PANAMA 3 - Panama City Tour, part 1

When we arrived at the hotel, Gary had inquired about the possibility of hiring a car and driver to take us to a cigar factory he had read about in a guide book. The factory is located in the Province to the west of the Canal Zone.

Early on Friday morning the phone rang in our room. I answered it but the person on the other end couldn't hear me talk. I hung up and within 30 seconds the phone rang again. Same problem. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door. It was a bellman come to tell us that our ride to the cigar factory was downstairs ready to go whenever we were ready. I went down to the lobby and met Ricardo, a thirty something Panama man who, it was revealed later, makes his living as a personal tour guide in the Canal area. He speaks excellent English. After a few phone calls he figured out where the cigar factory is located and quoted me $250.00 to take us there. We had budgeted $50.00 for the trip so I declined.

Ricardo suggested that we might like an all day tour of Panama City and environs which he could provide for the outrageously good price of $90.00. We decided to take the tour. (At five photos per post, it will take five or six of these posts to get us through it.)


If you were to draw a schematic map of Panama City and the surrounding area you could draw a rough rectangle about two miles wide and six or so miles long lying on an east-west axis. The Bay of Panama would be on the south, the "new" City would be in the southeast quarter, Tocumen Airport in the northeast quarter, the "older" City and the Causeway just west of center from the Bay inland, and the entrance to the Canal on the west end.

The American influence is seen especially on the west side of the rectangle and then runs roughly north and west from the rectangle to the Canal itself. The housing in these photographs is now privately owned. The houses and buildings shown have been extensively remodeled, in contrast to some that have been abandoned and are in tear down condition.


These buildings were all built originally about 1905 or so. They comprise barracks, officer's housing, commissaries, offices, warehouses, hospitals, everything it takes to house and service a community of about 10,000 and their dependents.

There are hundreds of buildings that appear to be part of the original building effort. Many of them have been nicely restored and are used for various purposes, from single residences to duplexes and triplexes, to commercial buildings. Some are still used by the Canal Authority and some are private. Some are simply abandoned looking. Ricardo told us that some were purchased by speculators when they were sold to private individuals and are awaiting rehabilitation. Some seem to be moldering into the ground. It wasn't clear what their status is. It does make me want to get one and remodel it.

After driving for twenty minutes or so we entered the Canal Zone proper. the first thing you see is the power generating plant where power for the Pacific end was generated and is still generated. It appears to now use oil fired boilers rather than the wood fired originals. A little further on you can see maintenance areas and old bone yards of equipment waiting to be cannibalized or re-used. Some of it looks like it may have been waiting a long time. Kind of like the bone yards on our places.

The first real look at anything that might be a canal is the spillway, at the right (or maybe above), that controls the level of Miraflores Lake. Miraflores Lake extends from the head of Miraflores Locks (the first two locks on the Pacific end of the Canal) to the foot of the Pedro Miguel Lock. I think it is about seven miles long and not very wide. It comprises the Culibra Cut which was, after building the structures themselves, the most arduous part of building the canal. Something like 125 feet of cut had to be made in places along the Cut. The earth removed was put onto rail flatcars which were on rails laid especially for the purpose and moved at will. The railroad ran downhill to the bay where a big angle blade scraped the earth off and contributed the material to make the Amador Causeway and parts of the islands at its sea end. Ultimately, this spillway helps control not only the level of Miraflores Lake but also Gatun Lake, which is the huge lake created in the center of the country by building a big dam on the Atlantic end and flooding the entire area with the water of the Chagres River. All of the six locks (two at Miraflores and one at Pedro Miguel on the Pacific side and three at Gatun on the Atlantic side) run just on the gravity flow of water from the lakes. It takes about 52 million gallons (about 1,200 acre feet) of water for one transit of the canal, be that one ship in the lock or a dozen smaller boats in the lock.


The photo at the right is the first real view we had of any part of the Canal. It is a view from the rooftop deck at the Miraflores Visitor's Center looking north. You can see the Freedom Bridge in the background. The lock doors on the left lock are open, those on the right side lock are closed but the water level is even with Miraflores Lake.

I am going to continue to post to this blog but I have been convinced that I should put albums of photos on Facebook so they are easier to access and more can be seen than the few I'm allowed with each blog post.

Friend me on Facebook so you won't miss any of the excitement.

JCE