2256, 2603 PANAMA - Panama Canal

Posted on 31.01.2016, 09.06.2016
People have dreamed since the 16th century to pass with ships from the Atlantic into the Pacific Ocean without traveled around South America, but this was not possible until 1914, when the Panama Canal was opened. Since then, a ship which leaves from New York to San Francisco no longer have to travel 22,500km, as the Cape Horn route involved, but only 9,500km. Considered one of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, it cost the lives of 27,500 workers.

It takes 6 to 8 hours to pass through the Panama Canal, which has 77km lenght, and cuts across the Isthmus of Panama. There are locks at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26m above sea level. The current locks are 33.5m wide. A third, wider lane of locks is currently under construction and is due to open in 2016. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, to 14,702 vessels in 2008.

2531 PANAMA - Kuna people

The Kuna, also known as Cuna or Guna, are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. In the Kuna language, they call themselves Dule or Tule, meaning "people", and the name of the language in Kuna is Dulegaya, literally "people-mouth". The most Kunas live on small islands off the coast of the comarca of Kuna Yala known as the San Blas Islands. The other two Kuna comarcas in Panama are Kuna de Madugandí and Kuna de Wargandí.

2423 PANAMA - Archaeological Site of Panamá Viejo and Historic District of Panamá (UNESCO WHS)

2423 Casco Viejo in Panama City - The Metropolitan Cathedral

Founded in 1519 by the conquistador Pedrarías Dávila, Panamá Viejo is the oldest European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas. It was laid out on a rectilinear grid and marks the transference from Europe of the idea of a planned town. Abandoned in the mid-17th century, it was replaced by a "new town" (the Historic District - known as Casco Viejo, Spanish for Old Quarter), which has also preserved its original street plan, its architecture and an unusual mixture of Spanish, French and early American styles.

1300 PANAMA - Pollera de gala (Festive polleras)

There are many traditions that have been adopted as characteristic of Panama's nationality, but among all of these probably no single expression stands higher than the pollera, the women's national dress. Along with the other traditional Latin American dresses, the pollera descended from the Spanish dress of the 16th and 17th centuries, although it's hard to indicated its exact point of origin. Behold what wrote Nieves de Hoyos, director of the Museo del Pueblo Espanol, in an article published in the Revista de Indias of December, 1963: "The origin is in Spain, but not from the regional Spanish dress, which contrary to general opinion did not develop its current form until the eighteenth century or later. The pollera in Panama evolved from the Spanish feminine dress of the seventeenth century, not from the court dress with its grand hoops covered with velvets and embroidered silks embellished with laces, gold, and silver threads - the dress which immediately comes to mind to most people because they have frequently seen the pictures of Velazquez. In the seventeenth century, as in any other time, contemporary with the beautiful court dresses there was the daily house dress, which in this epoch was generally white with a full skirt of two or three ruffles embroidered or appliqued in floral designs. This description is, simply, the pollera."