Monthly Archives: December 2011

The Darien Gap

Posted on by
Reply

The only major break in the Pan-American Highway is at Darien, between Panama and Colombia. For 160km, there is no navigable road, and trade must travel by air or sea. The lack of a link has stifled economic growth in the area, and meant that is has remained inaccessible, and a fertile ground for illegal activities (such as drug smuggling and paramilitary and terrorist groups recruitment).

It is certainly true that environmental and geographic factors mean that any link would be expensive and difficult to construct. Much of the area is undeveloped swampland and forest, the Atrato River delta in Colombia creates a marshland at least 80km wide, half of this being treacherous swampland. The Panamanian side, in contrast, is a mountainous rain forest, with altitudes reaching from 60m in the valley floors to 1,845m at Cerro Tacarcuna, the highest peak.

Efforts have been made to remove this missing link in the Pan-American highway almost since the first plans for the highway were drawn up. Serious planning began in 1971 with the help of United States funding, but this was postponed in 1974 after concerns were raised by environmentalists. A second effort began in 1992, but by 1994, this too was dropped after a United Nations agency reported that it would cause extensive environmental damage. Environmentalists argue that the lack of a road has prevented the spread of diseases such as foot and mouth (unseen in Central or North America since the 1950s), and local tribes the Embera-Wounaan and Kuna have also expressed concern that the road would help destroy their cultures. Political issues have also hindered any link, with Panamanians always remembering that they used to be part of Colombia, and while there is little risk of a Colombian army marching through Darien to forcibly reunite the countries, such concerns have now been replaced by worries about drugs and terrorists.

Consequently, nowadays the Darien Gap can only crossed by the hardiest adventurers. The first vehicular crossing of the Gap was by the Land Rovers in 1959–60, crewed by a multinational group that included Panamanians, British and Australians. Land Rover continued to show their dominance when a Range Rover on the British Trans-Americas Expedition in 1972 led by John Blashford-Snell became the first vehicle to traverse both American continents north-to-south through the Darién Gap. However, these and other crossings used boats or abandoned their vehicles and completed the crossing on foot. The first fully overland wheeled crossing (others used boats for some sections) of the Gap was by British cyclist Ian Hibell who rode from Cape Horn to Alaska between 1971 and 1973. The first all-land auto crossing had to wait until 1985–1987 by Loren Upton and Patty Mercier in a CJ-5 Jeep, taking 741 days to travel 125 miles (201 km), all on land.

The Inter-American Highway

Posted on by
Reply

The Inter-American Highway is the common name for the section of the Pan-American Highway that runs from Nuevo Laredo in Mexico (close to the border with the US) to Panama City in Panama. For Panamanians, it provides the link to other Central American countries, and beyond, through the Pan-American highway to the USA and Canada. With the Panama Canal, the highway helped contribute to Panama’s position as a crossroads for world trade – though, with the Darien Gap creating a barrier to direct transport links to South America, it is technically a ‘T’ junction, not a crossroads.

There had long been a desire to link the Panama Canal and its associated port facilities with other countries, for the Americans who the operated the Canal, it would reduce the risk of alternative canal proposals being built, by allowing neighboring countries to benefit from its trade links. It would also provide an alternative link to the US Canal Zone, as an alternative to sea crossings.

In 1923, with the agreement of many Central American countries, the US began a project to use their new photo-reconnaissance aircraft to conduct aerial surveys and mapping of the Central American republics. This laid the foundations for a new road, allowing engineers to plan routes and estimate bridging and tunnelling costs. However, it was World War II which spurred construction. Aware of the risks to their supply lines between the USA and the Canal Zone presented by German U-boats, construction of an overland link became a prudent precaution.

As with the final Panama Canal project, construction was led by US engineers and administrators. Many sections of the road that would become part of the Inter-American Highway had been built by individual countries independently before 1940. However, these roads linked specific cities only and were of variable quality. Progress on construction was slow, with multiple obstacles to be overcome and often very remote construction sites. Nevertheless, construction progressed rapidly, though not quickly enough to see the road finished before World War II ended in 1945.

