| Isla Grande |
| The Lost
Sides Of Isla Grande |
| By Escapeartist Staff |
| I was sitting
up on the deck of the house and enjoying the sun and drinking some Panamanian
rum and listening to Peter Green’s The End Of The Game, when
I got the idea that I had to walk up the hill behind the house on Isla
Grande.
The hill is
not long or steep, but is covered in heavy vegetation.
I had thought
about climbing the hill before as there are some beautiful palm trees at
the top; I could also see from below that the view was excellent from the
high vantage point on the peak of the hill. But more than just the view
was the history of island, and as I thought about the early history of
Isla Grande, which occurred in the areas that people either can’t reach
or don’t know how to arrive to, I decided to go walking. |
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| Most of the
early history of the island occurred up in the hills, whereas today most
visitors of the island stay to the beaches or the immediate coastline of
the island and don’t even bother to venture inland. The early history I
refer to goes back to Colombus. On his last trip to the Caribbean – his
forth trip to the New World – Colombus passed by what is today Isla
Grande. The island was named Isla Bastimientos and was used by Colombus
as he made his way along the
Panamanian Coast to Nombre de Dios.
There is some
question about whether or not Isla Grande is Isla Bastimientos, but it
seems likely that it is as it’s one of the few islands in the area that
has freshwater on it. If Colombus, and there are later reports that place
Francis Drake on the island, did stay on the island, then he would have
followed the Spanish custom of finding the highest ground on an island
and setting up camp. Though the Spanish often established towns near the
water in Panama, they almost always established a camp high up above the
town in order to see trouble coming from the sea and to escape the deadly
mosquitoes below. So as I started my walk up the hillsides of Isla Grande
to an area that was not inhabited, I thought about the fact that exactly
500 years before (1503) Colombus might have been climbing this very hill. |
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| The walk up
was not easy: there was thick brush and there were ants and other biting
insects, but there was no worry about snakes, as the island has none. Our
guide up the hill was an old friend from the village of Isla Grande, Alexis,
and he told me that the land on the hillside had a number of different
owners, but few of the owners ever came up to their land in order to clean
it.
There was a
barbwire fence that marked off different plots of land, but other than
that wire fence there were no signs that anybody had recently visited this
remote mountain. When we reached the top there was an almost perfect 360
degree view of the whole island: in front of us were lines and lines of
wonderful palms and fields of flowers and small trees.
But the most
interesting sight from this high vantage point was the French lighthouse
which had been built in the 1880s. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| The lighthouse
had been built when the French had tried to build the canal before the
Americans: the French effort ended in an infamous scandal involving tons
of lost money, but the French effort to build the canal was substantial
and as you pass through Panama you will see little reminders of the French
effort.
One of my favorite
contributions the French made to the canal effort was the French plan for
Panama City, which had the canal running through the middle of the city
like a highway, with the city shaped as an octagon around the canal. You
can see the French plan of Panama City if you visit the
Canal
Museum located in the beautiful French Quarter of Panama City.
The lighthouse
we were now looking at from our excellent viewpoint was originally built
to help ships find their way into the future canal, and even more interesting
is the fact that the man who designed the first light that sat at the top
of the lighthouse was none other than Gustavo Eiffel, the designer and
builder of the Eiffel Tower: funny these little surprises in life: a remote
hill, on an even remoter island, in a relatively unknown country, and then
the Eiffel Tower, Paris and Colombus. |
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| As an interesting
side note to this story, there have been from time to time a large number
of people from France who have either settled on Isla Grande or the nearby
coast. They come and just as mysteriously disappear.
They talk little
and what they do say is mostly fragmented and broken so as to be purposely
hard to understand or abstruse. On the coast they live off the main road
that leads to Isla Grande, back up in the hills.
If you want
to see the original light that Eiffel designed for the lighthouse, again
visit the Canal Museum; the light is located in the lobby of the museum.
We hiked
on around the back of Isla Grande; here the forest is even wilder and
the setting more remote. |
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Offshore
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| On this side
of the island there is a wonderful little cove you can visit when the water
is calm; when the weather is bad don’t bother visiting the cove as the
water and waves are too dangerous and a number of people have drowned on
the back-side of the island, which is the side that faces out to the ocean.
On the back-side of the island there is a nice hotel that is expensive
called Bananas; it’s a nice
place if you want a resort.
As we walked
Alexis told me about what the island had been like 30 years before. Today
it’s hard to find a good beach on the island because people have built
over the water destroying the coral reefs and therefore wiping out the
beaches.
Thirty years
before white sand beaches ringed the island and there was only one house
on the far side of island, below where the French lighthouse now sits.
In those days it was hard to reach the island because the road from Panama
City stopped at Portobelo, which is about a 45 minute ride on a good road
from Isla Grande, so if you wanted to get to Isla Grande you needed a very
good 4X4 and enough luck to get through the rivers that crossed the road.
People still went to the island and when they arrived the parties were
wild. I won’t say too much, but imagine a remote tropical island, nobody
for miles and plenty of rum and good times. With comfort, came calm, and
though the parties today on Isla Grande are still great fun, they’re not
what they were years ago. In the late 70s and early 80s the island became
a favorite hang out for American GIs and they were the ones who spent the
money that made the island what it is today.
Today the island
has a number of small hotels and restaurants; this is a good place to go
to if you have a bunch of people who want to have a good time. Don’t go
looking for a good time, as the island can be sleepy. There are a few small
shops, but no real shopping. No money machines on the island so bring plenty.
During a full moon sit back and watch the moon shine on the waters of the
Atlantic, the best place to do this is at Hotel
Sister Moon; in fact, I recommend Sister Moon to anyone going to the
island: it’s a little rough but when crowded has a great atmosphere. Another
hotel you might want to check out is Hotel Torqueza or the
Hotel
Cholita or the hotel Via Sueno. Remember if you are
coming to Panama to celebrate its 100th birthday (November 3rd) then you
should check out Isla Grande; it’s only 2 and a half hours from the city
and should have a party rolling for the centennial.
More On
Living In Panama
Apartments:
If you decide
you want to move to Panama then more likely than not you will be renting
a place. Apartments can be expensive depending on the area, but because
apartment space is so available you should be able to pick up something
inexpensive: $450 to $600 should get you something very nice. Panama is
not cheap like Honduras or Guatemala. Things are in dollars and because
there was an American presence in the country that was willing to pay,
prices can seem high. If you’re an American, I’ll give you an idea of how
some of your tax money was spent in Panama. An apartment that, say, would
cost a Panamanian $600 would be rented to U.S. military officer for $1200:
the person renting the apartment knew it was an American soldier and therefore
also knew he had an apartment allowance of $1200. One other thing: security
deposits in many cases are held by the Ministry of Housing as a way of
securing the deposit, but it can take up to 2 to 3 months to get your deposit
out of the Ministry.
Education:
There are two
U.S. based universities now operating in Panama. FSU-Panama
offers four-year courses in International Relations and Latin American
studies. The university is less expensive than a university in the states
and it allows your son or daughter to learn Spanish (classes are in
English) and to study with students from Latin America and Europe.
The university is housed in a safe neighborhood in the former-U.S. Canal
Zone; the university also offers housing for overseas students.
If you are
unterested in doing graduate work in Panama, there is the University
of Louisville. Louisville offers an MBA as well as Master level courses
in other business specializations. |
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