Yellow Fever Vaccinations in Panama
We recently had a friend from Canada visiting who is on her way to Asia later this year. She discovered here that if she visits Panama she needs to have a Yellow Fever shot to enter many other countries because Yellow Fever can sometimes be found in the country of Panama in the far outlying areas. There are quite a number of countries (check this website for the list: http://www.who.int/ith/countries/2008_country_list.pdf) with Yellow Fever Vaccination requirements. Once you get the vaccination it is good for 10 years, and when traveling to any countries which require that you have the shots you must carry your vaccination booklet.

Yellow fever is a mosquito born virus, carried by the Aedes and Haemagogus species of mosquito which is prevalent during daylight hours. It is recommended that you protect yourself by having a vaccination and using mosquito lotion regularly. In Panamanian cities and towns there are regular inspections by the Department of Health for mosquito breeding areas, and they also spray often especially during rainy season.

World Health Organization Yellow Fever recommendations for Panama: Vaccination is recommended for all travelers who are going to the Province of Darien, the region Kuna Yala (old San Blas), East Panama including the districts of Chep, Chiman and Balboa. This does not include the City of Panama and the Panama Canal area (old Canal Zone).

I had been investigating vaccinations and which are possible to get in Panama. That is when the nurses told me that the Department of Health offers a FREE Yellow Fever vaccination program for everyone. That´s right FREE. That includes Panamanians, foreign residents, and visitors. You do have to pay $5 for your registration of the shot and your vaccination booklet.

My friend and I both were both inoculated. I was impressed with the speed of service (there were no other patients there), cleanliness, and the nurses were helpful, knowledgeable and kind. The health facility itself was a basic tropical clinic but it was clean and organized.

I should add this is not a new program but has been offered for some time now and I just did not have the time to get out to the clinic.

I am a sucker for punishment, so I am now on a quest to find the other Panamanian clinics which offer inoculations as well. The nurse told us that the Department of Health Public Clinics throughout Panama offer vaccinations which are on their regular schedule of recommended childhood and adult shots such as hepatitis, tetanus, etc... for no charge or very limited charges. They also will have the flu vaccine at certain times of year. That will be our next mission, to find the clinics, schedules and prices...

Yellow Fever Vaccinations are available at the Department of Health (Salud) Clinic in Clayton, look for the IDAAN sign on the right on the street just before the Crossroads Church (if you see the church you have gone too far) on the way to Miraflores Locks. The clinic is open 7:30 am until noon Monday Thru Saturday.

In the 1970s Jimmy Carter was in the White House, and came up with the idea of giving the Panama Canal back to Panama. Carter believed he could improve relations with Panama in particular and Latin America in general if he turned over the canal to that country.

All manner of right wing folks, including Ronald Reagan, foamed at the mouth about giving back our icon of imperialism to a banana republic, and predicted all manner of bad results: the Panamanians couldn't operate the canal, they would give it to the Chinese, and on and on.

Adam Clymer, former Washington Bureau Chief of The New York Times, tells in his book of Carter's efforts to sway public opinion to his side. At the time, Senator Howard Baker of Tennessee was the Senate minority leader, and various efforts were made to convince him to support the new treaty.

Enter Reverend Mull, who at the time had a nightly show in Knoxville on which he and his wife, "Lady Mull," played Southern Gospel hits. Someone from the White House contacted Mull, who was a big time Democrat, and sold him on selling the canal treaties, which he did in his own unique way. "Now suppose we had 9,400 Japanese or Russian troops marching up and down the Mississippi," he'd argued, night after night. "Even though it was our land, here they'd be right in the middle of us. Do you think we'd like that? Do you? I'll tell you right now, Doc, we wouldn't put up with that--but that's just what they want the people in Panama to do."

I was the East Tennessee stringer for The New York Times in those days, and I wrote an article about Mull that included those words above and some more of his colorful prose. "I'm a Democrat," he added. "I sometimes tell people that Jesus Christ was the first Democrat because he rode a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. If he had been a Republican he would have ridden a donkey."

