“Hey Justin, look there is a crocodile.” This was certainly not what I was expecting. “Sometimes they drown,” continued Louis, my wonderful, amusing and insightful guide.“Sometimes they are lucky and survive. Sometimes they make it out to sea.” “Not so good for the locals and tourists on the beach,” I quipped. Louis nodded. We are at the world’s most famous shortcut, the 80-kilometre-long Panama Canal. More specifically the Agua Clara locks on the eastern end of the isthmus of Panama.
The new set of locks – a series of three basins each 1,400 feet long – have allowed ships one and a half times bigger and carrying twice the cargo (up to 13,000 containers) to pass through the Panama Canal. The statistics of the canal are impressive. The new lock of 2016 is 40% bigger than the original of 1914. It takes a big container two to three hours to clear the three different locks/basins and about ten hours to clear the whole canal (compared to two to three weeks to clear the tip of South America). A large container ship costs about $600,000 to transit through the canal (although what percentage goes to the 150 workers, hopefully Panamanian, to ensure successful transit of a ship I am not sure). Whilst it is not the country’s chief breadwinner, it does make the canal a hugely important revenue earner for the country.
However, notwithstanding statistics, I was struck by a number of observations. It is not a canal, in the Victorian British sense with fixed walls. The constant dredging of the canal to avoid deposits of river sediment. That whilst pampas grass planted as an experiment in the early twentieth century to prevent erosion has proliferated, there is a huge amount of wildlife on the ‘shores’ of the canal not least as they have been declared national parks. That the buildings that move amongst the trees in the distance are containers making their passage along Lake Gatun. Everywhere you look there are large container ships sending goods across the world, to and from, around and back, constantly. Is this excessive? Is it sustainable? Is there any resilience in this ‘process’?
But the country has a longer past than the canal, not least with the British. Sir Francis Drake first attacked the Spanish ports of Panama in 1572 and died in Panama of dysentery in 1596. Nearly a century later in 1671, the privateer and pirate – The Pirates of the Caribbean are not just a Hollywood construct – Henry Morgan landed on the Caribbean coast of Panama, traversed the isthmus and destroyed Panama City. The Royal Navy officer Admiral Vernon captured Portobelo in Panama in 1739, after which the road in Notting Hill, London, is named.
Cultural Diversity
Panama is a skinny squiggle of a country that at 75,517 square kilometres is a third of the size of the UK. Whilst it is associated with stereotypes – the Panama Canal and perhaps hats (although the Panama hat originated in Ecuador, it became known as Panamanian during the canal construction when they proved invaluable in protecting labourers from the sun) – there is no typecasting of Panama’s population which is one of the most ethnically diverse populations in the world. Its population of four million (1.5 million of whom live in Panama City) is only 13% indigenous and mainly a legacy of canal builders. My driver is Mestizo, my guide Amerindian. On the Caribbean coast there is a large Afro-Caribbean community. There is a large Jewish and Chinese population, and Pakistanis run used car businesses and work in the perfume trade.
Panamanian Cuisine
Just like its peoples, Panama’s gastronomy reflects its ethnic diversity, mixing Latin American staples, rice and beans, with West Indian flavours and some European touches. The food is different and there is fusion in Panamanian cuisine. Dining in Panama is an unexpected treat.
Scottish Legacy
There is a point, Punta Escoses, in Panama’s Kuna Yala province named after the ill-fated Darien scheme. The venture was a hugely popular idea in Scotland in the late 1690s to gain wealth and influence by establishing New Caledonia, a colony in the Darein Gap on the isthmus of Panama. The idea attracted a massive take up of subscription to the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies.
Landfall was made in Darien in 1698 but within a year 80% of the participants had died and the scheme was in ruins. The Company of Scotland was backed by approximately 20% of all the money circulating in Scotland and the failure of the scheme left the entire Scottish Lowlands in financial ruin. It was devastating economically for Scotland, leaving it incapable of independent rule and precipitated the Act of Union.
Haven of Biodiversity
En route to the Panama Canal locks we stop off at the Panama Rainforest Discovery Centre. Few realise the biodiversity found in Panama. The word Panama is of indigenous origin, referring to ‘abundance of butterflies’ or ‘abundance of fish’. Whichever, it is a good reflection of the biodiversity found in the country. Panama acts as a natural biological corridor connecting North and South America, and with a third of the country protected by reserves and national parks, it is not surprising that it plays host to over 1,000 species of bird (the largest number in Central America), 10,000 species of plant, 218 species of mammal and 226 species of reptile.
It sounds cliched and it probably is but here in the rainforest everything is heard by unseen – such are the tantalising joys of the rainforest. A leaf flutters in a haphazard zigzag towards the ground. A Rufous Motmot croaks in the trees around us. The incandescent blue of a Morpho butterfly flirts tantalisingly amongst the trees. A hummingbird buzzes into our airspace and then roars away. Cicadas break into incessant background racket.
In spite of the noise and the dripping humidity it is calming in the forest. Patiently waiting. Patiently watching. Patiently hoping.
My attention diverts to leaf cutter ants busying themselves with what we perceive them to do – cut and carry leaves. But then there are an equal amount busying themselves about housekeeping – making sure that their nest is clean. Recycling in a way that we could learn a lot from. Louis states that, “Leaf cutter ants are 80% blind but navigate by pheromones.” This is startling. Their sense of community has even more that we could learn from.
Driving out of the park, we spot coatimundi scavenging on the verges of the roadside. Sometimes nicknamed ‘hog-nosed racoon’, coatimundi are omnivores that scrape a living in any way which they can.
Louis screeches to a halt. “A sloth.” I look vainly in the trees above. Louis directs my gaze until I finally see it sitting motionless in the canopy high above our heads. “It is a three-toed sloth. See its face? They are always happy.” Without binoculars, I had to take his word for it.
We drive on but only for a couple of hundred metres before Louis stops again. Howler monkeys. Impressed with both the biodiversity of Panama and Louis’s eyesight, did I have a right to be disappointed that they were not howling?
Round the next corner, literally, there was neither disappointment nor the need for Louis’s X-ray vision. A car was stopped with its hazard lights on: a two-toed sloth was crossing the road, slowly.
“The two-toed sloth does not look as happy as the three-toed,” Louis tells me. I know that he was speaking generically but I had to agree.
