Daytrips In Panama
Looking At Real Estate And
Passing Through Colon
Page
Two ~ By Matthew Atlee
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| Colon:
Phil and I
decided to make a day trip to Colon; I wanted to take photos and he wanted
to see Colon for the first time. They always say that Colon is one of the
most dangerous cities in Panama; many say it is the most dangerous in Latin
America. People in Panama City will tell you that the people over there
don’t care about their own. But then you sometimes meet the nicest people
and you are always surprised when you find out that they are from Colon.
A lot of the people from Colon are nice; others not so. When you pull into
the town always remember that to the right is the best way to steer if
you have to. You are thinking this because of what you think is great danger.
And the feeling is real and you should be very aware. Two-blocks past the
El Rey take a right. You will see a wonderful mosque and an old Catholic
Church right across the street. Tucked back in a side street is a pink
Hindu Temple. Drive around and head for the Ocean, not the side where Colon
2000 is: go there later; the side where you can see the ships preparing
to pass through the Canal. Drive along until you see the city park on your
right that has a white-wall along the ocean. You can park there; safe and
nice. But make this trip at say 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. Then drive
from the car park away from the direction you were taking when you stopped
at the park originally. Straight ahead is a pink wall with white trim,
I believe, and go to the left away from the Ocean and follow the wall down
the block, turn right and then another quick right and you are now inside
the old Hotel Washington. Sorry about giving such exact directions, but
lost here would be O.K. to far from great. The hotel has a great history
and you feel that when you go in. Nobody goes anymore. I tried the strange
hotel restaurant with my friend Judy and we liked it. The feel of the place
is 1920s tropical. At the end of one of the hotel's large early 20th century
hallways is a casino with the word casino in large neon red lights on a
black velvet background; the people entering the casino looked as though
they were being sucked into a gambling black hole. I didn't go near that
end of the hall. On the back of the Hotel, check out the huge terrace,
modern swimming pool and sea wall – the same from the Park - where the
waves crash in and splash over the terrace. The rooms I have no idea. Jane
Bowles, I think, but am not completely certain, wrote her first novel here
about two-women in Panama. Her husband Paul Bowles wrote about the place,
though briefly, in his book
Without Stopping. Juan Peron met his
second wife Isabel here in the late 1950s: she was dancing in a traveling
cabaret at the time. You will occasionally meet an older man in Panama
who doubled-dated with Juan Peron in 1950s Panama; or danced with the Queen
of England when she came in 1952. Leave the Hotel the same way you came
in and go back the way you came. |
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| A view
of the beach from the cliffs at the back of Raphael's property. |
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Phil was tired:
we had been drinking with Gabi and talking with other people in the neighborhood
the night before. Phil had just come from Germany where he had participated
in a Model United Nations Conference in Heidelberg. He liked his trip and
the people he had met there. But as he talked I kept wishing we had taken
the train over from Panama City to Colon. Everyone talks about the transcontential
train across North America, but the first transcontential train line was
built in Panama. The rail line was begun in May 1850 on Manzanilla Island
where Colon now stands. The work was hard:
“It was a virgin
swamp”, they said.
“Covered with
a dense growth of the tortuous, water-loving mangrove, and interlaced with
huge vines and thorny shrubs, defying entrance even to the wild beasts
common to the country. In the black slimy mud its surface alligators and
other reptiles abounded, while the air was laden with pestilential vapors,
and swarming sand-flies and mosquitoes.”
Later on the
descriptions are just as lucid.
“A deep morass
covered with the densest jungle, reeking with malaria, and abounding with
almost every species of wild beasts, noxious reptiles, and venomous snakes”.
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| A shot
from the main lobby of the Hotel Washington in Colon. The original English
name for the town of Colon was Aspinwall, but this was never accepted by
the authorities in New Grenada - New Grenada being the name for Colombia
at that time. |
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It
is said that for every foot of track that was laid, a man died. But the
Gold Rush was on and people wanted to get from the East Coast of the U.S.
to California and some people thought crossing Panama was the best way
to do it. They needed a railroad to shorten the trip. These Americans who
passed through Panama almost as a sideshow were fearful of the Panama they
encountered. Many got mind-blowing drunk and pulled out their guns and
shot. Others just drank. One of the best people to cross Panama, though
the rail line was halfway finished at the time was Capt. Ulysses S. Grant.
Grant came with a crew of which a dozen died from Malaria. Grant was stuck
in the jungle at a place called Las Cruces on the Chagres River. His other
people were in Gorgona. Grant didn’t have the money that the others who
wanted to cross to Panama City had so Grant had to wait until the rich
went forward. He was stuck. The town of Las Cruces and the old trail are
gone now. Grant bargained well and got his people out of there safe and
on mules, though three died on the trip to Panama City. The women in the
group traveled with more determination than the men; many pulled their
leggings up above the knee and walked through the mud, rocks and jungle
like wild women, while the men complained. Grant’s crew reached Panama
City and then sailed 12 miles out into the Bay of Panama where they met
their sailing ships for the trip north to California. But it was after
boarding the ships, thinking they were on their way to gold and the land
of milk and honey that the fevers came on.
