Panama

The most amazing engineering work in Central America has hidden for years the natural, cultural and historical landscapes of a country with so much to find out.

What started as a dream for emperor Carlos V and a nightmare for French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps, became a reality thru the influence of US government in the beginning of the XX Century: the Panama Channel, a titanic engineering work, made possible to join two oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific, after ten year of construction, 352 million dollars investment and 25.000 dead by malaria, the plague and yellow fever. When the steamer Ancón crossed the Channel in 1914, Panama became "the bridge of the world and the heart of the universe".

In spite of the pompous title, the thing is that the Channel has been for years a add for foreign investments and tourism, that has extended thru the capital and the Channel's basin, avoiding extraordinary places like the forests of Darién, the villages of the Kuna Indians or archipelagos like Bocas del Toro, tropical refuge of the Antillean culture.

Panama has drunk of many cultures: from the Spanish colonizers; from the French, North Americans, African and Chinese who came to construct the Channel; and more, from the Amerindian that inhabited the isthmus centuries before the arrival of Columbus.

To its cultural patrimony scattered all over the region we must add its fascinating nature: Panama means "abundance of fish, trees and butterflies" in native language. Their fifteen national parks and more then twenty protected areas are the home of more than a thousand species of butterflies, as well as of magnificent birds (the Panamanian forest welcomes in 967 species, more than all the set of species of the U.S.A., together Canada and Mexico), an important wild fauna and a tropical flora where they emphasize his 1,200 species of orchards.

Nature and urbanism coexist in this country like in no other. Even the Channel opens to passage through a forest inhabited by tamarind monkeys, jaguars, pumas and anteaters. The capital is surrounded by tropical forests, protected by two national parks whose leafy vegetation grows until the limits of the city. One of these parks, the one of Soberanía, occupies a vertical strip of flat earth and hills throughout the east margin of the Panama Channel. Its educative footpath more well-known is the Camino del Oleoducto, of great ornithological interest. At this same park, the footpath El Charco ends at a lake of crystalline waters. A stretch recovered of the old layout of the Camino de Cruces, historical footpath used by the Spaniards during the colonial time can also be crossed.

The list of Panamanian natural corners would give a book, although we will only emphasize here other two, next to the Soberanía National Park: the Altos de Campana, declared first national park of the country in 1966, and the Coiba National Park, in the Pacific, witch includes the small island of the same name and 38 smaller islands. It's formed by an extension of tropical forests and a marine perimeter with the second greater coral reef of the Pacific.

The years of American dominion are patent in the old military belt that fits the Channel and that is formed by bases, administrative offices, schools and residences that little by little are transformed in schools and hotels. This is the case of the Canopy Tower, erected in the edge of the Soberanía Natural Park. A good day of year 1963, in the heat of apogee of the Cold War, a North American strategist had the shining idea to install a radar in Panama to protect the Channel of a hypothetical missile coming from the distant Soviet Union or of the neighbouring island of Cuba. Thirty and five years later, instead of watching missiles, the Canopy Tower allows the observation of birds and instead of the military of the United States, the tower is occupied by Panamanians and tourist arrived from the most remote corners of the world. Wrapped literally by the forest and constructed on a hill, the tower has become a privileged lodge with six rooms and one library for students and enthusiasts of Ornithology.

Long before the Americans, the Spaniards disembarked in these latitudes and founded cities like Portobelo, in the coast. The steep mountains, the hardness of the climate and the impenetrable forest were considered natural conditions that favoured the defence of the city, reason why the first colonizers decided to end here the Camino Real, road that left from Panama La Vieja, uniting the two seas by land.

From Portobelo the Spanish galleons loaded with treasures weighed anchor, which made it object of desire by pirates and privateers. Sir Francis Drake, the most famous English buccaneer, sacked and destroyed the city. The same which would become his tomb shortly after, because they tell that its body rests in a lead coffin in the depths of the bay. But mainly this enclave makes honour to the name that Columbus gave him: "Puerto Bonito". With discreet decay and sincere hospitality, Portobelo offers to the visitor some of the more interesting colonial ruins of Panama, spotted by oxidized cannons and deteriorated constructions that yield before the advance of the forest. Declared Patrimony of the Humanity by UNESCO, it counts with a hundred houses during his time of maximum splendour, in addition to two churches, a hospital, some suburbs and defensive fortifications. Patrimony to consider is a house of customs from the XVI century - that lodges a modest museum -, the church that lodges the Cristo Negro.

More than half of almost the three million inhabitants of the country live in Panama City, the capital. In permanent evolution and change, this large city by itself writes a chapter of the History of the New World.

A History that begins in Panama La Vieja, eight kilometres from the present capital. Founded in 1519 by Pedro Aryan of Ávila, Diego de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro left from here to the conquest of the Inca Empire. They only remain the rest of the cathedral, the town hall and the real houses, of defensive cut - taking advantage of the affluence tourists, a craft market has been created in front of the ruins with the most representative objects of the country in souvenir format.

Panama La Vieja was an opulent, capital city, home of the government, Episcopal seat and heart of the American commerce. Another pirate, in this occasion Henry Morgan, sacked it and set it afire in repeated occasions. In the XVII century, the governor transferred it to what we know today as Casco Antiguo, in the San Felipe district. Literally. The city was transferred with all its religious orders, streets and avenues. And the result was a success: to take a walk by the Casco Antiguo is an encounter with the decay, History and the Bohemian.

The narrow paved streets, the forged iron balconies and the cornices of the Casco Antiguo evoke images of the glorious past of Panama as a commercial centre. A past not shamed by the ruthless course of the time and that, therefore, is pleasantly declining. Here nothing seems to go off key. So soon one contemplates the impressive gold altar of the cathedral of San Jose or the ruins of the convent of Santo Domingo, to march past before the rows of black vultures next to the Mercado Público.

Between these two cities, Panama La Vieja and the Casco Antiguo, rises the modern large city, with titanic towers and shining skyscrapers. The avenue Balboa, parallel to the Pacific Ocean, Punta Paitilla and the España Avenue, the capital financial centre, is the exponent of the contemporary Panama. In Bocas del Toro, exponent of the Antillean legacy of the country has in Island Columbus its epicentre. It is recommendable to spend a couple of days and to cross the different islands that serve refuge to numerous species of birds, with solitary beaches - Bluff Beach or Bocas del Drago -, that can only can be accessed by boat. A last recommendation: don't go away without knowing the animated night life.

Where to sleep
In Panama City, the Hotel Panama (Internet: www.elpanama.com), the first luxury hotel from the 50's. In the Channel, Gamboa Rainforest Resort (Internet: www.gamboaresort.com), a luxury complex surrounded by the forest. The Panama Channel Rainforest Canopy Tower (Internet: www.canopytower.com), one old control tower reconverted hotel and ideal for the observation of birds. Near Portobelo, Meliá Panama Canal (Internet: www.solmelia. com), five stars in a tropical landscape. In Bocas del Toro, the Acqua-Lodge Caracol (Island Caracol. Internet: www.puntacaracol.com), an idyllic complex of five wood cabins only accessible by boat.

Where to eat
In the capital, Tinaja Restaurant (Street 51-Bella Vista. Tel: 263 78 90) offers typical plates with folkloric dances. In Causeway, Alberto's (Tel: 507-314 1134), an Italian restaurant with a view of the city skyline.