Panamaby Mary Ashcraft
However, leaving all these visions behind in some resonant memory are the young energetic entrepreneurs that are changing the face and temper of the Panamanian landscape. Next year, after ninety-nine years, Panama's close ties with the United States will be broken. The Canal will be theirs, and excitement among young Panamanian movers and shakers is evident.
In the section of the Canal Zone called Gamboa for instance, the 340-acre Gamboa Rainforest Resort is being developed in part of the Soberania National Park, which is a 55,000-acre rainforest preserve. For almost one hundred years under the U.S. military this lowland tropical rainforest has been protected. Now within this unique environment a luxury 100-room resort is under construction with care being taken that its natural surroundings are maintained with efforts toward recycling and waste control. Included within this complex are the old canal workers' villas built in the 1930's. These ample living quarters have taken on a new life with fresh paint, white wicker furnishings and modern kitchens and baths for tourists to rent for as little as $75 for a couple or $100 for a single. The villas are only a part of the resort complex consisting of a main building, ballroom, conference room, spa and all the amenities associated with a five-star hotel. All this plus spectacular views of the historic Chagres River, one hundred hectares of hiking trails through the rainforest for flora and fauna observation and a nursery for exotic and rare orchids. The sweep of green lawn and gardens by the river invite strollers, picnickers or those just enjoying the hypnotic flow of the river Gamboa is only a stone's throw away from Panama City which is the second largest banking center in the world next to Switzerland. This bustling city with a cosmopolitan flair has a lot to offer, with places to stay ranging from classy five-star hotels, among them the El Panama, a Summit Hotel and the Bristol, a Rosewood Hotels and Resorts property, to more modest hotels the Lonely Planet travel guide of 1999 calls "decent accommodations for as little as $10 per night." Panama is no longer some sleepy little banana port, and nightlife swings with rock clubs, live jazz, folk music and Salsa and Merengue. One would have to stay months in order to sample food from the many international restaurants. If one grows weary of Mexican, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Vegetarian, French, Greek Argentinian or Panamanian food, there is always the familiar burger and fries at MacDonalds or Burger King.
On the Atlantic side of Panama is the city of Colon, where the making of a major tourist destination is underway. It is the Colon 2000 project. Up to this point, the most important business in a rather rundown Colon has been the duty-free zone where the second largest duty-free shopping in the world is located. However, maintaining a memory of the old days is the imposing French Colonial-style Hotel Washington with its crystal chandeliers and formal dining room and gardens. The Colon 2000 is taking advantage of its duty-free business and incorporating it in a magnificent shopping mall with a 150-room hotel and a terminal for cruise ships to dock. The boat passengers will be able to step directly from the ship to the convenient mall complex. Along with duty-free shopping will be a museum, culture shows, folklore performances, restaurants with typical Panamanian food, and stores with handmade crafts. By the way, handcrafts made in Panama are of an extremely high quality. In the process, the city of Colon will enjoy a much needed face -lift.
There will also be tourist agents available to arrange sightseeing trips to attractions in the area across the isthmus to the Pacific Ocean and Panama City (a mere 80 kilometers away)--either by plane (20 to 25 minutes),trans-isthmus highway (one hour fifteen minutes) or by train for an eco-ride through lush jungle growth (one hour forty minutes.)
Bird Watching
The Canopy Tower and mini lodge (once a United States Air Force radar station) overlooks well preserved, semi-deciduous rainforest and is expertly set up for bird watching. The tower allows the bird watcher to be in the tallest tree, so to speak, overlooking the forest canopy. Slatey Tail Trogans, Golden Hooded Tanagers and Grey Headed Kites are easy sightings. After a stay in the Canopy Tower, Donald O'Brien, Chairman of the National Audubon Society said: "It was the greatest ecotourist experience of his life." Touring the rainforest
Visiting the original inhabitants
IPAT, the Panamanian Tourist Board, is encouraging responsible tourism in order to preserve the culture and bring income to the proud Embera tribe, a people facing the challenges of a changing world. From a sandy isolated slope in Corotu by the River Chagres, the visitor can take a memorable trip to an Embera Indian village. A half-hour ride in a dugout canoe past thick forest and over small rapids opens up to a stairway cut into the hillside of the village. The Embera are warm and welcoming and are prepared to show their way of life to strangers. Long recognized as expert weavers and carvers, the Embera have a selection of their unusual artwork for sale, and it is the biggest and best bargain one will find. They play music for you and, if you like, will paint traditional designs on your arms with the juice of the Jagua fruit. To quench your thirst, green coconuts full of sweet milk are passed around while over an open fire Embera ladies prepare a tasty lunch of plantains and freshly caught fish served on banana leaves.
