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David S. Parker Governor-President

Charles I. McGinnis

Lieutenant Governor

Frank A. Baldwin Panama Canal Information Officer

Willie K Friar Editor, English Edition Jose T. Tunon

Editor, Spanish Edition

Writers Eunice Richard, Fannie P. Hernandez,

Official Panama Canal Publication Franklin Castrellon and Dolores E. Suisman

Review articles may be reprinted without further clearance. Credit tu the Review will be appreciated.

The Panama Canal Review is published twice a year. Yearly subscription: regular mail $1, airmail $2, single copies 50 cents.

For subscription, send check or money order, made payable to the Panama Canal Company, to Panama Canal Review, Box M, Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Editorial Office is located in Room 100, Administration Building, Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Printed at the Panama Canal Printing Plant, La Boca, C.Z.

Contents

The Golden Huacas of Panama 3 Treasures of a forgotten

people arouse the curiosity

of archeologists around the

world.

Snoopy Speaks Spanish 8 In the phonetics of the funnies, a Spanish-speaking dog

doesn't say "bow wow."

Balseria 11 Broken legs are the name of the game when the Guaymis

get together for this unique

contest.

Bicycling on the Isthmus 15

The unicycle may be the best answer for complete equality

in the age of unisex.

To Russia with the Russians 17 From New York to Leningrad

with ballet, balalaikas and

borscht. Shipping Notes 22

The style in cruising this year

is to the exotic and unusual

spot.

When Left Was Right 25

Driving rules were reversed

with hardly a hitch—except

for the horses.

Salsipuedes 28

Everything from lizards to love potions is sold in Panama's legend-shrouded street.

Culinary Capers 32

History 35

Artwork—Carlos Mendez, page 14, 32, 34; Hector Sinclair, page 22; Peter Gurney, page 2.5.

Our Cover

Huaca fanciers will find their favorites among the symbolic characters of the warrior, rainbow, condor god, eagle

and alligator in this display of Panama's famous golden artifacts. The huacas, copied from those recov- ered from the graves of pre-Columbian

Carib Indians, were loaned to The

Review by Neville Harte. The well known local archeologist also provided

much of the information for the article from his unrivaled knowledge of the subject—the fruit of a 26-year-long love

affair with the huaca, and the country

and people of Panama, past and present. Harte has made replicas of 109

different huacas—many from originals

he recovered himself—using the lost- wax process of casting metal. Because huacas are beautiful, rare, valuable, or a combination of all three,

they are a major attraction for tourists and residents who visit the Panama Museum to see the originals, or jewelry and

antique shops to buy the reproductions.

Two often asked questions about the golden huaca are who discovered the

ancient lost-wax process and how did

the Indians mine gold. The explanations are simple: The lost-wax process was

never lost and the Indians did not mine

gold.

The phrase "lost-wax process" does

not mean the technique was lost and

rediscovered; it simply means the wax

is lost in the process. Gold in a relatively pure state was

plentiful in stream beds. It was bright

and shiny and caught the sun's rays and

thus the Indians' eyes. And they panned

rather than mined their gold.

Arthur L. Pollack produced the unusual three-dimensional effect necessary

to appreciate the intricate beauty of the huacas by photographing them on a

sheet of plate glass suspended 3 inches above a piece of red satin material.

2 Fall 1973
A

CLUE TO THE MYSTERIES OF

a vanished people who inhabited

Panama during pre-Columbian times is found in the "golden huacas," the precious artifacts which were buried with

them 1,000 years ago.

These people left no written history. But the objects they made—jewelry,

weapons, tools and ornaments—give a clue to their great culture and the skill

of their artisans.

In these archeological finds lies the

history of a great nation obscured by

time. Many facts are known, but even

thev change according to the books read

or experts consulted. What is a huaca? Is

a huaca a tomb and a huaco an artifact recovered from the tomb? Or is it the

other wav around? Were huacas orna- ments, offerings to the gods, good luck charms, battle armor, coats of arms? Is the word itself spelled huacal or guacal

or huaca or guaca? It matters little. Here in Panama, "huacas" have come

to mean the artifacts removed from the graves of the Indian tribes who pros- pered on the rich and lovelv lands of

the Isthmus until the Spaniards came

to plunder, kill and drive them from

their homes.