I ran a one-stop journalism shop back then and often took photos for my own stories. Here is one of Mull in his basement studio in his home.

For his efforts to sell the Panana Canal treaties, Rev. and Lady Mull were invited to the White House, and my article ran in the Times on the day they were there. President Carter mentioned the story to Rev. Mull in the receiving line, and the good reverend called me up when he got back to Knoxville. "Let me tell you," he exclaimed. "That New York paper really gets around."

Thus began a curious relationship between Rev. Mull and me. His radio show would end at 11:00 PM, and many nights he would call me at that point to talk politics. He took a great interest in national, state, and local politics, and we would discuss candidates and issues.

I moved to Massachusetts and Rev. Mull continued his radio shows and gospel concerts. He was inducted into the Southern Gospel Hall of Fame in 2003 and died in 2006. Last year, I tried to get the Mull family interested in writing a book on Rev. and Lady Mull, but nothing ever came of it. That's too bad. Lady Mull, when I met her, had a wonderful memory of her years in the worlds of gospel music and politics. Their story should be recorded while she is still here to tell it.

There is no mention of Mull in the Clymer book. Here's a lecture by Clymer on the Panama Canal treaties given on May 22, 2008 at the Library of Congress.

This blog is part of a much larger website, also entitled Tennessee Guy, that contains travel and cultural information about Tennessee. Visit it here.

Below is the Culebra Cut. Check out those steam shoves digging away:

If you look along the top edge of the photo, you can almost see how unstable the soil is. There were numerous landslides that ruined equipment and killed workers as the project progressed. The next photo is a look down at the Gatun Locks, north approach.

That's a massive set of concrete walls in there. If you look carefully on the far right side of the photo, you'll see a knot of men, probably curious as to how the photographer was creating this picture. To get a sense of scale for these locks, take a look at the Miraflores Locks at the lower level below:

The locks seem to go on forever. Note the railcars on the left, with tracks built right to the job site. Another point to remember is that the size of battleships was limited to the width of the locks in the Panama Canal. This way, they would be able to go from the Atlantic to the Pacific in the event they were needed in one hemisphere or the other.

Finally, here is a look at the approach to the first lock.

I have yet to traverse the Panama Canal. I missed a chance some years ago. A friend was relocating a tugboat from the West Coast of the United States to Philadelphia. I wish I would have made that journey.  Given the international traffic through Panama, it is the type of place (as Casablanca used to be) that is the perfect setting for intriguing stories. Plus, there is the possibility of escape or capture aboard a departing vessel, exciting chases through jungles, along rail lines, and through crowded towns. Then there is the climate, raining, tropical, vibrant. You never know. I've added Panama to my list of locations for the future.

I'd like to hear from cruise ship passengers who have been through recently. It would be something to notice the differences in things. Don't hesitate to post comments. Thanks!

The projected increase in shipping volume should be good news for Panama’s dollarized economy, which is likely to feel pressure from the current downturn in the United States, and is revealing how much the high demand for goods in China may be impacting Panama’s economy in the future. As China begins to increase its influence in important shipping areas such as Panama, it will be interesting to see what effects this will have on Panama’s economy and real estate markets in the long term.

It is projected that container shipments in Panama will increase 10% in the next year (photo from www.wikipedia.org)

Source:

Panama sees strong shipping container growth (Reuters.com)

These increases in fees come amid a slowdown in overall traffic at the canal.  The current delay for vessels is now 36 – 48 hours, which is down from a peak of nearly 10 days a few months ago.  The average time it takes to cross the canal has also been decreased since March, from over 50 hours transit time to 20 hours.  The total number of ships traveling through the canal has decreased 2% in the first three months of 2008, while tonnage dropped 2.3%.

According to the Panama Canal Authority, the decrease in transit time can be partially attributed to making the passage process more efficient.  The decrease in transportation through the canal may be attributed to several factors, including the slowdown in the US economy and decline of the US dollar.

Sources:
US cruise ship pays fortune to cross Panama (Reuters.com)

Panama canal transit times fall (Lloydslist.com)

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E&OE

Meanwhile, I hope they get home to celebrate with friends back in Virginia Beach. See the post below for details on their waiting game in Germany.

