Category Archives: History

Historical background of a location we visit.

Welcome to the Jungle

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Today we waited around for the boat measurer. Christi continued cleaning. Eric spent most of the day socializing, and Christi would join in now and again during cleaning breaks. At 1400, Victor told us if the measurer hadn’t come by now, he wasn’t coming today. Good, at least we could do something fun this afternoon.

At 1530, we went for a walk in the jungle surrounding the marina with Tom and Susan on the Nordhavn 40 from San Diego. Tom and Susan explained that the marina is situated in what used to be an American Navy base, Fort Sherman. The base was constructed in 1911 to protect the unfinished canal. It was abandoned in December 1999 along with all the other American military bases in Panama. The majority of the land that the base encompassed is undeveloped jungle, and it is was one of the primary military training centers for jungle combat training, particularly during the Vietnam era. When the Panamanians took over the land, they turned it into a nature preserve. Tom and Susan walk through the preserve often, and have sometimes seen Panamanian troops doing training exercises in the preserve.

We followed a walking trail behind the marina into the jungle. The trail runs up a gently sloping hill. The path is obviously frequently used, but it doesn’t look like anyone formally maintains it. On both sides of the path the plants tall, thick and dense.

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As we were walking along, we were mesmerized by the giant leaf cutter ants. There are zillions of them marching in perfect lines around the trail, most carrying big pieces of leaves much larger than they are. These ants are actually farmers. They cultivate a Continue reading →

History of the Republic of Panama

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Panama is only 79,990 square kilometers big and has a population of 3.36 million people. It is located in Central America between Costa Rica and Colombia, and is the narrowest land point of the isthmus separating the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Many call Panama a land bridge connecting North and South Americas. We expected the history of such a young and small country to be short and simple. Not at all. Panama has an absolutely fascinating and complex saga. In the History of Kuna Yala, we touched on a few key historical events, but there is so much more.

As you may recall, Continue reading →

Carti Suitupo and the Kuna Cultural Museum

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Today was the busiest day we have had in a while. Since we went to bed early, we were up early, too. We peered outside. No cruise ship. We made breakfast and again peered outside. This time we saw the cruise ship in the distance, approaching us. We decided to get to shore ASAP. We knew it would take the cruise ship a while to bring down their tenders and shuttle the tourists to shore, so maybe we could get in and out before too many tourists flooded the islands.

We quickly got the dinghy down and headed out to the closest island, Carti Suitupo. Carti Suitupo is the closest to the mainland of all the islands, and thus the most densely populated. We went there first because it is the island with the museum. We saw a dock just around the corner from Kosmos’ line of sight, a small wooden dinghy dock. We watched a motorized dugout canoe with two tourists pull up to the dock. We pulled in on the other side of the dock and waited until a local wandered by, then asked if we could leave our dinghy there. He said no problem.

From the dock there was a narrow dirt walking path that led between tightly packed huts. Most of the huts had bamboo walls and a roof made of thick layers of palm fronds. A few of the huts had a slanted metal roof similar to what we saw around the rest of the Caribbean. We did see a couple of buildings made of concrete. Some of the huts were almost touching. All the yards were surrounded by bamboo fences. The edges of the houses and the fence were literally on the edge of the walkway. With the housing so tight, in a way, it reminds us of Medieval European cities, except in Europe the buildings aren’t made of bamboo and palm fronds.

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There were a lot of people walking around, many carrying big quantities of assorted food products. Several times we had to Continue reading →

History of the Kuna, An Indigenous People Group of Panama

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Lake Madden is a man-made lake in Panama that is part of the Panama Canal system. Evidence has been found in the Lake Madden area that indicates humans first settled there 11,000 years ago. It is believed the people flourished since it was so full of natural resources. The word Panama is derived from an indigenous word meaning “an abundance of fish”. Evidence shows that some of the first pottery making in the Americas started in Panama at around 2,500 BC. It is believed agricultural activity in Panama started as far back as 3,500 years ago. Around 100 BC an extensive trading network that reached from Peru up to Mexico was established and Panama was part of it.

In 1501, the Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas “discovered” Panama. At the time, the Kuna people were Continue reading →

Diving Hilma Hooker

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We plan to leave tomorrow for a 5 day passage. The grocery stores in Bonaire, like most places in the world, have a poor selection of frozen foods, so Christi needed to make some freezer meals. She spent the morning cooking. She already had made some freezer meals over the last few days, but this morning was a flat out effort to make a lot of stuff at once. We also made a trip into town to check out with the officials. The check out fee was $10.00.

In the afternoon, we went on one last dive with Mike from Arielle. We went to the wreck that the dive center had recommended yesterday, Hilma Hooker. The rumor that we heard is that the boat had to make an emergency stop in Bonaire because it was taking on water. The authorities found lots of marijuana on board, so the Bonairian authorities seized the vessel. It was in bad shape and needed to be constantly pumped to keep it afloat. The authorities decided the best thing to do with the boat was tow it to a sandy site and let it sink, making an artificial reef. The facts that we know are it was deliberately sunk in 1984 on a carefully chosen sandy spot located between two reefs. The boat lies on its side. The highest point of the ship is 60 feet under the water and the lowest point, the tip of the mast is in 99 feet of water.

The site is close to the salt mountains. We tied to the mooring and jumped in. The reef around the mooring area is pretty, but we didn’t bother to stop and look around. Because this is such a deep dive, the plan was to descend quickly to the lowest point of the wreck, then slowly work our way back up. We’d enjoy the reef here at the end of the dive.

We all agreed that as we proceeded west it looked like the water ahead was murky with poor visibility. Each of us was wondering when this wreck would appear. Then it suddenly dawned on us that the dark area ahead WAS the hull, and in looking more carefully, we could see the line of the hull. We were staring at the bottom of the boat. Mike and Eric stuck to the plan, staying close to the floor. Christi was having trouble equalizing and was swimming along above them. She did eventually make it down to the hull, but never got down to the lowest portions of it.

We swam around the aft end of the boat to get a look at the topside. It looks creepy and haunted in the darkish water, as most sunken ships tend to look. The hull is still pretty well intact.

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The guys swam down to the mast and crow’s nest to check them out, but Christi couldn’t get down that low. The guys ascended to Continue reading →