darien Provence is one of the largest and most protected areas in all of Central America and sparsely populated. For hundreds of years, the Embera and the Wounaan, two culturally similar people, but speaking different languages, lived a semi-nomadic life of slash-and-burn subsistence farming and hunting in this rainforest. At times they would log valuable timber which they converted into hard currency. All of this has been stopped or is now severely limited because of the Darien’s protected status.

Conversely, the Embera, Wounaan and other native people like the Kuna are impoverished and alarmingly their unique cultures were dissipating with emigration out of the Darien Provence to the modernized areas of Panama. Indigenous rites, traditions and even native languages were slowly being lost.

ECO-TOURISM TO THE RESCUE

Cultural tourism has proved to be extremely helpful in saving the uniqueness of these native people. After creating Darian National Park, the Panamanian government realized that the culture and art of her native tribes was as valuable as the tropical rainforest and helped start a modest tourism project to save these cultures from extinction. The idea though welcomed by the Embera-Wounaan was difficult to implement at first and started very slowly. After all, Playa Muerto is very remote. There are no roads leading here and though hiking in with a guide is feasible; a tourist can make arrangements to spend the night at Playa Muerto; the only reliable way here is by boat.

Sadly, it was a long time before cruise ships like the M/S Panorama began stopping there and the fate of the Embera and Wounaan people suffered. Despite being open to tourism, there were no tourists and no income. Impoverished families began to move away from Playa Muerto again.

It is remarkable how much the community at Playa Muerto benefits from visits like ours. Just three visits a year from a small cruise ship like the M/S Panorama provides the Embera-Wounaan with enough income to sustain themselves, but most importantly it also inspires them to revive traditions like dancing and body painting and handicrafts. Visits like ours have brought Playa Muerto, literally, Dead Beach, back to life. The Embera and Wounaan who live in this area number approximately 200 and theirs is a simple, sustainable, harmonious place and well worth the effort to get there.

EMBERA-WOUNAAN v. KUNA

Our 6-hour immersion into another way of living began when a sturdy wooden boat from the village picked us up at the M/S Panorama and sped us to the black sand beach, timing the Pacific waves so we’d land between curls. It was still a ‘wet’ landing and we had to wade to shore in shin deep water. The beach was beautiful, but desolate. The jungle came right up to the sand and as we waited for the Embera to greet us there was an ominous glowering, untamed quality to it all. Leaning in and murmuring to Janet I assured her the Embera were not cannibals.

Emerging from the jungle two Panamanian rangers or soldiers, they were wearing uniforms, stood off to the side as our guide spoke about the people of Playa Muerto. He told us that they originated from the Choco region of Colombia and the Embera were closely linked to the Wounaan tribe; both culturally the same but speaking different languages. We were told the Embera were the sworn enemies of the Kuna tribe, that they once battled each other hundreds of years ago but that today the conflicts were really about the tourism trade and the dollars they bring. Many of the Kuna live on the Caribbean side of Panama.

Each of these tribes create beautiful handicrafts, which they sell to visitors. The Embera and Wounaan weave beautiful colorful baskets called canasta that are so tightly woven they could hold water and also fashion carvings of animals from the tropical hardwood cocobolo. Both are sold in Panama City and at the airport, but here at Playa Muerto they are much cheaper. At the end of our tour the villagers gathered around with their wares displayed for purchase.

The Kuna are famous for colorful hand-made textiles called Mola. Several layers of cloth are sewn together and a design is formed when parts of each layer are cut away. Later in Panama City we were able to purchase several place-mat sized mola from a Kuna street-vendor

Our guide described the Embera-Wounaan as very short people and the women traditionally went topless while in their village and draped colorful strands of beads around the neck and wore brightly patterned cloths around their waists. They wore their coarse straight black hair long while the men had their hair cropped in a bowl shape and wore red loin cloths around their waists. Everyone, even the children, had tattoos made from the black dye of the Jagua fruit. For special occasions, like the M/S Panorama dropping by Playa Muerto for a visit, the Embera-Wounaan decorate their skin from the waist up in different geometric patterns. The dye is painted on their skin and lasts for a few days. Guests to Playa Muerto can also get Jagua “tattoos”.

PASS THE PATTACONES

A number of Embera women and children greeted us on the beach and we lingered there waiting for the men. All were dressed in native costume, but one of the girls also wore a modern backpack, a reminder that although this was a display of Embera-Wounaan traditions, these people were not living in the stone-age. (Hence the motor launch that picked us up from the Panorama).

I learned later that the colorful beaded necklaces were plastic, although many wore wide silver bracelets around their wrists and ankles. Some of the women wore earrings.   The beautiful colorful skirts the women wore were not created by the Embera but were from dyed cotton fabrics imported from south-east Asia. The Embera originally made their skirts from palm fibers. Though they could speak their native tongues they also spoke Spanish, and this native way of dress is replaced by pants and shirts when they go into modernized areas of the country. Later as we strolled the village of open walled houses built on stilts, I saw a number of people in western dress and shorts. Long heavy pants are impractical in the heat and humidity of Playa Muerto.