In 1946, a route was ready for inspection by U.S. diplomats and engineers, but it was far from being the finished article, and much was only passable by four-wheel drive or tracked vehicles. It would take until 1967 until the road was completed, and even today, there is no connection beyond Panama, presenting a huge barrier to trade and prosperity in the region.

The Spanish Cuisine

Posted on by
Reply

The Fifer-Carles family, like the majority of Spanish families has among its customs and traditions enjoying the culinary skills and special dishes inherited from its ancestors during special occasions throughout the year.

Spanish gastronomy is linked in a very particular way to the people and the land of the country and the differential characteristics of both. Like its people, it is a mixture of many exotic ingredients and  unique characteristics. Sometimes the blends created in the Spanish kitchen can become quite complex, but always retain their basic taste and autonomy.

Frequently used ingredients in the Spanish cuisine include olive oil, parsley, garlic, almonds, eggs, and seafood. Each region of the country is divided in provinces where different elements are grown to make up the wide variety of products available to enrich every meal.

Each region passionately incorporates its own way of cooking, and even occasionally chooses a different name for the same dish which is also prepared in other regions. Everywhere in Spain, cooking is one of the most important rituals of daily life, making it a tradition or mix of good food and good company.

The Pan-American Highway

Posted on by
Reply

The Pan-American Highway (Rodovia/Auto-estrada Pan-americana in Portugese and Carretera (or Autopista) Panamericana in Spanish) is a road network almost 50,000 kilometers in total length that links all the nations on the mainland of the Americas. With the notable and embarrassing 87 kilometer gap in the network at Darien, between Panama and Colombia, the road either passes through, or connects to every country on both continents.

The Pan-American Highway system extends from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in North America to the the south of Chile. Several southern end-points are claimed for the highway, including the cities of Puerto Montt and Quellón in Chile and Ushuaia in Argentina. In the USA and Canada with comprehensive road networks, there are no routes officially designated as being part of the highway, and there are multiple different ways to get from the Mexican border to the Canadian/Alaskan border in the north.

The Pan-American Highway passes through the entire diversity of geography and climate on the continents, from the frozen tundra of Alaska through mountains and deserts. Passing through may different countries, the standard of the road does vary, and some stretches are only passable in the dry season.

The concept of a route from one tip of the Americas to the other was originally proposed at the First Pan-American Conference in 1889, initially as a railway, However, this proposal never materialized. The idea of a Pan-American Highway was discussed at the Fifth International Conference of American States in 1923, where it was originally conceived as a single route. Two years later, on October 5th 1925, the first Pan-American Highway conference convened in Buenos Aires.

Three years later, on April 16th, 1928, the “Expedição Brasileira da Estrada Panamericana” began. This Brazilian expedition set out to prove the concept of linking the Americas by road. The team of 3, driving two Ford Model T cars set off for New York with a mission to map and, subsequently, plot a route for a highway that would link the three Americas. It took 10 years to complete the mission, and during that time, they covered 28,000 km and passed through fifteen countries. Having shown that is was possible; construction began, although at very different speeds in individual countries. Mexico Became the first Latin American country to complete its portion of the highway, in 1950, Panama still has not completed its section, resulting in the notorious ‘Darien Gap’.

