Our Panama Adventure, 1979-1982

 

ARRIVAL

In Summer 1979, I received Army orders for a move to the Atlantic coast of Panama accompanied by my family.  We had asked for this adventure, a chance to live in a very exotic location.  We would be at Fort Gulick, home of the School of the Americas, which offered US-led training for junior officers from all the south and central American countries.  Nearby was Fort Sherman which provided training in military operations in a jungle environment with its extensive triple-canopy jungle field areas.  We had a large and well-used swimming pool one half block away.  A branch of immense Gatun Lake was not much more than a hundred yards away; you could spend days exploring all its bays, channels and islands.  Ocean-going vessels passed through it as part of the Canal system. Fishing for peacock bass in lake Gatun is excellent.  The ocean was just a few minutes away, and jungle surrounded us. 

By 1982, there was no US Canal Zone.  We lived there during the entire transition.  Initially the Zone was its own country, but its stores were starting to close soon after our arrival.  As we left, buildings & houses in the previous Zone were being transferred to Panama. 

When we arrived, the Canal Zone was US soil.  The Canal Zone border was not marked by a fence, but by an obvious difference between the carefully mowed and maintained grass on one side and the trash and weeds of adjacent Panama.  Later, we went through a transition as Jimmy Carter agreed to cede the lands back to Panama with the US-built Canal.  Police then formed joint patrols.  The US security was efficient at catching crooks, and the Panamanian police provided harsh justice.  Older buildings on base were refurbished before being turned over to Panama.  After the turnover, Panama (Noriega) required that the Panamanian flag be flown above the US flag; instead, our base flagpole was removed. When we left, the Zone existed no longer; it was all Panama headed by the dictator Noriega.  Today, those refurbished buildings are decayed shells.

 At the time of our move, our son, Colin, was only a few months past his second birthday, and our daughter, Meghan, was just six months old.  Upon arrival at Fort Gulick, we were temporarily lodged in the “general’s quarters”, used by the commanding general when he visited the area.  These quarters had the appearance of a cheap motel.  My comment when walking through for the first time was, “Is this what I have to aspire to if I make general?”  When assigned permanent quarters, we were required to buy and install our own window air conditioning units (one for upstairs and one for downstairs).  On the day of moving into our new quarters, we were sweating and struggling to get some furniture installed and the A/C running, when tired little Colin cried, “I want to go home!”  We had to explain, “This is home.”

Our quarters were the left half of this building duplex.  The first floor was an open area where we parked our car; I screened in part of it as a secure play area and outdoor shop.

In Air Force housing on the Pacific coast, housing quarters featured central air conditioning, tile floors (ours were linoleum), and a well-kept children’s playground nearby (I complained about broken play equipment at our playground).  At another time, we were able to stay in an Air Force general’s quarters temporarily, which were truly deluxe compared to what the Army offered for their general.

Our quarters were three stories high, part of a duplex built of concrete.  The first story was simply an open area of elevated concrete supports which could be used as a carport with also a small storage room.  The living area was on the second story, with bedrooms on the third story.  Concrete is resistant to the harsh tropical climate.  We had no gutters because conventional gutters could not handle the heavy downpour of daily rains (Rain came in bucket-fulls for about 1 ½ hours and then the sun would return).  Instead, there were concrete troughs placed in the ground to catch the sheets of water coming off the roof.  These troughs then joined into a canal drainage system.

We had two highly productive coconut trees in our yard.  If you want the juice, cut them open with a machete while they are green.  I also planted banana plants (obtained from the nearby jungle) so that we could harvest stalks of bananas at home. (many choices: regular bananas, finger bananas, red bananas, Chinese bananas, plantains).  Our backyard was continually wet at the peak of the rainy season.  Dry season was from mid-December to mid-March.

I planted bananas in our side yard and could periodically harvest an entire stalk.  Wild bananas were not difficult to find also, but bring a machete.

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

Very exotic surroundings.  Flocks of parrots were always present.  On our daily walks we saw and heard families of monkeys in the trees.  Occasionally, a beautiful toucan would fly past.  Bats came out at sunset.  Slow-moving sloths might spend days in one tree before moving on.  Coatimundis, relatives of the racoon, were common.  Large iguanas were called “Panamanian chicken” because they apparently tasted similar.  I watched a hawk swoop down and pluck a resting bat out of the palm tree outside our window.  Cutter ants are an amazing phenomenon; They would cut a path across the lawn to a nearby tree; then, in only 1-2 days, they would strip every leaf from that tree and carry it back to their anthill.  Do not stand in their path!  Absolutely gorgeous large Royal Blue butterflies would flit past just out of reach.  Also, an annual migration of large colorful moths and a migration of crabs from coastal marshes to the ocean.  One evening Dawn was driving home when she saw a log stretched out across the road; upon closer approach, she realized that it was a large boa constrictor crossing the road!