I have experienced
this personally and can tell you that a Panamanian fever is like receding
into never, never land. Lack of food is like this to. I remember during
one of my fevers my friend Cef came into my hot, small, tin-roofed room,
which was located on his second floor, and throwing me some very artificial
flavored orange juice and cold pills, said good luck. Gabi saved me when
she bought some fever pills for me. The fever went on for days and when
the pills wore off after 8 hours, immediately you could feel the fever
push its way to the surface.
For many of
the Americans who traveled with Grant, Panama and the Pacific Ocean would
be the end of the line; many died and were quickly thrown overboard; they
would never see their California dreams realized. |
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It must have
been strange for Grant to have been in the middle of the Panamanian jungle
with wild animals he had never seen, plants he had never walked among,
smells he had never inhaled, and as he experienced this new enviroment,
having to negotiate for his life with people who were so different from
the Americans he was traveling with, who were only interested in California
gold.
The rail line
pushed on and was finished with Irish, Indian, English, French, German
and Austrian men. The Chinese also came, but after a week they became so
depressed that many killed themselves. On January 27th 1855 at midnight,
and after 5 years work, the most expensive rail line ever built, opened
with the cost of a single ticket pegged at $25; people lined up and happily
paid. Today it is $35 one-way. As we left Colon we passed by the Colon
Free Zone.
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| Colon Free Zone
When you first drive into Colon you
will pass by a large industrial park and shopping area off to your right.
The drive over to Colon from Panama City is terrible but the town of Colon
is charged. This is the heart and brain of Panamanian trade. The
Free Zone is the second largest in the world: Hong Kong is #1. The
Colon Free Zone is tax-free on the way in and tax-free on the way out.
People who work in the Free Zone will tell you that business in Venezuela
and Ecuador is down. Brazil was a big customer about eight years
ago but because of not paying wholesalers the trade dried up. Dominican
Republic has been very good lately but the Dominican currency dropped in
value. The way the Free-Zone works is as follows: You buy cheap in China
- over 90% of products in the Free Zone come from China. Clothes, bicycles
and cigarettes were the three imports I heard most often. Buy it, import
it into Panama and then re-distribute your product in the regional market,
collect your money in Guatemala, Costa Rica or Ecuador, and buy more and
trade more. The key is getting a line of something, say, like: Donna Karen,
Tommy Hilfinger or Kenneth Cole. For example, cigarettes; you buy cigarettes
in the Free Zone cheap, then ship cigarettes from Panama to Cyprus or Greece
for profit.
Panama is well positioned to move
this kind of merchandise around the Pacific and South American region as
well as other parts of the world. Some people in the Free Zone told me
that things can go wrong when you buy from overseas; for example,
you might get a shipment of bicycles from China that you bought in Hong
Kong. The container arrives and you find out that you have your 1,000 bicycles
but they are not assembled. Don’t like that. Costa Rica also has a Free
Zone in Golfitos, which is located in the Southwest corner of Costa Rica
about an hour from the Costa Rican-Panamanian border. I was told about
the changes in the Los Angeles Ports market - Korean garment industry in
Los Angeles was picking up. The port of Miami has been the traditional
rival to the Free Zone. But Los Angeles is now competing in the same market.
One of the veterans operating in the Free Zone told me that damage and
theft are always a problem. He told me that he placed Navalocks on the
back of his containers, not because he thought the locks would keep anyone
from stealing the contents of the container but because having the lock
meant the difference of five minutes to a thief. |
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A shot
from the front of the Hotel Washington.
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There is little in the way of production
in the Free Zone - I heard glue and putting together old motorcycle parts
and selling them as used motorcycles. The price of energy is high in Panama;
you could never have factories running 24 hour a day as you can in the
States. Labor is relatively cheap, but energy was a cost that offset all
other factors.
Venezuela had almost 40% of the market
and so the Free Zone is looking elsewhere for business. And what about
globalization and financial integration. The answer was that the U.S. has
a large population and that population has rising incomes and more people
all the time, so they need to find new markets to create the wealth to
maintain their populations at what is now considered normal to that population.
Those new markets were overseas. Free-competition was fine as a concept
but people always wanted more and that meant if someone lost then there
would be more for those who could outcompete the rest.
The Free Zone itself is not that
pretty, but the area around Colon is nice. Go see Fort Lorenzo on the other
side of Gatun Locks, Hotel Washington and Colon 2000 in the city center
of Colon. I wanted to go and Phil was tired and wanted
to take a nap. He slept in the car while I drove. The air conditioning
was nice and cold in the car and it was Friday and I was looking forward
to a nice dinner back home. We got back at 2:30 and I was glad we had made
the trip..
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