The Waterstraut Waterspout: Panama

Next up, we're moving south to another country in Central America, known for it's famous canal: Panama! It's the crossroad of North and South America, and in fact, if it weren't for the Darien gap- an untameable section of tropical forest in Norther Panama, you could drive from the very top of Alaska to the lowest tip of South America. (There are a couple of bridges across the canal, in case you were wondering).

The indigenous meaning of the country's name is 'abundance of fish'.

The capital of Panama is Panama City, and while it is a major financial hub with a skyline similar to New York City's, it is also the only city in the world that has a rain forest in it! Metropolitan National Park is home to all kinds of plants and animals including Geoffrey's Tamarin and Capuchin Monkeys. You can also spot tons of bird species. In all, Panama is home to over 940 different birds. (That's more than the US and Canada combined).

Because of the S shape of the country (as though the S is laying on it's side), at one point the Bay of the Pacific is on the East and the Bay of the Atlantic is on the West. Meaning it is the only country in the world where you can see the sun rise over the Pacific and set over the Atlantic.

All of that is cool, but our landmark could only be the Panama Canal, one of the most difficult engineering projects ever constructed. Fun fact: 30,000 tons of Dynamite were used to build the short-cut that greatly reduced the time it took for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

France began work on the canal in 1881. But lots of people died trying to build it- and coupled with their engineering issues, they stopped the project. The US took over the project in 1904, and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The whole thing was in part thanks to good old Teddy Roosevelt (which of course we knew from the president's project way back when).

An expansion of the canal opened in 2016. It doubled the capacity, and allows bigger ships to pass through the canal. It takes 6 to 8 hours to pass through this wonder of the modern world. The canal is also said to generate about 1/3 of Panama's entire economy.

But Panama is more than it's big city and canal. On some small islands belonging to Panama, it is so desolate, it makes for a great Survivor filming location. (It was featured on seasons 7,8 and 12).

Some other fun Panama facts for you:

The famous Panama hat actually originated in Ecuador (they got their name after they were shipped from Ecuador to Panama for world-wide distribution).

Panama was the first Latin American country to adopt US currency as it's own.

The country is home to the oldest continually operated railroad in the world.

Senator John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. (He was born at the Naval Air Station there that, at the time was US owned).

And finally, 'A Man, A Plan, A Canal, Panama' is a famous palindrome! (My palindrome husband, Asa, can appreciate this one).

We had a lunch for Panama, so we cut open that Santa Claus melon. While these slightly sweeter honey dew like melons are grown in the US in the summer, they are grown in Central America in the winter.

We also had some help from the store with some Empanadas. While Empanadas originated in Spain, they are now more closely associated with Central America, and are rather popular in Panama.

Lunch was universally liked, maybe not loved. But the boys had seconds, and I was pleased it was an easy meal to check off our list.

I did apparently miss the pictures of the postcards when they were displayed. Luckily, they were all still up as part of collections, so it was easy to snap a picture of each of them just now.

Calib's featured Survivor torches, a Panama hat, and a Capuchin Monkey (which the guy is apparently holding- I never said my kids were artistic geniuses.)