The last two days have been in Panama, which is a country that was founded in 1904 (formerly a department of Colombia) and has a population of approximately 4m people. It is about 600km long, and is 300km at its widest point, and 80km at its narrowest. The capital city, Panama City, houses 1.8m people.
Of course Panama is best known for the eponymous Panama Canal, which was opened in 1914. After nearly 100 years of leasehold, the USA handed the Panama Canal back to Panama in 1999. It is a most remarkable feat of engineering. We spent yesterday morning on a boat tour on Gaviota III up the canal from the Pacific side, transiting up the Miraflores locks and the Pedro Miguel locks, through the Gailard Cut to Lago Gatun, before disembarking and driving back to the City. There are enormous container ships queued up outside its entrance waiting up to 24 hours for their turn to make the 8 hour journey to the other side. The alternative is to take around 2 weeks to round Cape Horn which adds considerably to the cost of the exercise.
The Panama Canal works as a water elevator, lifting ships from the Atlantic and Pacific sides nearly 30m through a series of locks to the lake level, and then descending. It is entirely fed by fresh water from Chagres river, which flows into the canal at the highest point, and feeds the artificial lake that drives the locks. It’s totally ingenious, not least because it uses fresh water throughout that makes the maintenance of this infrastructure possible. Seawater would have corroded the entire operation within a decade.
The Panama Canal operates 24/7, 365 days a year. It has only been suspended once by a landslide in the Gailard Cut In 1914. There are 35-40 vessel transits everyday, which equates to $10m-$12m revenue PER DAY. That equals over $4 billion dollars in gross revenue with a 50% gross margin. The accident rate with the canal is less than 0.01% annually. Of course the maintenance costs are astronomical especially in a country where it rains for 9 months of the year and annual rainfall is 200 inches. But of all the infrastructure projects you can think of, this has to one of the biggest and most successful in the modern world.
Sadly, being a Latin American country, the enormous profits generated by this canal don’t seem to filter down to the populace. Health care, education, sanitation, etc., are still pretty basic in the countryside, but the people do not consider themselves poor. Contrast that with the skyline of Panama City which stretches upwards from the shoreline. We then did a walking tour through the Cusco Viego (old quarter) of Panama City with its lovely quaint buildings and narrow streets. It is slowly and surely being renovated, and we would love to come back in five years’ time to see how its progressed. It is also stifling hot (35c) and humid (85% humidity). An afternoon thunderstorm is not uncommon, and you need to walk slowly to avoid being in a puddle by the end of the street.
On Tuesday, we did a driving tour to the old port of Portobelo, which is located on the Atlantic side of Panama. It was very quiet and decrepit, with a number of abandoned boats in the harbour. Not at all what we were expecting given the long colonial history for a Spanish port that shipped Peruvian sliver and gold back to the Old World. It has a beautiful position with a nice broad sheltered bay. We took a little dive boat around the harbour where Kirsty did some snorkelling, and we were introduced to Drake’s Island, where the remains of Sir Francis Drake are reputedly interred, although no one has yet to find them.
Panama is one of those countries that should be a shining example of how a national asset can be used for the good of all its people, but sadly it still has a long way to go to reach that ideal.