Three-toed sloths were common. They would stay in one tree for days, calmly munching on the leaves.

And finally: every quarters came with its resident population of large cockroaches.  You could put out layers of poison crystals, and the cockroaches would bath in it and not be bothered.  We came to an agreement: they would hide most of the day, but at night, the house was theirs.  All perishables had to be kept in the refrigerator, canned, or in well-sealed tupperware.  They could survive by eating the glue from the joints in a cardboard box or labels off canned goods.  I opened our car door and found one sitting on the driver’s seat; waiting to drive? 

Dawn quickly turned our concrete box into a home with rugs, drapes, furniture arrangements, wall decorations, books, and other accents.  She did similar feats for every move we made, giving our children the security of comfortable surroundings.  I bought lumber and screening and converted our open lower level into a screened in play area for the children (plus space for boat building).  We became acquainted with all our neighbors, and the kids played together on the playground.  Periodically we adults would bring pitchers of margaritas to the playground, and we would all play volleyball.

Next door were a Special Forces captain and his wife.  Special Forces are what Hollywood calls “Green Berets”.  Their mission is to work with native groups in foreign countries providing them training in military equipment and tactics as well as general support.  As such, SF are proficient in foreign languages, small unit tactics, many weapons systems, communications, and medical services.  In Panama, SF were allowed to go to remote villages and provide medical/dental services (usually extractions), We, US-trained dentists, could teach the SF medics but not go on these missions because we did not have Panamanian dental licenses!  Our SF captain was often gone for extended periods; his wife described their marriage as a series of affairs, separated by his frequent absences.

Soon after moving in, a young Panamanian woman came to our door asking if we would hire her as a maid.  That was not our plan, no maid!  She became insistent; she needed a job at least three days per week.  She was a single parent with a five y.o. boy.  She wanted $50 per month.  Hesitantly, Dawn agreed.  We discovered how fortunate we were to have her!  Filomena was a wonderful person.  So industrious; so good with the children!  We learned to trust her completely.  Dawn and I took trips and left her in charge of our home.  She temporarily moved into our house with her little boy while we were gone.

Filomena, our wonderful Panamanian maid.  Without her, Dawn & I would not have been able to take off, just the two of us, nearly as frequently.

ON (AND UNDER) THE WATER

With all this water around us, I wanted a boat.  A quick evaluation: no trailers or launch ramps; coral reefs just off the ocean beaches; I would need a shallow draft, cartopable boat design.  I was able to buy some plywood and tools before the Canal Zone hardware store went out of business.  I bought lumber in Colon. I ordered sailcloth and epoxy resin from the States and started building.  It had a mast, daggerboard, and rudder with oars for back up.  It could carry the entire family.  When sailing alone on Gatun Lake one day, a gust of wind broke the mast, and I had to row several miles to get home.  I took our dog, Daisy, and a map, and the two of us explored a remote section of the lake, wending our way between islands.  Dawn, Colin, and I went fishing & swimming from the boat.  Filomena disapproved of my building technique.  For her, the proper method was to cut down a large tree and hollow out the trunk.  The resulting cayucas were common among the natives.

First you build the frame, 15 1/2 feet by 4 feet.

My unfinished boat hull in our back yard.  I built it in our screened-in 1st floor.  It was light enough that we transported on top of our Toyota station wagon.

The boat had a sprit sail; easy to put up and take down and could nest within the hull itself.

A native Cayuca being hewn out of a single log.  Imagine how much work that must be.

One time, Dawn suggested we take our boat and sail down the coast.  Once we got out of the bay and into the waves of the open ocean, I concluded that it was not built for such strenuous conditions, and we turned back.  We were able to sail it across bays or to nearby islands. Picture the most perfect deserted tropical island you can imagine; we have been there.  We would bring a picnic basket, drinks and a machete.  Occasionally, I would find a stalk of wild bananas to cut down and bring home.   The resulting boat served us for our three years, and I sold the boat when we left.

We were able to sail across a bay to this deserted cove with great snorkeling on the offshore reef.  No one else anywhere near here.  When the kids got older, we were able to bring them with a picnic lunch.  We also found an uninhabited island elsewhere on the coast where we enjoyed snorkeling. 

The Spanish fortress at Portobello.  Totally abandoned with the cannon still in place.  When we visited more recently, they now have a parking lot and park office.