Sir Henry Morgan

Posted on by
Reply

Sir Henry Morgan has a very bad press here in Panama, blamed for the
capture and ransacking of Porto Bello, the ruthless destruction of the
Spanish fleet that attempted to relieve the city and then burning the
original Panama City. With the recent discovery of what might be
Morgan’s flagship, the ‘Satisfaction’ by archaeologists from Texas
State University, maybe it is time to reconsider Henry Morgan’s
reputation.
Not much is known about Henry Morgan’s early life, even his birth date
is unknown (but estimated to be around 1635), he was related to the
English nobility, but had to make his own way in life. Te first
records of him date from around 1655, when he travelled to Barbados as
a servant to a cutler. He might have been involved in the capture of
Jamaica from Spain during the Anglo-Spanish war of 1654-1660.
At this time, the Spanish Empire was the largest in the world, while
England, though still major world power, with colonies in North
America and trading links throughout the world, was recovering from a
civil war which had cost hundreds of thousands of lives. In order to
fight wars, particularly in distant parts, the English (and other
nation’s) government created ‘privateers’, private vessels and crews
who were authorized to attack foreign vessels belonging to hostile
powers. Morgan became just such a privateer, and although England and
Spain were formally at peace after 1660, worries that the Spanish
might try to reclaim Jamaica resulted in the English colonies in the
region maintaining the privateer fleet and encouraging them to harass
the Spanish. The English government tried to end the practice, such
was the paranoia at the time, that new governors appointed to end the
practice, soon supported it.
It was against this background that Morgan led a number of attacks on
Spanish vessels and settlements, capturing vessels and eventually
becoming admiral of the privateer fleet. Throughout this period,
Morgan took commissions from the governor of Jamaica. However, by
1668, these raids were not producing the expected financial returns,
and so Morgan independently led his fleet against Porto Bello,
capturing and holding the city for several months and ambushing and
destroying the Spanish fleet sent to relieve the city. Although such
acts were piracy, rather than state-sanctioned, Morgan was always
pardoned and offered further official commissions (since he controlled
the most effective fleet in the Caribbean, and was essential to the
defense of Jamaica.
In 1671, Morgan discovered that Panama was defended by a force of less
than 1,500 soldiers and launched his infamous attack. The Spanish,
although untrained, were prepared, and had evacuated much of Panama
City’s wealth to a ship safely out at sea. Further inexperience was
evident when the Spanish commander ordered the magazines set alight,
causing the fire that destroyed the city. Although Morgan was
subsequently tried in London for piracy (his actions had violated the
peace treaty of 1670), he successfully argued that he was unaware of
the peace treaty and was set free.

The Panama Railway today

Posted on by
Reply

The current Panama Railway route stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón to Panama City (by way of Gatun lake, Bujio, Barbacoas, Matachin, and Summit). After World War II, few additional improvements were made to the Panama Railway, and it was allowed to decline after the U.S. government handed over control to the government of Panama in 1979.

However, the Panama Railway has a long established history of surviving against the odds. On June 19, 1998, the government of Panama turned over control to the private Panama Canal Railway Company (“PCRC”), a joint venture between the Kansas City Southern Railroad and privately held Lanigan Holdings, LLC. Between 2000 and 2001, a large project was completed, which upgraded the railway to handle large shipping containers, and allowed it to complement the Panama Canal in cargo transport. The line is now single track with some strategically placed sections of double track to allow trains to pass each other. Since August 2009, motive power has been provided by ten former Amtrak F40PHs, five EMD SD60s and two EMD SD40-2s from the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and one GP10 diesel locomotives.

The railroad also has a fleet of several historic passenger cars in service, including PCRC #102, which is a vintage dome car first built for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1938. Its luxurious passenger service allows travellers to enjoy a journey through the lush jungles of Panama alongside the scenic Panama Canal. The new railway caters to both business executives commuting between Panama City and Colon, and tourists travelling from Colon’s cruise terminals to Panama City.

The Panama Canal Railway is one of the great train rides of the world. Although short and comparatively expensive, the history and scenery make it a bargain. The railroad follows a picturesque path across the Isthmus of Panama between Panama’s two largest cities, Colon and Panama City. The line parallels the Panama Canal for most of its route, passing through lush rainforests, cruising alongside the Canal’s locks, through the historic Gaillard Cut and gliding over slender causeways in Gatun Lake. It effectively links one of the World’s less travelled but most attractive tourism corridors between Colon on the Atlantic Coast and Panama on the Pacific. Passengers disembarking at the Colon 2000 Cruise Terminal, the Gatun Yacht Club, or at Pier 6 in Cristobal can enjoy different shore excursions offered in Panama and ride the historic railroad as did our forefathers in their quest for wealth during the California Gold Rush.

The Panama Railway and the Canal

Posted on by
Reply

Completing construction of the Panama Railway was not the end of their problems. No one had any experience of building a railway in such tropical conditions before, indeed at the time of opening, commercial public railways services were less than 30 years old. Wooden bridges that had served in the US, quickly decayed in the tropical heat and had to be replaced with iron bridges, wooden trestles had to be replaced with gravel embankments and the original pine sleepers proved to have a life of less than a year in the Panamanian climate.