So, on this day at Playa Muerto there was a theme park quality to it all, that the Embera and Wounaan were playing dress up for our entertainment. I was reminded of the Old Lahaina Luau that we attended on Maui a few years back. At the time I was at first embarrassed for the native Hawaiians playing dress-up for the “haoles”, and where “Pass the Poi,” was heard often at the meal, but I quickly realized the Hawaiians, like the Embera and the Wounaans here in Panama, were proud of their heritage.

Tourism instills a sense of pride for the people of the Darien and encourages them to maintain their traditions, cultures and languages. Rather than being ignored or forgotten the Embera now realize there are people from all over the world that are interested in their way of life. Just on our little passenger ship, there were people from Canada, Australia, England, France, the Czech Republic and the United States.   

SAFETY DANCE

Typical of Embera celebrations, we were welcomed by several musicians playing percussion instruments and flutes and were led off the beach to a hill where we saw a demonstration of milling corn and squeezing sugar cane. All the while we were encouraged to photograph the Embera. The rangers trailed discreetly behind our entourage. I saw a fresh print of a large cat in the mud not far from where the demonstration was going on and went back to photograph it. The rangers confirmed it was a Jaguar footprint. I had then the sneaky suspicion that the musicians not only “greeted” us, but also served to alert any critters to get away.

One stark difference between Playa Muerto and the Old Lahaina Luau is that this place is real.  In Lahaina there was a stage and we parked our rentals in a nearby shopping mall. Playa Muerto was a jungle and these Embera and Wounaan were people living in the jungle with all of this nature surrounding them. They lived this way, and we were fortunate to see some of their daily life.

After the demonstrations on the hill, we walked to a waterfall to swim in the cold refreshing water before we were led down to the village which was really just a collection of scattered homes with a large communal hut in the middle. All the homes were built high on stilts, several feet off the ground. Traditionally this was to offer protection from wild animals and to avoid flooding during the rainy season. To catch cooling breezes homes are often built with just one or two walls, with the rest open.

At the communal hut we were seated, fed fish and rice, and entertained by Embera dances and music. Afterwards seemingly everyone from Playa Muerto came to sell their handicrafts. Sitting on the ground with blankets the villagers displayed their baskets and carvings and we bought a basket for $30. Later at the airport we saw a similar one for $100.

MAINTAINING A LIFESTYLE

Beyond this communal area, life at Playa Muerto gets more modern. It was like stepping through a portal in time. Over here topless women are pounding corn with a massive mortar and pestle and men wearing nothing but red loin cloths beat drums, and over there is a soccer pitch, a playground with a swing set and jungle gym, a macadam basketball court and a rustic school built by the government that really seemed out of place here.

Panama requires all children to attend 6 years of school; beyond that education is expensive and requires travel away from Playa Muerto, another cost subsidized by the eco-tourism.

Another modern convenience was a commissary that sold cigarettes and beer and foodstuffs, and where personal device batteries can be recharged for a few cents. The only lights in the village are solar battery-powered although they have a gas generator to power lights when necessary. The village of Playa Muerto even has its own Facebook page, where videos of dance parties and photos of players in a sports tournament are displayed!

FACEBOOK PAGE FOR THE COMMUNITY PLAYA MUERTO

Because Playa Muerto is very remote only a handful of visitors come each year and so the tourism of the community is very basic. Still, the revenue generated keeps the Embera and Wounaan cultures alive and prevents them from being fully assimilated.

As we waited in the Embera boat for the right waves to launch from shore back to the Panorama villagers came to play a final time for us. A few girls danced; their colorful skirts brilliant against the black sand.

I was struck by the friendliness and overall happiness of the people. They seemed very proud of their culture and pleased we were here to visit them as if it was as pleasurable for them as it was informative for us. But, the allure of Playa Muerto is not just with the Embera, but the beauty of the land and her remote location. We were only there for a half day shore excursion, but it is possible to stay longer.

A few years ago, as an effort to maintain revenue streams for the community, three bungalows were built for lengthier stays. Amenities are spare but clean and comfortable. The bungalows are maintained by the locals 100% of the money stays within the community.

For reservations and inquiries, go here… (just make sure you speak Spanish) :

PLAYA MUERTO BUNGALOWS FOR RENT

THANKS FOR COMING

The hardest part about seeing Playa Muerto on your own without a small cruise like ours is getting there. It’s either a tough two-day hike through the jungle or a long, expensive and uncomfortable boat ride, but you’ll be rewarded by a pristine paradise of incredible beauty and the brilliant smiling faces of the Embera and Wounaan. They will truly be happy to see you.

The Playa Muerto website gives tips on how to get there as an individual, but they also recommend Ancon Expeditions. Here is their website:

ANCON EXPEDITIONS PANAMA

Thanks for reading. Panama has proved to be an incredibly beautiful, diverse country.

My pictures don't portray Playa Muerto as well as their gallery.... Here's a link to more pictures: PLAYA MUERTO PHOTO GALLERY

© 2020 by Greg Dunaj