This was the native settlement directly adjacent to Portobello.  The fortress wall is at the right edge of this photo.

Our clinic schedule was nine hours per day, five days per week with one afternoon off.  Dawn and I normally went snorkeling on that afternoon off.  The reefs were spectacular with many forms of coral and brilliant colored fish.  Moray eels, with their strong sharp jaws, always scared me.  They could be hiding in any hole.  Once I encountered a big moray eel swimming toward me in a narrow coral channel; I scrambled up onto exposed coral (with attendant scrapes) rather than risk irritating that moray eel.  Another time snorkeling, I was admiring coral formations below when I sensed something watching me.  I looked up to see the toothy grin of a large barracuda just below the water’s surface.  I kept eye contact and slowly backed away.  A neighbor was seriously slashed by a barracuda while swimming in slightly cloudy water.  Sharks kept to the deeper water; I stayed near the shallower coral gardens. 

With a swimming pool just down the block and the year-around warm weather of Panama, we taught Colin and Meghan to swim at early ages.  Colin told us he preferred to swim in the deep end of the pool because there was more water to “hold him up”.  We did not explain otherwise.  Later we bought them goggles and took them to the ocean where they could view the brightly colored fish.  Upon return to the States, we enrolled them on a summer swim team, and they did well.  The team won the state championship (great coach).

Meghan learning to swim at age 2.  We played games with them in the nearby pool.  While standing chest deep in the pool, one of us would toss a child just short of the other parent. We would let our child land in the water and go completely under; then we would pluck them up to our body.  They learned to hold their breath. Later, we had them diving for coins on the bottom. They had no fear.

A Trans-Isthmian running race was held periodically, open to military and civilian teams: 50 miles from Atlantic to Pacific with ten-man teams.  I ran one five-mile leg for our "also-ran" dental team.  Most amazing was the Army team from Fort Bragg.  They flew to Panama in Air Force C-141 transports, parachuted into the jungle for a training exercise, then organized and sent a ten-man team out from the jungle to compete and place among the top finishers.

LOCAL TRAVEL

When we wanted to go to the big city, we went to Panama City.  From there we could take a short ferry to Taboga island for a weekend.  Another option was to drive to El Valle, a resort village located at a higher altitude in the caldera of an extinct volcano.  Colon was only a few miles from Fort Gulick; we could go there for dinner at the yacht club.  While eating, you might watch a lizard scramble up the wall. Downtown Colon could be dangerous.  Our duplex neighbor was robbed at noon on the main street of Colon.  She parked her car; bent over to lock the door, and, when she straightened up, she felt a knife in her back.  I always wore running shoes when I went into Colon; I parked in an open area and with cash in my sock, next to my shoe, I headed for the store (usually for lumber) at a rapid pace.

Taken on Taboga island when we visited there with my parents.

The Colon Free Zone was on the east edge of Colon.  This was a large area of warehouses and wholesale sales areas meant for merchant trade.  Somehow, we were able to talk our way past the entrance guards and make purchases at attractive prices.  We bought our Betamax there and had tapes for it.  There was only one TV station to watch.  All military adults in Panama followed the latest episodes of “General Hospital”; the children had “Plaza Sesamo”.  The Free Zone is considerably enlarged today.

As a reward for getting potty trained, we took Colin on a “special trip” just for him.  We went to a beachfront native motel on the Pacific coast.  Beautiful beach to walk on barefoot, watched the sunset, then had dinner.  Back at our room, we discovered that there was a large gap between the top of our room walls and the roof with no screening between.  Night fell; the breeze stopped, and the mosquitoes arrived.  Dawn and I were hot, miserable and bug-bit.  Sometime after midnight, Colin woke up with a cry, “I want to go home.”  In about five minutes, we were all in the car and headed down the road.  This was a jungle road passing through small villages.  Some sort of festival was going on in all the villages; the villagers were up late and partying in the middle of the road, which provided the largest open space in their small villages.  Bleary-eyed we drove through the night, watching for people in the road, arriving home at about sunrise.  In conclusion, a “not-so-special” trip.

Driving east along the Atlantic coast from Colon we could visit the remains of an old Spanish fort at Portobello.  Hundreds of years ago, this was the outlet of a trail for bringing Inca gold from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic.  Cannon were still in place on the walls.  A native village was nearby.  Driving west along the coast, through the Fort Sherman training area, we could arrive at Fort San Lorenzo, another ancient Spanish fort located on a bluff overlooking the outlet of Chagres River, and a thought-provoking look at history.  A yacht harbor has now been built where Fort Sherman was previously.