Here are some photos from their big day in Panama, 1968. Some of the players include my Italian grandparents, Terzo and Vicenza, who traveled from Rome for the Big Day. They didn't speak English, so Mom was busy translating . . . and they smiled a lot. My father's parents were stationed at the Panama Canal in those days. Grandpa George was the Navy's executive officer of the base there. (Dad, please correct me on any of these factoids.)

Mom and Dad wed in Panama, with Dad due to sail for Vietnam shortly thereafter. I was there, too, in a way, tucked into the folds of Mom's wedding dress. Can you tell?

From the landing in Madden Lake it is a 10 minute dug out canoe ride to the touristy village.  The authentic village of San Juan de Pequini takes 40 minutes to an hour, depending on the level of the river.  This is my daughter, Rebecca, and my niece, Ryanna.  They were mocking a British comedy show, "Little Brittons."  You can put the kids through college, but, in the end, when they get together . . . they are still kids!

I must have been about eleven years old when I first starting going to my French grandparents' place for summer vacation over in the bush of Paraiso. Pa'riso bush, as we always knew it, was behind the railroad tracks going east from the town of Pa'riso. Grandfather and grandmother Julienne were not really my grandparents; they were my uncle's in-laws, but they were very loving old people and were glad to host us for summer vacation with their own grandchildren. We became just like one of their own brood of grand kids and even called each other cousins.

The house they first lived in was a "bohio," a Panama style thatched roof cabin made of wooden planks and small tree trunks. When my uncle married their daughter he decided he would take advantage of the closing of the town of Red Tank and secured a completely dismantled house of the many that were left of Red Tank.

We moved the house piece by piece in his little old Chevy truck to the site of the bohio and started to assemble it again. My grandfather Julienne was always busy in the bush tending to his yams and ground food garden. One day, when he came home tired from the day's labors at his bush garden, he was met with the surprise that people had torn down his old cabin roof and yelled and screamed at my uncle, "Why you do this thing to me, Pinky!" He was truly upset and my grandmother and cousins had to hold him down and give him some water as well as reassure him that everything would be just fine.

After they calmed him down my uncle proceeded to explain that they would have a new house. Shortly thereafter the reassembled house from Red Tank started taking shape and soon my grandparents had a new home. We even painted the place and resettled the old folks and the place became our "summer camp."

I soon became my grandmother Julienne's errand boy going to the Pa'riso Commissary and back and forth to Panama City bringing and taking messages and/or stuff between both grandmothers. This is how I eventually discovered the old French Cemetery.

It happened after many trips across this seemingly overgrown and abandoned field over the hill from my grandparent's place. Actually it was a short cut for me to get to the commissary. After a while I noticed, through the foot path that we kids made, that we were walking through some kind of very old burial ground. We began seeing small iron crosses and we would even sit and rest a spell feeling comfortable with our surroundings. One day we saw some black people attempting to clean the area especially around the crosses. This is when I knew that my suspicions were correct.

This was back in 1947. In 1994 it was "recovered." The burial ground is the resting place of some of the first workers of the Panama Canal from the French Construction era (1880-1889), from mostly Martinique, Jamaica and St. Lucia. These people most probably were the West Indian workers who worked on the Pacific side. The photos we have provided is how it looks today but the old French Cemetery has not been pronounced a national monument and is not listed anywhere as a recognized historical monument site.

In tracing a lot of my people's history I found that the French builders also buried many of their West Indian laborers in Monkey Hill or Mount Hope Cemetery on the Atlantic side of the Canal near the city of Colon.

In 2007 Brazil finally experienced a trade deficit with China. "Brazil's official figures show its China-bound exports totaled $10.75 billion in value in 2007, with imports from China reaching $12.62 billion," according to Xinhua. " 6 percent of all Brazilian exports went to China last year, while 10 percent of all imports came from China," according to NPR.  Bilateral trade rose 71.7% in 2007. Trade between the two took off between 2000 and 2003, when trade rose five-fold, and then again from 2004-2007 when trade more than doubled (BBC).

