Despite the international flavour of this city, English is not widely spoken. So I’m having to work hard at improving my Spanish. It must be improving because when I first saw these posters plastered all over the city, I thought they were conveying the sort of message usually found in London phone boxes!
Silly me! Of course it means: ‘Master English in 9 months’.
Taxis here are pretty cheap but…… the drivers are completely insane. Not only have they no idea where they are going but also they drive like demons to (not) get there! Last night, in my best Spanish, I gave a driver both the name and full address of my hotel. Nodding in the affirmative, said driver put his foot down and we shot off on a journey which should have taken no more than 5-7 minutes (or 3 – 4 at the speed we were going). After whizzing along for a while, he slowed down and started shaking his head. He clearly had no clue as to our destination so I gave him a hotel card and pointed to the name and address. The same thing happened again. Off we sped, then slowed again but this time he took the initiative and asked a policeman – who seemed to have no idea either! After the constabulary had consulted with a petrol station attendant, much discussion took place between the three of them culminating in a curt nod of the head from my driver who was, by this time, very angry (not helped by the fact I had negotiated a fixed price fare). This time he really went for it. We overtook; we undertook; we jumped red lights; we blared our horn and we screeched our brakes but we finally got there. At least it was only my nerves that were wrecked and not the car!
More threatening skies this morning, of course but, as it was my last day here, my visit to the Canal was essential. It was, after all, one of my bucket list priorities. Some may know that the canal building was first started by a titled Frenchman, Ferdinand de Lesseps, way back in the late 19th century. He was the same man who built the Suez canal so thought he could apply the same construction principles in Panama. Wrong! The Suez canal was carved out of sand. The Panama canal had to be carved out of rock thus taking far longer than anticipated even though there were app 19,000 workers on the job, most of whom came from the West Indies.
Sadly, thousands of these guys died, mostly from Malaria and Yellow Fever. In it’s usual slow and ponderous way, it took the UK government about 100 years to recognise the contribution these men from the colonies made. So they erected a plaque!
With all these problems, the money ran out at the turn of the century. So, sad old Ferdinand had to give up the project and died shortly afterwards.
The Americans took over and the canal was finally opened in 1914. It has been running more or less 24/7 since then with, to date, more than 1 million vessels passing through its 50 mile length , each one taking about 8-10 hours to complete the ‘crossing’. This includes the time taken in the 3 locks.
Once in a lock, these large vessels are pulled along by 4 Thomas the Tank Engine type things which then wait while the water is drained and the ship has dropped to the bottom of the lock (if you can see with all the rain and mist).
The Thomas’ then pull the ship into the next lock where the whole process starts again
until, finally, it (or more correctly, I suppose: ‘she’) exits and is on it’s /her way (but not into the sunset!)
The Panama Canal would be the most extraordinary piece of engineering if it had only been built recently. But considering it is more than 100 years old and still going very strong, this construction achievement is quite staggering and certainly something that the builders of the tourists’ observation area should take note of as they can’t even get the rain water to drain away properly!
The obvious wealth that’s evident in this country owes a lot to those who built this marvel, many of whom gave their lives doing so.
So, that’s Panama almost done and another tick in the box. It’s Ecuador tomorrow from where, interestingly, Panama hats originated. Curiouser and curiouser!
Can I wake up when it’s all over, please?
Richard/Phileas
P.S. The Trump Hotel here is running at less than 20% occupancy. I can’t think why!
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