Too Poor For Passports: Panama - Pulsing Panama City

Whatcha doin'? Just picking dog hair off your velcro-like facial hair stubble and sitting on a bag of frozen peas because you busted your ass on the ice on the way in to work? Yeah... us, too.

Did y'all have a good time in Sao Tome and Principe? That was a really, really good station - even though we heard this little ditty:

Awwwwwwwwwkward.

Come on! Let's escape the arctic blast and go visit Kenny in Panama! How long has he been down there? A year?

Ok, before we get to the canal, which is really, Really, REALLY important, let's knock a couple things out. Panama is about the size of South Carolina, has a little under 3.5 million people, and is home to the largest rainforest outside of the Amazon basin in the Western Hemisphere. Its history for the past 500 years has been intimately linked to its geopolitical importance.

Here's a little orientation

So, the Spanish come in, the indigenous Chibchan, Chocoan, and Cueva tribes are massacred with warfare and disease. Panama acts as a Spanish Colony for the next 300 years. The Spanish would dig up precious metals in South America, sail it up to Panama, haul it across the land mass, and pack it onto ships set for Europe.

Panamanian jungles anyone?

In the 1880's, a French company made the first attempt at building the canal, but gave up after 22,000 workers died, mostly from disease. About 20 years later, the American Army Corps of Engineers launched a second attempt, and after 10 years and another 5,600 deaths, the canal was finally opened in 1914. Ships would no longer have to sail the treacherous Drake Passage. At first, they were puttin' through about 1,000 ships a day, and now they're up to about 15,000. Nice job gang.

Canals canaling canalers.

America controlled the canal until the late 1970's, and it was pretty contentious throughout Latin and South America. They'd helped Panama break away from Columbia just prior to building it, and there were some contentious and questionably worded treaties, as well as agreements made by folks that did not have the authorization to do so. After WWII, things really gained steam, culminating in riots in the mid-60's for Panamanian control. Negotiations began under the Ford administration and ended with a treaty signed by Carter in '77 that would turn it over to Panama by 2000, so long as the canal remained permanently neutral. This really helped relations between America and a lot of Latin and South American nations. It was finally signed over to the Panamanians eleven years ago, and remains one of the most important transit points in the world to this day, as well as a significant source of income for Panama.

still pretty amazing how they can take ships up and down in elevation! modern marvels, y'all.

The average toll paid is about $54K. The highest toll ever paid was about $330K by a Disney cruise liner. The lowest toll ever was $0.36 paid 90 years ago by an adventurer who swam the canal.

Pinky would love to get into the modern political history of Panama, including the US invasion in 1989 to turn over a dictatorship that resulted in a lot of civilian casualties, but we've all got a lot to do and we've written a bunch already. It's totally worth a read though if you want to look it up.