In 2007, the United States, Brazil's #1 trading partner, exported $24.6 billion to Brazil and imported $25.6 billion; however, China may soon supplant the United States and Argentina in trade importance to Brazil.

In Brazil's July-launched China Agenda program, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Secretary spoke of hopes to triple exports to China by 2010, which would account for $30 billion. This could mean that by 2011, Brazilian-China trade could surpass US-Brazil trade. However, I think that is unlikely, as I explain below.

China Supplies Mfg. Goods, Brazil Supplies Raw Materials

"96 percent of Brazil's Chinese imports are high-value manufactured goods, 74 percent of its exports to China are low-value commodities such as soybeans and pig iron," according to the AP.

According to Agenda China, Brazil hopes to increase exports of 619 product lines, including "Brazilian pharmaceutical products, chemicals, plastics, shoes and metals, as well as expanding the array of agricultural goods, through a higher Brazilian presence at trade fairs and through visiting delegations of businessmen" (AP). Brazil currently has three consulates in China. They are located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Xianggang (Hong Kong).

Implications

Brazil supplies raw materials China will require, such as iron. However, it is difficult for Chinese ships to reach Brazil, which could feasibly increase transport costs. They only have three options; a sea route (through Panama), another sea route around the tip of South America, or perhaps a land/sea route that would need extensive development before it could be widely feasable.

Of the three, transport through the Panama canal is by far the quickest (by days). The planned increase in Sino-Brazilian trade will make it even more vital that Panama's expansion of the canal (to serve larger ships) is completed by 2014. (Panama Canal Expansion Proposal)

"The current locks are 33 metres (108 feet) wide, but the new locks would be 50 metres (150 feet). A third lane of traffic would be able to handle the wider loads" (BBC).

There are fears, perhaps over-stated, by some in American Ports, that US ports are not prepared to handle the newer large class of ships that can transverse the channel. If US ports are not dredged deeper, the US will lose a percentage of trade to the Venezuelan, or Brazilian economies.

Given the current fuel-price increases and the necessity of long journeys for goods to be transported from Brazil to China, I consider it doubtful that Brazil will increase exports to China three-fold in the next two years. Although the countries have demonstrated an ability to increase trade, the current economic slowdown and Chinese resource investments in Africa and in Australian companies will make purchases from Brazil of less immediate importance.

Trade will increase, since both countries' are growing despite global difficulties, both will experience slight drags on expansion due to the global slowdown. This will ultimately make unattainable Brazil's three-fold growth in trade to China .

After 2014, however, with the Panama Canal's widening, all bets are off. In those circumstances, Brazil-China trade could certainly increase, perhaps exponentially.

* An interesting blog post from MarketOracle on the Brazil-China trade (crica, Feb 2007)

One of the highlights of a Panama Canal cruise that actually stops in Panama is a visit to one of the authentic Embera Indian villages in Chagres National Park near the Canal.   For more on the Embera please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

OK, I took this picture on Celebrity Cruises INFINITY when we were actually in Miraflores Locks!  And these folks paid good money to take a Panama Canal cruise!  Go figure!  It's the same on every ship: when you first enter the Canal the deck is crowded with folks trying to get the best view.  By the end of the day . . . well, not everyone is asleep . . .

The secret on a Canal cruise is to move about the ship.  The view from the bow is different than the view from the stern.  To get the full impact of the Canal you need to see the operation from all parts of the ship.

Please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

I frequently lecture on Panama Canal cruises.  This spring I spent almost two months on the VOLENDAM doing Canal cruises.  I never tire of this remarkable engineering achievement.  This was taken from the VOLENDAM in the lock at Miraflores.  Turned out to be a beautiful day with no rain, no even in shower!  Rare, but it happens.

