Panama Scenes

Panama Scenes
This page contains pictures I took in and around Panama City (la Ciudad de Panama), where I lived. Panama City is the capital and primary city of Panama. There are also pictures of the city of Colon, which is on the Caribbean side of the canal, and pictures from fishing and sailing trips off both coasts of Panama. Like nearly all of the pictures on this site taken before the late 90's, when I purchased my first digital camer, the pictures on this page were taken on 35mm slides and then stored for over 30 yeats until I scanned them and published them on this website. Unfortuately there was a lot of degredation in the pictures during that period.	Sport Fishing Carnival Cruising Water Skiing
Balboa Monument on the Water Front	While I worked in the Panama Canal Zone I lived in Panama City on the pacific coast right next to the zone. I lived on Via Brasil not far from Punta Paitilla, which even then was the high rise area of the city. This picture is of the Balboa monument on the Via Balboa which runs along the Panama City water front. Balboa, of course, led the first Europeans across the Isthmus of Panama to "discover" the Pacific Ocean.

On the right is a picture of Panamanian fishing boats lying at anchor off Panama City. With 14 foot tides the fleet must anchor well off shore.	Panamanian Fishing Fleet

Punto Paitilla Air Field	To the left is a picture of the general aviation airport at Punta Paitilla, near where I lived in Panama. During my stay I started but never completed pilot training (I really need another expensive hobby). Based on pictures I've seen on the Panama Canal Web page, I believe this airport has been replaced by high-rise office and residential buildings.
On the Caribbean coast of Panama is the city of Colon. This city is much smaller and far less affluent than Panama City. We were normally cautioned to move about Colon in a taxi or bus and not roam about on foot because of the prevalence of crime. Looking at the decaying building and shacks in the pictures, it is understandable that this would be a high-crime area. I gather from recent descriptions of Colon that this situation hasn't changed much in the last 37 years. The picture on the right is of the Washington Hotel, which looks to be a typical colonial hotel. We used to go to the mixed grill lunch they served every Sunday on the veranda.	Washington Hotel in Colon
Dilapidated Building in Colon	Shanty Town in Colobn
Ships heading into the canal from the Caribbean normally have to anchor in Limon Bay off Colon to wait their turn to enter the canal.	Limon Bay Anchorage

Sport Fishing
Panama is one of the worlds great sport fishing areas, and has long been associated with world record bill fish catches. I believe it was discovered as a fishing center by the father of off shore sport fishing, the screen writer Zane Grey. He got a lot of his Hollywood buddies to come to Panama to catch Marlin and Sailfish. At the time I was in Panama John Wayne continued the Hollywood connection as he came to Panama for fishing almost every year. I believe he and Omar Torrijos, the dictator at the time, were fishing buddies. While I didn't get invited to go fishing by any Hollywood actors, I did take the opportunity to go on several fishing trips.
Anchored in the Perlas Islands	Cleaning Mahi-Mahi
Above on the left our charter fishing boat at anchor in the Perlas Islands of the Pacific coast of Panama. These islands were under development as tourist destinations in 1975. At the time the development was lead by the Melia Company of Spain, which had done much of the development of the Coast del Sol. I think Melia abandoned this development in the 70s because of difficulties with the Torrijos government, but I believe it has since become a major tourist mecca. In the picture above, right our captain and his mate are cleaning some of the 75 Mahi-Mahi (known in Panama as Dorado) that we loaded up on durng this trip. While trolling we watched dozens of large flying fish sail off the stern of our boat followed by dozens of Mahi-Mahi chasing them. When the Mahi-Mahis passed off the stern of the boat all of our lines had fish on. That was four lines on rod and reel and four hand lines off the stern. It was a lot of work get all the fish onboard. That night we OD'd on Mahi-Mahi and each of us still had 5 Lbs of fish to take home with us. We gave the captain over 20 Lbs of fish to distribute in his neighborhood in Panama. Nothing went to waste.
Below are pictures of another fishing trip and another charter boat. Sport fishing isn't always the exciting adventure depicted in a lot of the programs on Saturday TV in the statues.
Trolling for Bill Fish or Mahi=Mahi		Waiting for a Strike
Below are some Manta Rays we observed on one trip that leaping into the air. This must be part of their mating ritual. Hard to see unless you click on the pictures to view them at full resolution.
Manta Ray Jumping			Manta Ray Jumping

Carnival
Float in the Carnival Parade	Panama, like most Latin countries, celebrates the start of lent with a national Carnival. These are pictures of the Carnival Parade in 1975. The Panama Carnival was able to attract many of the major latin recording artists to perform during the festival. In 1975 Santana and Celia Cruz performed at concerts.
At the time a number of the most popular salsa bands were Panamanian. Many of them also performed in Panama during the Carnival. It was hoot.	Beauty Queen Float
Float Sponsored by the National Casinos	Another Float in the Parade

Cruising the Coast of Panama
Hiking on the Black Beaches	At Anchor Near Nombre de Dios
I wasn't totally divorced from sailing while in Panama. On several occasions I was invited to go sailing with people cruising through the canal on their sailboats. I spent one weekend with a couple on their 50' wooden cutter. We sailed from Cristobol to Portobello on the Caribbean coast of Panama.
Portobello Harbor	Town of Portobello
Portobello was the Spanish treasure city. Spanish galleons would unload their treasures on the Pacific side from where they were transported over land to Portobello. They were then loaded on other galleons for the trip to Spain. Of course this made the treasure houses in Portobello and the galleons leaving the harbor prime targets for the mostly English raiders. Most notable among those raiders were the pirate Morgan and Sir Francis Drake.
While we were anchored in Portobello we met the crew of the English schooner, Jyland, in the picture on the right. This was a diving ship and they were diving on the suspected burial site of Drake. They hoped to find the artifacts and treasures that were reportedly left at the same site. This diving activity was being performed with the permission and under the direction of the Panamanian Government and access to Portobello harbor was supposed to be restricted during this period. Possibly because the sailboat I was on flew the Union Jack (it was registered in Bequia) and because we socialized with the English diving crew, the local Panamanian Guardia outpost did not interfere with our visit. In any case I am told the divers never found the remains of Drake nor any significant treasure in the harbor. The only reason I know the name of the vessel is because one crew on the boat came across this page, recognized the boat and sent me an email.	Schooner Jyland in Portobello

Water Skiing in the Panama Canal
The Panama canal is not only a major commercial water way, it is also a pristine fresh water paradise. When the Chagres River was dammed to produce Lake Gatun, many of the jungle hill tops that were flooded to became islands. The Panama Canal Company (which ran the zone until it reverted to Panama at the end of the century) leased these islands to Canal Zone residents and some Panamanian citizens for recreation. One of the people I worked with in Panama had lived there for 10 years and had secured a lease to one of these islands.
Water Skiing in Lake Gatun	Here is the only picture in existence of me up on water skies. I am skiing in the canal (Lake Gatun) behind that co-worker's boat. The reason I know this is the only picture of me on skies is the total time in my life I have spent up on skies (including this incident) is less than the fastest shutter speed on most cameras. I had expected when the Panamanian Government took over control of the Canal Zone Lake Gatun would be developed into a major tourist and recreational area, but that does not appear to have happened.