THROUGHOUT PANAMA

When I was previously in the US Navy, I was trained in navigation.  Afterwards, I studied a book on Polynesian navigation techniques, not using instruments.  Friends bought a 46-foot diesel trawler in Miami and asked me to act as navigator bringing it south to Panama.  I agreed, and it turned out to be quite an adventure. I needed those Polynesian techniques.  I have written of that trip separately, titled “A Voyage to Remember”.  They, Charles and Jean, later invited us to cruise to the San Blas islands with them.  These islands are quite remote; located east along the Atlantic coast; semi-autonomous and inhabited by the Guna Indians.  That trip became another adventure when we ran aground on an uninhabited atoll beach.  That trip is recorded in "Cruising the San Blas islands".

Arriving back at Colon after my voyage from Miami.  Little Colin & Meghan with their dad.  Meghan wanted to go home and get "the yuckies" off my face.

We visited the San Blas islands a second time, with my parents, by air.  The main thrill there was landing on the short island airstrip in a small STOL aircraft.  By the time the plane stopped, we were only feet from the ocean’s edge.  We toured a Guna Indian village.  The tallest of these Indians were only about five feet tall, but they are rugged people, hewing their livelihood out of the sea and jungle with fish spears and machetes.  They live on the islands instead of the mainland because it is safer and healthier.

This Guna (several spellings are used) woman is selling Molas- brightly-colored, woven squares of cloth.

This woman is doing laundry with a hollowed-out section of log as a basin.

Life in a Guna village.  Laundry on the clothesline, large molas, bamboo houses.

The San Blas islands tend to be small but many of them.  Some are densely inhabited, while many others are completely uninhabited and only visited for fishing or to harvest coconuts.

We also took my parents to Taboga island.  They went on their own to Contadora island, a deluxe resort destination farther off the Pacific coast reached by commercial flights. For a final thrill, we negotiated with some native fishermen in a big outboard-driven cayuca (about 40’ by 4’ hewn from a single log) to take us to a remote beach, miles down the Atlantic coast.  They were to drop us off on the beach, spend the day fishing, and finally return to bring us back to their small village.  If they had not returned (and our ability to communicate had been limited), I have no idea how we would have gotten back to civilization.

Playa Blanca was further east along the Atlantic coast, only reached by a 45- minute trip by motorized cayuca. We had some native fishermen drop us off here for the day, but we wondered, did they understand to pick us up at the end of the day?  Darkness comes quickly in the tropics. 

On a less eventful trip we visited the mountainous areas of western Panama, near the towns of David and Boquete.  This is a mountainous, coffee-growing area at a higher altitude near the border of Costa Rica.  The visit was a group trip with friends.  Filomena was at our home watching our children.

OTHER COUNTRIES

Occasionally, a military person could catch an Air Force transport on a space-available basis, flying to an interesting destination.  Dawn and I were able to visit the high country (almost 10,000 feet altitude) around Quito, Ecuador, this way.  Instead of arriving at the passenger terminal, our AF transport landed at the far end of the airfield, and we caught a taxi to our B&B, “Los Alpes”, with a week to explore Ecuador.  The visit was enjoyable; our small B&B comfortable; we had a guide to show us around; crossed the equator and visited a marketplace and native Indian home.  You would see these short natives wrapped in brightly colored garb walking along the road carrying huge bundles on their head.  The end of our visit became a “situation”.  Our AF transport had troubles and would not be leaving.  I had to get back to the clinic and patients.  We went to the commercial airline terminal to buy tickets.  But our passports had not been stamped at entry; thus, we were in the country illegally.  We were taken to an office and closely questioned.  Fortunately, they accepted our explanation, and we were able to board our Braniff International Airways flight.  Amazingly, Braniff went bankrupt that week, and we never received a credit card charge for that flight!

The marketplace in a Ecuador village.  Dawn bought hand-made Christmas ornaments which we still use.

Native women street-side in rural Ecuador.  This is high altitude near Quito; thus, they are warmly dressed.

Visiting a native home in rural Ecuador near the equator but at high altitude.  Out of sight is a loom where she is weaving cloth with ornamental images.  We have other photos, but the house is terribly crude and dirty.  They keep some animals in the house.

An ornamental weaving being shown in a small store.  That is Dawn at the left; note how much taller she is than the natives.

I visited Bogota, Columbia, as part of a military medical mission.  We provided care for the embassy personnel, Marine guards, and military attaches.  Bogota is located at high altitude (8,660 feet); thus, the climate is mild.  Lots of visible wealth. People wearing formal suits; driving Mercedes; living in expensive neighborhoods.  We were transported in a van with an armed driver.  The Columbian Army allowed us to use their local dental clinic, which was better equipped than ours back in Panama.  We were also treated to an extensive dinner at a fine restaurant by our Columbian army hosts.  The city reminded me of San Francisco.  I do not think all that wealth came from growing coffee.  Dawn was also able to visit Columbia with a group of women.  They visited Medellin as well as Bogota.