Please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

This is what folks go to Aruba for . . . white sand like powdered sugar and incredibly blue water.  Too often what they get is downtown which is a tacky hodge podge of the same shops you see everywhere else in the Caribbean.  When I first went to Aruba there were two little shops, one of which had Holland cheese . . . now it's a third-rate-St-Thomas-wantabe.  Unlike Curacao, which is busy preserving it's heritage, Aruba is . . . Diamonds International and yada yada yada.  It's a regular stop on Holland America's 10 day Canal itinerary, this one on the VOLENDAM.

Do yourself a favor . . . skip downtown and head to the beach.

This is actually a little beach in front of the Ramada Rennaissance, not nearly as endless as it looks, but within easy walking distance of the ship.

Please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

These guys love to hang out on the rocks in front of the Ramada Rennaissance hotel in Aruba, within easy walking distance of the ship.  Aruba is a regular stop for the 10 day Holland America Canal series.  This was on the VOLENDAM.

Please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

Panama City, Panama

When Patrizia and Casey planned their recent wedding ceremony on the Casco Viejo beach that looks out over the Canal entrance, we suddenly had to pay attention to the tide table, something most of us here rarely have reason to do.

The wedding had to accommodate various travel and schedule conflicts and furthermore had to be in the late afternoon not long before sunset. The only date and time that suited everyone was just two hours before high tide, assuming we were checking the right table.

My apartment has a view of that beach and I've seen full moon high tide roll right up to the old colonial wall leaving not a sliver of sand on which to arrange chairs and place a dais and create colorful aisles lined with tropical fruit. The wedding planner had concern--after all, the tides in Panama are famously seventeen feet or more.

Who ordinarily worries about tides? For most visitors the tide is fascinating only in that from, say, the old fort, Las Bovedas where the ancient courthouse and dungeons during the 1700s was located, at low tide you can see vast stretch of uncovered rock jutting out it in every direction for a couple hundred yards. This rocky brown bottom when exposed is what kept seafaring marauders such as the infamous pirate Henry Morgan from getting close to this peninsula in the 1700s. That is, back when it was simply The City, long before it was Casco Viejo (the Old Center of Town, or alternately, Casco Antiguo and also goes by the name San Felipe).

We Googled up Panama Tides, and being told that there could be--or might not be--a discrepancy because U.S. tide tables take into consideration Daylight Savings time which Panama doesn't use--we opted to trust the Panama Canal's tables.

Which turned out to be right? The sandy strip was some 100 feet from sea to seawall, and the ceremony was over before the tide even encroached. In some areas of the bay, locales will walk out on the rocks to catch a few tasty morsels for dinner. We never tire of watching the tides ebb and flow.

As most people know, the tides are regulated by the moon, which rises about 50 minutes later each day. All that means to most of us is that if you go walking on the Bovedas at, say, 6 a.m. every morning, within the space of a couple of weeks you'll see everything from dead high to dead low tide which won't affect your life much. Unless you're planning a wedding.

You never know with sunsets: you shoot and hope for the best. This one turned out pretty good if I do say so.  Taken on Holland America's VOLENDAM.

Please visit my other photoblog at www.beautifulpanama.wordpress.com for photos of life in Panama and my primary blog about life in Panama at www.RichardDetrich.wordpress.com.

Copyright 2008 RD. May not be used without permission.

Days after winning a place in the FA Cup semi-final, Cardiff City are set for a High Court battle which leaves the future of the club in the balance.

Wednesday's hearing is over £24m in loan notes the club borrowed from Langston Corporation in 2004.

Cardiff say a variation to the agreement means it is not repayable until 2016 but Langston want full repayment immediately.

The High Court will consider Langston's application for summary judgment.

That means a judge will decide whether to rule in Langston's favour without the need for a full trial.

Professor Robert Lee from Cardiff University Law School says it would be a "disaster for the football club" if Langston were to win the case outright.

"If judgment is given for Langston it puts [them] in a position to call for millions of pounds to be accelerated back to them," said Prof Lee.

"So clearly, one has to think that the club is then facing administration and points deduction and everything else that will follow."

Prof Lee was speaking after seeing the court case papers, obtained by BBC Wales' Dragon's Eye programme.

