10/2 -- Azuero Culture: Panamanian Traditions

We got an early start to visit Sarigua National Park, which is in the process of regeneration after being clear-cut for cattle farming in the  past. As it was being transformed, the government sold some shrimp farming concessions in a coastal part of the park, which was not well-received by the environmentalists. However, it has had the positive impact of eliminating the sandstorms that plagued the area  after deforestation. Large swaths of the park are almost barren reddish dirt, heavily eroded as a result of deforestation.  Non-native plants were brought in and started doing better after the shrimp farms started, creating more sheltered areas where native vegetation is finding a foothold. This is a hot, dry part of the country, and even though we had to leave the hotel at 7:30am, in the end we were glad because it was quite hot by the time we left two hours later.

A small complex of homes. The ranger lives in the yellow and green
one, which the Grand Circle Foundation painted for him. It is typical
of government-built housing here. Next door is a mud house which
people make for themselves if they cannot afford the concrete
type. Termites are everywhere, so concrete is better for houses.

Adorable little girl from the mud house.

This landscape is the result the clear cutting. The trees you see
were planted and are starting to take hold. The land is worthless
for farming, however.

Above and below: an ancient garbage dump. This was a fishing
village about 11,000 years ago. The lower photo shows the
amount of erosion since the deforestation.

  A plant with a lovely flower. Don't touch: The sap is poisonous!

Vultures. Over 150 migratory birds come to the coast here.

Prickly pear in bloom

A local hawk or eagle.

The Pacific Ocean is in the distance.

Ambitious leaf cutter ant

Our next stop was to visit a drum maker and potter, both of whom do their work totally by hand. Randolph also plays and teaches. He makes a couple types of drums in various sizes and showed us the painstaking process before playing for us. I apologize for the sideways video! I need to learn to hold the camera properly!

Randolph with some of his drums on the right. He trained as an
architect, but developed vision problems and now makes drums
of various sizes. We brought home a small one - a bit smaller
than the one on the bench by his elbow.

Chisels of various types and lengths are used to
chop out the center. He uses a machete to shape
the outside. The stain on the drum is plant-based
and is his signature color.

Randolph plays his personal drum. It is darker
because a friend said he was going to decorate
it for him and brought it back with this darker stain.

The potter specializes in large pieces and forms everything by hand without a wheel. He learned from his grandmother and his son is continuing the business, but not the same original process. He showed us how to start a pot and then add to it section by section, creating a smooth piece. He decorates pieces and his wife paints them.

He was carving a design on a large pot as we arrived.

He doesn't use a wheel, but builds from the ground up starting
with a big wheel of clay that he punches down to create the
beginning bowl shape.

When the pot needs to be taller, he adds a thick 'rope'
of clay to the top edge and blends it in.

Then it was time for lunch, which we used to catch up on the pc and phone because the wi-fi connection in our room is very iffy, but fine in the lobby.

 After lunch, we got back on the bus for a trip to Guarere and a renown pollera maker. These are elaborate embroidered dresses that are entirely handmade. The company completes five of them each year and employs 25-30 artisans to complete different sections and types of hand work. A dress can cost nearly $10,000, but can be used for many occasions and is frequently passed down to future generations. The other parts of the costume include beaded hair ornaments (6 combine to make a sort of hat), fancy shoes, and large, truly over the top jewelry.

Photos of various dresses they have made. They do several types
of decorations: crewel, embroidery, cross stitch, and applique. Each
dress has several tiers, which are made in smaller sections and
stitched together. The blouse is similarly tiered, very cape-like.

This is a bottom tier of several pieces stitched together.

The husband used to be a truck driver, but started
helping in the pollera business when that became
unprofitable. He now makes the decorative tatting
that joins the tiers together. You can see plain and
embroidered skirts on the wall behind him.

He showed us how to make this pattern -- It must have
taken some practice to get as fast as he is.

Then we stopped at a nearby school where a group of eight youngsters, ages 5 to 10, demonstrated traditional dances. 

Some of us were invited to dance and Jim
decided to be shorter for his new partner.

The girls are wearing the simple unembroidered version of a
pollera skirt.

From there, we drove to Las Tablas, famous for its 6-day Carneval before Lent. The town normally has 6,000-7,000 residents, but swells to 300,000 for Carneval. People empty out their houses and rent them to visitors, who mainly come on public transportation because parking would be horrendous. The highlight is a series of parades of 'queens', in elaborate floats, wearing the polleras. There is no identified winner, and it can cost a family up to $700,000 to compete.

We visited a fire station (one our fellow travelers is/was a retired volunteer fireman, interested in learning more about the situation here. The bomberas (local word for firefighters) were very welcoming and showed us some of their equipment as well as talking about their jobs. The timing of the fire station stop was excellent, because we got the first actual shower during our time here while we were in the shelter of the station. The rest of town itself was pretty unimpressive. 

Octavio showed us the plaza that was the center of Carneval festivities, and we walked around a bit hoping to stumble on something worthwhile before drifting to our dinner restaurant early. As we were getting started on dinner, loud music blared in the street and we were treated to some sort of a parade, primarily of (apparently) high schools girls in red riding on top of SUVs decorated with pink balloons, waving as they went. They were followed by a couple vehicles of a brass band, and then more students dressed in gray. Nobody seemed to have a clue what it was about, but it was an interesting spectacle to end our day. We tried taking photos from the inside, but the windows had decorative grating and the photos are useless, so we only got a couple shots of the festivities once we realized we (read: Jim) needed to go outside.