I volunteered for two other medical missions. In downtown Caracas, Venezuela, we stayed in an upscale hotel while treating the embassy-associated personnel.  The airport is located near the coast; to get to the city you drive upslope to a 2400-foot altitude (slightly cooler).  My most lasting memory is of the many grubby shacks on the hillsides overlooking the bustling modern city center.

Our medical group next visited Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.  The facilities there were modest.  My dental operatory was improvised in a bathroom.  My dentist seat was a toilet seat (lid down); my patients were laid back in a lawn chair.  We used a portable dental unit brought on our military flight.  We were treated very well by our hosts.  They provided dinner at a beautiful open-air restaurant overlooking the ocean.  One day we attended an air show given by the Dominican Republic air force.  The fact that their aircraft were mostly World War Two vintage made it highly interesting.  In other countries, such aircraft are found only in museums.  

When our tour in Panama was about to end, Dawn wanted to take a driving trip to San Jose, Costa Rica.  I was hesitant.  Our Toyota, exposed to the tropical heat and humidity, had not been properly serviced for almost three years.  The tires were worn.  She was insistent, so we set out. The section of highway was mainly a smooth but gravel-covered road.  After hours on the road, we started hearing a “thump-thump-thump” from a tire.  Stopping to look, I could see the exposed steel cords of a radial tire.  Rubber was slapping against the wheel well.

 I replaced that tire with our spare, but another tire was in almost the same condition.  We drove slowly for the remainder of the distance (with our fingers crossed), arriving at night to find our hotel.  The next day we set out to buy more tires.  Calling the American embassy, they gave us a store recommendation. At the tire store, the exact tire size we wanted was displayed in the front window!  Success!  But not so fast…. From the store clerk, we heard “una llanta solamente”; the tire displayed in the window was the only one they had in stock.  In that part of the world, with the generally rough roads, bias-ply tires are preferred, and we needed a radial tire.

  We enjoyed our week in Costa Rica:  the city, the beaches, the food, trails in the forest. And prices (in dollars) were very modest.  Driving back to Panama, we were stopped by the Panamanian border guards.  It was obvious that they wanted a bribe to get through their border post.  Dawn and I feigned ignorance of their Spanish until they finally got frustrated and waved us through.  We were not some tourists; we lived in Panama!  Our tires held up on the drive back, and we finished our tour in Panama with two good tires, two well-worn tires, and no spare.

MORE RECENTLY

In recent years we have returned on individual trips to Panama, Costa Rica, and Ecuador.  Panama has made much progress.  The US military made a return visit and toppled Noriega’s dictatorship.  People there like Americans for all we have done for the country.  The US dollar is their standard currency, providing stability to the country.  Panama has grown as an international trade center.  Panama City has many new skyscrapers; the old part of the city is being renovated.  The Trans-Isthmian highway has been improved.  A new wider canal has been completed. We saw more vacation beach homes, more yachts, nicer hotels and shopping centers.  Some Americans are finding it an affordable place to retire.

We visited Costa Rica simply to see more of the country.  We flew into San Jose; departing the following morning; first to visit Manuel Antonio NP on the Pacific coast; then to visit the mountains of Arenal-Monteverde.  Our rental car was an under-powered little tin box which created excitement when Dawn attempted to pass on a crowded highway.  Flooring the gas pedal produced no increase in speed and left us in the lane of oncoming traffic.  In the mountains, the roads are an endless series of curves. Fairly peaceful and civilized with great variety of sights.  They complain about the Nicaraguans sneaking into the country and taking local jobs.

Guayaquil, Ecuador was an in-route stop on our way to the Galapagos islands.  It is on the coast with a more tropical climate than high-altitude Quito.  We had a very nice boutique hotel for a few days stay.  It is recommended to allow these few days due to the uncertainty of connections.  And the time was needed (unexpected adventure) due to our airline losing Dawn’s luggage.  We had to do some quick shopping for her, with added difficulty because Dawn is much taller than the native women.  Now, Dawn always packs clothing in her carry-on luggage.

It was our many extraordinary experiences in Panama which made Dawn prefer that we build a career in the military, rather than going into private dental practice.  The choice suited my outlook also.  As she said, "I don't want to live in one town for the next 20-30 years."  I always told our family, "Teeth look pretty much the same everywhere; let's decide as a family where we want to live next assignment."