Finally, it is time to leave this peaceful village where smiles and gestures are as clearly communicative as the spoken language, board the dugout and go back to a much more complex life. Panama is now on a bold new venture for the year 2000, and at the same time maintaining and incorporating its interesting and colorful past. Oh yes, there are still shuttered windows, ceiling fans and, of course, those hot sultry nights; and you never know, Peter Lorre just might be lurking in some dimly lit cantina. PHOTO CREDITS: Mary Ashcraft |
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The word "Panama" alone has the power to bring alive visions of Humphrey Bogart plotting with Sidney Greenstreet behind shuttered windows over contraband cargo while overhead ceiling fans spin and whir through the sultry tropical night.
The Panama Canal, often called the eighth wonder of the world and a great monument to American Engineering, is and always will be a major tourist attraction. Constructed between 1904-1914, it has provided reliable passage for more than 750 thousand ships in its history. It is so significant a passage that ships the world over are built to fit the dimensions of the locks. Ships are charged a toll according to their tonnage, and the average commercial vessel pays a toll of about $30,000 per passage. The lowest toll ever paid was in 1928 when Richard Halliburton donned swimming suit, swam through the locks and paid a toll of 36 cents. Also it is the only place in the world where military commanders give up navigational control of their ships to any of the 200 expert canal pilots. The Miraflores Locks visitors center is open seven days a week, with bilingual commentators to describe how these amazing locks work while the visitor watches the actual passage of ships through the locks. 
Now great steps are being taken to save and preserve most of the wonderful old colonial buildings that made up the original Canal Zone. Many of the Army barracks, Canal workers villas, officer's homes and administration buildings are being given new life and for the most part will be used again.
Alongside tall shiny skyscrapers that make up the new city are many areas of the old Panama that are well worth seeing. The original city, now being restored to its former elegance, is Casco Viejo. The charm of its narrow, twisting, cobblestone streets, decorative wrought ironwork and overhanging balconies are reminders that this was once a Spanish city. At the end of Casco Viejo is Las Bovedas or The Vaults where a tribute is paid to the French for their efforts in the canal. While strolling the Spanish battlements, one has a 360 degree view of blue sky, ocean and ships waiting their turn to pass through the canal. Buildings where the old Spanish dungeons were have been turned into a swanky art gallery and restaurant. 
While in the area, of major interest is the church of San Jose and its amazing, intricately carved altar. This unassuming little church still has its original altar carved out of gold. The pirate Henry Morgan missed this booty when he sacked Panama because the wily priests painted the altar black, covering what Morgan wanted most. 
The first European settlement on the Pacific coast was established on the site of an Indian village. The Indians called their home Panama which means "abundance of fish," and even today Panama ranks near the top of the list for its deep-sea fishing. The European settlers made up the imperial Spanish colony and the abundance for them was the gold plundered from the magnificent empire of the Incas. They also were not shy in taking their share of rare silks and costly spices from the Orient passing through their port. What remains of that once thriving colony are the ruins of the cathedral where, some say, ghosts of priests still walk. Unfounded rumor has it that the inhabitants of Old Panama panicked on hearing that Morgan was coming and dumped their gold coins and jewels into the waters under nearby bridges. One such famous bridge, the Puente del Rey is only a short walk away from the ruins. The treasures are still there, as far as anyone knows.
To Panamenos, el interior or the interior is almost any place outside of Panama City. Panama is not a large country and getting from one place to another is easy, especially if one flies the small Aeroperlas planes. Short hops by plane can take one to the balmy, picturesque town of Bocas Del Toro for swimming and snorkeling in clear, warm waters, or to Boquete in the highlands where the air is fresh and cool. Boquete is known in Panama as "little Switzerland," and temperatures can sometimes drop to almost freezing during the night, surprising in a tropical country. This is where the coffee plantations are, and strawberries along with perhaps the sweetest tasting navel oranges anywhere grow on the hillsides. 
Since 1923 the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute's (STRI) primary site for studying lowland tropical forests is on Panama's Barro Colorado Island. Once restricted to scientists, now visitors are allowed on escorted tours to this unviolated special world but by reservation only. Arrangements can be made at the STRI's Panama City offices in the Tupper Research and Conference Center on Avenida Roosevelt in the Ancon district. The Center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, but keep in mind that there may be a very long waiting list. Once on the island, master guides make certain that visitors stay on designated paths and Master Guide Anayansi Castillo is there to point out numerous animal and plant life that would be easily missed by the average person. On the way, you may run across an ornithologist from Vermont setting myst nets to capture and band birds or a mycologist from Mississippi studying the sex life of a special type of fungus. Walking the paths in this humid other world with Howler monkeys making an eerie racket in the tree- tops overhead is truly a special adventure.