Six heavy locomotives and four lighter ones provided the initial motive-power. Trains were made up from a variety of rolling stock that included 22 passenger cars (each with a capacity of 60 passengers), 51 closed boxcars and 72 flat cars. On opening the First class passenger fare was $25 (one way), children under 12 years old travelled for $6.25, the second class fare was ‘only’ $10 and personal baggage ten cents a pound. Mail was charged at .22 cents a pound, coal was $5.00/ton, first class freight in boxes or bales was .50 cents a cubic foot. All freight charges were paid in gold. The Panama Railroad was a very lucrative investment. From 1855 and 1867 more than $700 million in gold was carried on the railroad without the loss of a single dollar, and earning the railway’s owners 0.25% in fees.

The completion of the Central Pacific – Union Pacific railroad at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869 was the turning point in the fortunes of the Panama Railroad. By 1877 the Panama Railroad had revenues of $1,284,000 and operating expenses of $998,000, leaving a profit of just $286,000. Essentially the railroad was bankrupt. On Wall Street the stock plummeted from $369 per share in 1874 to less than $52 in 1877.

Again though, just when things were looking bleak, the railway again managed to turn things around. The existence of the railway was one of the key factors that contributed s to the selection of Panama as the site of the canal. In 1881 the French Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique purchased controlling interest in the Panama Railway Company. It was then used extensively to provide logistical support for the can al construction effort. When the French Canal effort failed, the value of the railway was not lost on the Americans and in 1904, the United States government under Theodore Roosevelt purchased the railway from the French canal company. At that time, railway assets included some 75 miles (121 km) of track, 35 locomotives, 30 passenger cars, and 900 freight cars.

Under the Americans, the railway enjoyed initial investment, with much of the rolling stock being replaced. However, investment was not maintained and the railway went into decline as the growth of road transport took much of its traffic.

The Construction of the Panama Railway

Posted on by
Reply

The American businessman William H. Aspinwall had created a company and raised funds to build a railway across the Isthmus of Panama, and connect with his San Francisco steamships at Panama City. The project’s timing could not have been better, the discovery of gold in California in January 1848 created a flood of immigrants desperate to reach California …. and a railway across the Isthmus offered the quickest route. In May 1850, the railroad began construction; but very quickly, the difficulty of the scheme became apparent.

Much of the route was through jungle and swamp, the heat was unbearable, mosquitoes (carrying dengue fever, yellow fever, and malaria) were everywhere and for more than half the year, the deluges of rain meant many workers were toiling in water up to four feet deep. The swamps were so deep that they often required more than a hundred feet of gravel backfill to create a stable surface on which the rail lines could be laid. The only power equipment they had came from the railway locomotives and could only reach as far as the railhead, most of the work had to be done by hand using picks, shovels and mule carts.

The cost of constructing the railway was huge, both in financial terms and in the human costs.

Cholera, Yellow fever and malaria took a deadly toll among the workers, and despite the continual supply of large numbers of new workers, there were times when the work stalled for simple lack of healthy labourers. Labourers came from as far away as Ireland, India, China and Australia. The project was facing failure when in November 1851, two large steamships with about 1,000 passengers were forced to shelter in Limón Bay, Panama due to a hurricane in the Caribbean. With the docks built and 7 miles of railway line completed, an emergency service was laid on, carrying passengers (on flatbed cars used for transporting railway sleepers and materials), at the extremely expensive rates of 50 cents per mile for passengers and $3 per 100 pounds of baggage. This windfall saved the company and made it an ongoing money earner. The directors of the company immediately ordered passenger cars, and the railway began commercial operations despite having 40 miles of track still to be laid! Services continued as the line was being built and provided both direct funds and an income against which more finance could be raised.

The complete project took over $8,000,000 to build (8 times the original estimate) and cost between 5,000 and 10,000 lives. Over 170 bridges and culverts had to be built. It was completed in January 1855 and the first train ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific on Sunday, January 28th. The single-track, 47 mile long railroad was the first to connect the oceans.

