When it is time, the engineer moves his train into the packing shed where the cars are disassembled, the bananas go into a big tub of water for cleaning, and the sticks and trucks that were the cars are stored on a special car that rides behind the engineer. Thus, as he returns to the field it is a short train - locomotive, engineer's car, and the storage car. Upon arrival back at the harvesting location the cycle begins again. These monorails service plantations of several square miles, and even cross highways. At highway crossing the monorail is hinged horizontally out of the way of traffic normally, but when the banana train comes the engineer stops automobile traffic, swings the rail into place, runs the train across, then returns to move the track out of the way so that the highway traffic can resume. I was told that there are also such highway crossings wherein the rail swings up, like a drawbridge, instead of sideways, but I did not see any of those.
I carried food in my backpack for the remote jungle part of the trip, and ate in modest restaurants and roadside cafes the rest of the time. Although seafood is popular and highly regarded in Panama, my own tastes were served most of the time by beef, potatoes, eggs, and fresh fruit. I enjoyed having a bowl of fresh cantaloupe and pineapple twice a day. American fast food is available in Balboa, but I ate it only once, at the McDonalds that now occupies one of the former railroad stations on the Panama Railroad.
I had made hotel arrangements by email before arriving, and the arrangement was generally satisfactory. The hotel had its own emergency generator, as do many businesses, and it came on automatically on about half the evenings, suggesting that power outages are very common. Hot water was scarce; one hotel room's system provided about 3 gallons of hot water, so one could have a hot but very brief shower - another room in the same hotel had a different system, which provided an unlimited supply of lukewarm water at very low pressure, so one could dampen one's skin comfortably on a hot day, but had trouble washing off the soap. At another hotel - the very best one in a small and remote town - I had only cold water, and the shower had no nozzle, just an open pipe coming out of the wall.
The most typically tourist activity I did in Panama was to take a day-long trip on a small ship from one end of the canal to the other. Having previously hiked along much of the canal, and having visited the three sets of locks on foot, it provided an interesting contrast to view the canal from the water. Starting at the Pacific end, the ship was first raised nearly 100 feet through two sets of locks, and was later, at the Atlantic end, lowered back to sea level via the third set of locks. This transit of the canal also provided me with an opportunity to cast some flowers on the water every few minutes all day in memory of a friend who died at almost the same hour that I had left Los Angeles on this trip, and for whom a memorial service was being held the next day after my trip through the canal.
I was pleasantly surprised to learn that smoking is not as common and widespread in Panama as I have found it to be many other places, such as Arizona, New Zealand, Australia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. To be sure, there was always at least one person smoking in every restaurant all the time, but at least 75% of the tables normally did not have anyone smoking. Some restaurants have small non-smoking sections, but generally poorly positioned so that every non-smoking table is adjacent to a smoking table. In a similar manner, fewer people walking on the street, waiting at bus stops, or sitting in lobbies were smoking.
I have found warm, generous, and welcoming people everywhere I have traveled, and this was reinforced in Panama. Before my arrival I had made email contact with two businessmen, one at each end of the canal, who were extremely helpful in providing maps, information, and other contacts. Both of them provided land transportation and local knowledge that was invaluable. Of course there are touts and hustlers in all large cities, and I think Balboa has more than the average. Off the beaten path I met many people who were very helpful and generous with their time and knowledge, without any expectation of anything in return. A young businessman I questioned on the street walked several blocks out of his way to ensure that I found an obscure hotel that had been recommended to me; an off-duty policeman made an extra effort to show me where the bus would stop in a small village; when a bank clerk heard me asking about a railroad, he left the bank and took me to the office of a retired railroad employee he knew who was able to answer my question. On only one occasion was a waitress somewhat rude, and I later decided that the cause was my asking for my 'regular' waitress but seating myself outside her usual group of tables. Minor warning to travelers to Panama: a common expression used by locals, 'Welcome to Panama,' is not a term of intended hospitality, but an expression of frustration with something that is taking too long or is not going the way the speaker wants. I heard it several times in different parts of the country, always by frustrated natives, in widely varying sets of circumstances, such as someone being unable to get a phone to work, attract a taxi, or obtain credit at a bar.
One of the other ghosts I was aware of on this trip was that of my father. A few years back, on a pleasure cruise around South America, his ship approached Panama. As it was announced on the public address system that land was now in sight, my dad and his traveling buddy rushed to the other side of the ship to catch their first glimpse of Panama. I don't know if my dad saw it or not, since he had a heart attack and died on the deck just as he reached the other side of the ship. It may have been the last thing he saw. So, a small part of me was seeing Panama for my dad, just in case he missed it as he fell.
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The approximate costs involved were as follows:
620 for international airfare
100 for domestic airfare
200 for surface transportation
350 for lodging
340 for food
60 for guest meals
130 for miscellaneous
1,800 TOTAL($)
C. W. Lee, July 1, 1999
Revised August 7, 1999
cwlee@post.harvard.edu
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Other travel reports
Available by email (cwlee@post.harvard.edu) for free upon request:
#1 Tramping New Zealand, 1994.
#2 Bushwalking Papua New Guinea, 1995.
#3 Waltzing Tassie And Other Tales, 1996.
#4 Foaming Nova Scotia, 1997.
#5 Neqemgelisa On Vancouver Island, Plus ... , 1998.
#6 Fadging Around The Rock, 1998.
#7 Hogging Logs On Vancouver Island, 1998.
#8 Speeding Along Some Short Lines, 1999.
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Footnotes
1. As reported in the August 23, 1868 issue of The Chicago Republican.
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