10/1 -- Transfer to Chitre

We started off today visiting an area of Panama City that was devastated during the US invasion to Panama in  1989. One of Noriega's headquarters was located in an area called El Chorrillo, which was a poor neighborhood that got bombed. 

Octavio (left) and the two folks from the El Chorillo neighborhood
we visited

Apartment building

"Santa Claus brought bombs to Avenue A this Christmas, 12/20/89"
Sign across the street from bombed out and still leveled building.

Evidence of the Chinese presence in El Chorillo

The US claims only 250 Panamanians were killed in the effort to capture Noriega, but the real number is probably 10 times that or more. Local activists are working there now to try to change the trajectory of the inhabitants by reaching out to the kids and showing them that there are opportunities for them beyond the gangs. I have to say that I was horrified by what I learned. I guess I really didn't pay much attention to the invasion while it happened beyond wondering why the US had any standing to try and to jail Noriega on drug charges, but it seems like it was part and parcel of our other interventions across Latin American that have helped create the problems in many of those countries that exist today.

From there, we proceeded to a country fruit and vegetable market near the location of our lunch hostess. We were divided into groups and given cash and a shopping list to provide some of the materials for our lunch, which we then got to chop and otherwise prepare to assist our hostess, Edita. It was a fun time. My favorite part was smashing the fried green plantain portions flat for more frying. Lunch was tasty and we ate too much, even trying to be cautious.

Lots of people chopping stuff. There were two kinds of plantains:
green and ripe. They were cut in different shapes to distinguish
them from each other. Both types were deep fried.

Edita frying the green plantains to prep them for
the next step.

Annette with the fried plantains beside her, opening
up the crusher.

I tried my hand at flattening the fried plantains. Fun! the tray in front
of me is the pile of squished ones that get deep fried a second time.
A lot of effort for something that is pretty tasteless without a sauce.

Back on the bus, we drove west toward Chitre, where we will spend the next three days. We still haven't seen sustained rain and hope the trend continues!

9/30 -- Explore Panama City

Another day ALMOST without rain! Got sprinkled on a couple times, but with the heat, it was more relief than annoying. I guess I shouldn't have been so worried, but the forecasts all looked dreadful.

Panama City, it turns out, has more than one old city. The old quarter we are in is the new old quarter after the original one was burned in an attack by the pirate Henry Morgan in 1671. The survivors decided the old location was indefensible and moved the city 8  km away to the Old Quarter where we are now. The new city, with its many skyscrapers and interested architecture came much later.

The Presidential Palace at the edge of the New Old City
where we are staying

We drove through the new city on the way to the original, which is now the site of a museum and stone remnants of the original buildings. When Noriega was in power, he built a palace among the ruins and a horse stable behind the remains of the cathedral. His palace was torn down and replaced with the museum we visited today.

BMW store!

Ruins above and below. Many of the rocks were reused
in other projects.

 

This apparently an ebony-winged damselfly. It landed on Jim,
then me.

Relief map of the original old city. The new city is behind it
and the new old city is further back off the map.

Cathedral bell tower and some walls. There were 3 Catholic
denominations represented in the old town.

The main part of the Cathedral

Next 4 photos: views from each side of the tower.

The climb was 115 steps to the top.

More ruins

Another cathedral

Reservoir for the area

Burial grounds under excavation at the site.

We had a group lunch near the hotel, and afterwards, several of us joined Octavio on a walk to shopping district and Chinatown (which was pretty much of a disappointment among the Chinatowns we have seen) before returning to our hotel for a short break.

Some great architecture here!

The peninsula of the new old town.ahead

Colorful fence guards a playground.

Walking down Central Ave, now partly a
pedestrian shopping mall, we came across
this neglected building being taken over
by greenery.

Above and below: Murals on one of the side streets.

Chinatown gate

Above and below: Chinatown murals

 

View back to the new city and another
interesting looking tower.

Local man with his parrot.

At 4:30, we set out again for a guided walk through the old quarter, some of which Jim and I had explored yesterday, only today we got context.One very interesting stop was an original part of the wall that protected the city, which was right  next to what had been a boat-shaped building that housed over 20 indigent families. It burned to the ground earlier this year and residents were promised help, but it never came through. Right next door, another group was organizing a protest against a government plan to sell a public space that had been promised for social (i.e. supported) housing. About three years ago, this group took over a school that had been abandoned seven years earlier and they have have turned into housing for 28 families by subdividing the classrooms. We were allowed into the school and a peek into one of the small apartments.

Our Lady of Mercy Church next 4 photos.

This was labeled ''Poor Christ'. He is an
articulated statue whose attire is regularly changed.

Where the wall used to be

Ruins of the ship-shaped building that burned this year.

School across the street converted to housing.

The  leader of the housing resistance movement

One of several banners here.

Clothing hung in a central area of the
abandoned school

From there, we walked to the waterfront we had explored yesterday. By then, 14,000 steps  later, I was fading due in large part to the heat and humidity. I know that if I stay active, this will get easier in a few days, but I was close to crash mode, so we left the group to finish the walk home, with the intention of skipping dinner. Fortunately, there is a tiny grocery store across from the hotel, so we stopped and got Jim a snack (I already had snacks because I am wary about many of the breakfasts that we encounter) so that we could go back to our room and collapse.

I forget who the statue was, but the building
behind was rescued by a clever entrepanuer:
It had been a drug house and the park very
dangerous. A rich guy bought the place and
co-opted the bad guys by giving them jobs and
training so that they didn't need violence
to survive. It is a popular restaurant now.

The place was built in 1675.