History of the Panama Canal Railway

Posted on by
Reply

History of the Panama Canal Railway

The Panama Canal Railway Company links the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean across the width of Panama. Presently, it is jointly owned by the Kansas City Southern Railway and Mi-Jack Products. The railway has a fascinating history and holds a number of records.

The original Spanish trails and roads allowed some cargo and travelers to cross the Isthmus of Panama, but by the 19th century they were becoming inadequate and if Panama was not to lose out to other countries, where the journey from the Atlantic to Pacific might be further, but could be made faster and in more comfort. In the 1840′s, the trip across the isthmus was by native dugout boats up the often wild and dangerous Chagres River and by mule for the last remaining 20 miles over old and badly maintained trails. The trip could take around 5 days and was dangerous, with disease and jungle hazards to contend with. Although canal options had been under consideration for some time, it was still considered too expensive. The new railway technology however, seemed to offer the ideal solution.

At the time, Panama was part of La Gran Bolivia (with Venezuela, Ecuador and Colombia) and President Bolivar commissioned a study into the possibility of building a railway from Chagres to Panama City. The report was completed in 1829 and showed that such a railway might be possible. However, the idea was shelved. Further attempts to build a railway by the Americans (in 1836) and French (in 1838) also came to nothing.

Having acquired Upper California and the Oregon Territory in 1846, the United States needed a safe, reliable and speedy link between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In an attempt to address this issue, in the same year, the United States signed a treaty with Colombia under which the US would guarantee Colombian sovereignty over Panama in return for the rights to build a railroad or canal at the Panamanian isthmus. At the same time, Congress authorized a subsidy for steamships to operate from New York to Chagres and from San Francisco to Panama City. William H. Aspinwall, the businessman who had won the contract to build and operate the Pacific mail steamships (San Francisco to Panama City), conceived a plan to construct a railway across the isthmus. With the help of his partners he created the Panama Railroad Company registered in New York and raised $1,000,000.

How Panama Created the British Empire

Posted on by
Reply

Everyone knows of Panama’s involvement in the Spanish Empire, but it was only when a Scottish friend asked why half of Panama was named after his country that I became aware of he key role that Panama played in creating the British Empire. My friend was exaggerating, half of Panama is not named after Scotland, but still you don’t have to travel too far to find a street or area named ‘Caledonia’ (the Ancient Roman’s name for Scotland). He was rather disappointed to discover that “Alba” is the Spanish for dawn, and nothing to do with the old Scottish Gaelic name for their own country!

The reason for so many places being named ‘Caledonia’ dates back to the 1690s and an attempt by the independent Kingdom of Scotland to compete with it’s European neighbors and found a foreign colony. In the late 17th Century, Scotland was in a poor position, it had no overseas colonies, as England and Spain did, it had few exports, a small economy and was at risk of being overshadowed by its powerful English neighbor to the south. As a result, the country welcomed the scheme presented by William Paterson to establish a colony in Darien in Panama. Unfortunately, it was not well thought through, and although the first colonists to arrive in November 1698 were able to establish a fort and begin clearing land for agriculture, they had arrived ill-prepared to take advantage of the natives hostility to the Spanish and agriculture proved much harder than expected. The heat and disease also took its toll, and while there seemed to be some agreement not to let those at home know how bad things were, when the colony was eventually abandoned, only 300 of the original 1,200 settlers returned to Scotland.

News of the colony’s failure did not reach Scotland before a second expedition set sail. Finding an almost totally abandoned settlement, attempts to rebuild were hindered by Spanish attacks and disillusionment. Eventually, this expedition surrendered to the Spanish and were forced to leave.

The failure of the scheme affected almost everyone in lowland Scotland, everyone had invested or seen someone they knew sail of for the Americas, never to return. Almost 25%of the Scot’s currency was invested in the scheme, and after its failure the economy was almost bankrupt. Within a decade, Scotland had signed the Act of Union with England and became part of Great Britain, which would go on to build the largest empire the world has ever seen.