July, 2000

More Memory Lane:  I got a lot of fan mail from the last set of photos I published.  So here are a few more.

Al Cook wrote in the "Messages" section of CZBrats about taking the short cut over the hill to Farfan Beach.  I walked back in that direction.  I had forgotten that it was a choice of walking in muck or over the rocks.  Being a middle aged fat man, it got to be a real chore.

I was about ready to give up, when I reached my goal, the old sea cave.  I remember my brother and I going into it years ago.  It doesn't go back very far, but it's appropriately spooky for a young person's imagination.  As I recall, I had a few bats fly by me when I was a kid.

Do you remember driving through the forest reserve on the way to Madden Dam?    My favorite spot there was a little water fall. The area is now preserved as a Panamanian National Park, and still makes a great photo op.

Finally, these are the Banyan trees at the base of the Administration Building hill in Balboa.  I remember when I was a kid, one of these had a hollow space a could play in.  You can just see the old Panama Rail Road station (now a McDonalds) in the background.

On to more general news:  There have been recurring stories of Columbian Guerillas encroaching over the Panama border in Darien.  Details are sketchy.  The upshot seems to be that they do not often get into conflicts with Panamanians, but are usually retreating across the border to get out of reach of the Columbian military.

As I've mentioned in earlier articles, there is a huge new container port that has been built on Manzanillo Bay across from Colon.  It makes the old facilities at Colon obsolete, though there is talk of renovation in the old location.  There has been some concern that the new port is siphoning off economic growth elsewhere.  The big players at the new port are an American railroad company (the Kansas Southern) and one from HOg Kong (Hutchins Whampoa).  Between them they are establishing a "land canal."  Containers are taken off ships on one side of the isthmus.  Then, a newly rebuilt Panama Railroad is to take the containers across to the sister port on the other side.  This is much more efficient and automated than earlier facilities.   Thus while, it may generate new jobs, it does not necessarily replace old ones.

On the business front, Panama has hosted a meeting attempting to establish connections with more foreign enterprises that can act in cooperation with local firms.  Called "Panama 2000,"  participants included firms from Germany, France, Spain, England, Panama, and other parts of Latin America.  The best case scenario being floated is that Panama would become something along the line of Singapore or Rotterdam:  a focal point for maritime commerce, not just a place to be passed through on the way to somewhere else.

Modernization: The Global Positioning System (GPS) is now being used by canal pilots.   The pilots carry portable monitors when they board the ships. This allows the pilot to see both himself and all other vessels in the canal on a screen by way of a connection to a Maritime Traffic Control Center. The latest "mules" for towing the ships through the locks are slightly more powerful.  However, there is one great feature from the  driver's standpoint: the cabs are completely enclosed and air conditioned.