Panamá – The Irish Rover

Panamá, March 1976

After more than two weeks it felt great to be free of the boat; the constant moving between the gloomy light of the cabin, the restaurant, the bar and the deck was hypnotic. One lost track of the time and days (see Sailing the Pacific). Sydney felt very far away and the tropical smells and sounds of Latin America were completely new to me. It was to be the commencement of my love-affair with Latin culture.

We took a taxi into the old city and told the driver that we wanted an inexpensive clean, hotel near to the international bus terminus. The hotel to which he took us was adjacent to the Tica Bus station, that linked Panamá with all the central American countries, as far north as Mexico City. It was a perfect location to stay in the heart of the old city, and the hotel proved to be both quite inexpensive and clean, with a small, albeit garish swimming pool. We settled in for a few days.

Our first port of call was the bar beside the swimming pool and a cold beer. It was there that we first met Joe, a New York cop, travelling on his own. During his military service, he had been stationed in the Canal Zone, and he was on a trip ‘down memory lane’. He offered to take us to the Canal Zone, so we arranged to go with him the next day.

Following their success in completing the Suez Canal, we learned that France started work on the Panamá canal in 1881, to connect the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but eventually abandoned the project, due to high mortality rates from tropical diseases and the lack of funding. It was the U.S. that completed the 80 km canal in 1914. Between 1903 and 1979, the U.S. controlled the territory on either side of the canal. From 1979 to 1999, the Canal Zone was jointly managed with Panamá, before being handled over and the withdrawal of the U.S.

Unless one has studied a map of Panamá, one could assume that the canal runs from west to east. In fact it runs from south-east to north-west, and the Pacific end at Panamá is east of the Caribbean end at Colón.

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As arranged, Joe met us the next day. A busy road separated the old city from the Canal Zone and the contrast between the two could not have been greater. On one side there was the old city, with its ramshackle buildings, busy narrow streets, bars, shops, throngs of people, and the constant beat of music. On the other side there were extensive manicured lawns, interspersed with blocks of apartments, at the centre of which there was a small commercial area. And there was relative silence. In the Canal Zone we could have been anywhere US.

We walked down to the canal and watched the shipping wending their way through the series of locks. To avoid having to make extensive cuts through the central Isthmus, the locks lift ships to, and descend them from, an artificial lake, Gatun. It took about twelve hours for a ship to pass through the canal.

visitor22-26_Page_16_Image_0001 — The canal (picture from internet)

On another day we went out to the ruins of the original city, Panamá Vieja – founded in 1519. It became the starting point for expeditions to Perú, and it was from Panamá that gold and silver were shipped to Spain. It was attacked several times by pirates, and was finally destroyed in 1671 by the pirate Henry Morgan, with thousands of fatalities. It was rebuild a few kilometers to the west at the present site.

Henry_Morgan_in_colour — Sir Henry Morgan c1635-1888, who ended as Lieutenant Govener of Jamaica (photo from internet)

ruinas-Panama-Viejo-lugar-historia_10711805 — The ruins of the cathedral of the original Panama City, with the modern-day city in the background (photo from internet)

When we originally decided to sail from Australia to Panamá, our ambition was to continue south to Chile, and return from there to Sydney. At the time, I was completely unaware that there was no land connection between Panamá and Colombia, through the Darién Peninsula, and that the only way to reach Colombia was by boat or air. At the same time we learned of all the interesting countries and geographies that lay to the north. With the Tica bus terminal being next door, the change of direction was an easy one. We bought tickets to San José, Costa Rica.

South America could wait for another day.

It was in March 1976 when we set sail from Sydney, bound for Panamá, on a liner of the Chandris Line, the Australis, on one of its last voyages back to Europe. For some years, the Australis had carried immigrants from Europe to Australia, stopping in Freemantle, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, and returning to Europe via the Panamá Canal. It was to be one of its last voyages from Sydney, for in 1977 the Australian government did not renew their contract, and from henceforth, immigrants were flown from Europe.

SS-Australis-Syd-66 — The *Australis* at Circular Quay, Sydney (photo from internet)

Leaving the magnificent Sydney harbour was for me a poignant experience; I used to have an apartment on the north shore, at Kirribilli, from which I often watched ocean liners parting from Circular Quay. It was there that I nurtured the growing ambition of one day sailing to South America and that day finally came. The trip was to be encompass some of both South and Central America, eventually returning. 42 years have now passed, and I am still on my way back.

Once free of the coast, the weather hit with full force; the Tasman Sea from Sydney to Auckland can be a difficult crossing. I spent most of the next three days in my bunk, feeling distinctly queasy. In Australian slang, ‘to chunder’ = ‘to vomit’ and ‘chundrous’ = ‘a tendency to vomit’. I was sailing on a ‘Chundrous’ Line ship.

But Auckland was a welcome relief. We were met at the quay by an old business associate of A-M’s father and we spent a most interesting day with him. He was most hospitable, a complete gentleman of the school.

There were not many passengers on the boat. We had bargain-basement berths, travelling cattle-class in the bowels of the ship; A-M with three old ladies, complete with their ample supply of old-lady powder, and I, with three middle-aged drunks, who were either asleep or at the bar during the entire voyage. I never did learn their names.

Passenger lines of that era bore little resemblance to the cruise liners of today. Passenger liners carried their human cargo from A to B at minimal cost, as do low-cost airlines today. Unless, of course, if one travelled first class.

From Auckland the sailing was on smooth seas with no more storms. It took about six days from Auckland to Tahiti, some 4000 km. We were due to arrive just after dawn and the first sight of the verdant mountain of Tahiti rising from the ocean was unforgettable. We would not set sail until the early evening, so we went ashore. It was my second visit to Pape’ete (see A Tale of Two Graves).

As we walked across the quay, a couple approached us. They were considering sailing back to Europe on the Australis on a later voyage and were interested to hear of our opinion of the ship. They were Alberto (Argentino) and Polly (English). They were based in Pape’ete and Alberto worked for a French publisher. He was writing a book on Polynesian cooking, one of those large coffee-table publications with beautiful pictures, that are so popular in France. They drove us around the circumference of the island, showed us the sights, and were suburb hosts. By the time we had to return to the ship, we had already become good friends. A-M kept in touch with them and we met with them several times a couple of years later in England.

From Tahiti to Panamá is a bit over 8000 km and took about 12 days. Every day or two, the ship’s clocks were changed and before long we were waking up in the late afternoon and going to bed in the morning. Having no portholes to see daylight, we lost all sense of time.

When we were awake, whatever the time, we spent hours playing cards in the bar. I cannot remember the name of the card game, but playing it was hypnotic, amply aided by a constant supply of inexpensive beer and gin and tonics. And much time was spent in speculating on which of the passengers would be the next client of the attractive Australian hooker. She came to the bar, afternoon and evening, working her passage, in constant search of her next customer.

Outside, there were no storms to get excited about. The ocean was continued relatively calm and during the passage through the doldrums, it was more like a swimming pool. On a few occasions a pod of dolphins would play around the boat and once a glide of flying fish swam alongside for a while. Time passed very slowly.

Until one day we passed under the Bridge of the Americas and slowly berthed, under the brooding vigilance of a horde of vultures, perched on the warehouse buildings.

The air was humid and heavy and saturated. Onshore we could see a seething horde, anxiously waiting to offer transportation, accommodation, or general assistance. We felt as if we were very much heading into the unknown and the adventure was about to begin.