The papers shed light on the precise differences between Cardiff City and Langston, and focus in particular on the club's relationship with PMG Estates, a company run by former Cardiff City directors Paul Guy and Mike Hall.

Little is known about Langston, a company registered in Panama but trading from Switzerland, except that Cardiff City borrowed £24m from them in 2004 when Sam Hammam was the club chairman.

The loan notes were renegotiated in 2006 to allow Cardiff to pay them back on better terms. The disagreement between the parties is over which of these deals now applies.

Cardiff City are set to argue the loan should be repaid according to the 2006 agreement.

That would have seen the debt reduced to £15m in exchange for handing over £9m raised through naming rights for the club's new stadium and a further £5m on promotion to the Premier League.

They also secured an option to postpone outstanding payments until the end of December 2016.

Cardiff chairman Peter Ridsdale has said that "the club does not have any cause to believe that this signed document is invalid, and consequently it does not consider that it has any debts repayable to Langston prior to 2016."

According to Langston the 2006 deal would only come into effect if the "satisfaction date" - the date the stadium project was signed off as unconditional with Cardiff County Council - was reached by 31 May 2007.

The club insist the "satisfaction date" was attained on 4 May 2007, well before Langston's deadline.

Waiver clause

However, Langston allege that because Cardiff City didn't inform them the stadium project had been signed off as unconditional, they breached a clause in the deal which pledged to keep them notified of any progress.

Langston say this breach means the 2006 deal is no longer of any effect and the original agreement between the parties still applies.

The original deal included a clause stating that Langston should be the club's preferred creditor - in other words, they would be at the front of the queue if it came to any claims on the club's assets unless agreed otherwise.

But in January 2007 Cardiff City were in financial difficulty and borrowed £11m from the development company PMG.

The terms of the loan made PMG the club's preferred creditor. Langston argue this is a clear breach of the original agreement and so they are asking for immediate repayment of the loan notes plus interest, a total of £31m.

Cardiff City's defence appears to rest on a waiver clause in the 2006 agreement. The clause released the club from any prior liabilities relating to the agreement including, according to the club, any breach of the original deal arising from the club's loan from PMG.

Ridsdale has always insisted the club have a "robust case" and would be "very confident of winning" at court. But Professor Lee believes both sides have an arguable case.

"You can clearly see that the argument on the part of Langston is: there was a clear breach of our agreement at the moment that security was given to someone else," said Prof Lee.

"The argument from Cardiff will be: 'No we felt free to do that because of the variation of the agreement.' And it then becomes a matter of the court's judgment which path was right."

But there may be no clear winner this week.

Prof Lee says much will depend on the "particular language" of the loan agreements between Langston and the club and that could be enough to prompt a trial at a later date.

Cardiff's march to Wembley to face Barnsley, and the chance of a first FA Cup final appearence for 81 years, may yet be forced to continue under a cloud of financial insecurity and the threat of administration.

Casco Antiguo, San Felipe

Panama City, Panama

The second most visited location next to the Canal in Panama City at Miraflores is Casco Antiguo. Celebrating 335 years of history, Casco Viejo, as it is also known, received the UNESCO Heritage Trust designation in 1997. Now eleven years into its restoration, the changes are remarkable. For travelers looking for an authentic experience, come walk the calles of Casco Antiguo, allow plenty of time to restaurant hop after seeing the Church of the Golden Altar, the Arco Chato which played a major role in the decision to make the Canal here, and other site and museums.

To appreciate some of the restored buildings, take a look at this before and after of a magnificent restoration consisting of four properties. This is near the Presidential Compound and visible as one drives into the main part of the old city. I love seeing these little jewels which populate Casco Antiguo being polished by their new owners.

During Christmas break my brother-in-law, Prof. Terry Steele and his family, came to visit us in Panama and we took them up to the Embera village to meet our friends.  The guys all went swimming in the river, after Erito and Fernando chased off a fer de lance.  Terry, me, Fernando and Erito.

I like this picture: Fernando, Erito and me, right after Christmas in Fernando's house.  These guys and their families have visited us in Boquete.