The golden huaca has traveled a long

journey over manv lands. It was created by the hands of the skilled Caribbean

goldsmith who fashioned a breast orna- ment for a warrior and a strand of gold

beads for his lady. Placed in the tomb

with other items chosen to accompanv

him on his journey to another life, the gold ornaments remained sunbright for hundreds of years.

Today, a replica of the golden huaca

is a small part of pre-Columbian history

that can be worn around the neck or on

the ears. Satisfying the current craving

for the unique and exotic, huacas are growing in popularity as the gift that evervone wants to own or to give. Fashioned into pendants, bracelets, earrings, even wedding rings—by jewelers in Pan- ama and other countries of Central and

South America-they are favored as gifts and cherished as souvenirs. And the spell of the huaca is such

that it never becomes just a piece of

jewelrv. Alwavs its owner is aware of

its inpenetrable secrets ... of the stories

it would tell if it could.

In the late 1920's, following floods that changed the river's course, natives

traveling along the Rio Grande de Code, just 100 miles from the Canal Zone,

had one of modern man's earliest glimpses of this reminder of Panama's

ancient civilization. A glimmer that proved to be the golden treasure of a forgotten people that had been buried

with their dead. The gold ornaments the natives uncovered, along with bone fragments and

pottery, made their way from hand to hand until they arrived in a Pan- ama City antique shop, and eventually

aroused the curiousity of archeologists

around the world. Following the accidental discovery

and the verification of its importance, an expedition, led by the famed archeologist Samuel K. Lothrop, was sent to the site by the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. In one of his reports, Dr. Lothrop

tells of the complex story that began to unfold when, while digging beneath the top layer of pasture land, he brought to

light signs of ancient habitation. One

grave, only 12 feet by 14 feet in size, yielded more than 2,000 objects. Ninetysix of these were gold. There were

pendants set with semiprecious stones, ornamental breast plates, necklaces of

Elsa Fifer, a student assistant in the General Audit Division, wears a replica of an

Indian headband that

is adorned with a golden alligator.

thousands of beads, heavily embossed

gold disks, wrist and ankle cuffs, and

earrings.

His studies during this and later ex- peditions to Code Province convinced

Dr. Lothrop that the "civilization repre- sented by these finds belonged to tribes

practically unknown today . . . rich and

industrious peoples, skilled in working

clay, stone and metals." The gold artifacts uncovered in these ancient sites and at others in the provinces of Chiriqui and Veraguas, and also

at Venado Beach in the Canal Zone, are displayed in the Panama Museum and

in many museums in the United States and Europe—a silent tribute to the master craftsmen who reached a pinnacle

of artistry more than 1,000 years ago

in Panama.

Fashioned by a curious technique,

the gold figures portray stylized human

and animal forms or a combination of the two. There are snakes with two

legs, men with crocodile heads, and

figures with a human head and shoulders attached to the body of a snake, with

the projecting eyes of a crab, and the recurring images of the alligator and

The Panama Canal Review
eagle which many believe have reli- gious significance.

There is agreement among archeologists that the superb gold relics in- terred in the ancient graves represent

high aesthetic and technical achieve- ment, and that the Code goldsmiths were among the few in ancient America

sufficiently skilled to make hollow castings. There agreement ends. No one

seems sure how they were able to cast these fabulous artifacts. In a 1, 200-year-old grave of a Carib

Indian goldsmith, Neville Harte, one

of the foremost local experts on the golden huaca, believes he found the ancient melting secret of what is called the lost-wax method of casting.

Huaca rings, earrings, a pin, and a necklace from Neville Harte's

collection, are modeled

by Dolores Fitch, of the Office of the Youth Advisor.

Harte, a retired employee of the

U.S. Army, has devoted weekends and

vacations in search of pre-Columbian

history. Since 1968 when he retired, he

has devoted most of his time to the study

of the golden huacas. After finding the

goldsmith's grave, he spent 3 years on

a successful project to reproduce these golden relics using the techniques he

believes the ancient Carib craftsmen

used to produce the originals, and

another 17 years to perfect his methods.

Only recently has he created what he

considers satisfactory reproductions.

In reproducing replicas of the original

huacas, Harte makes a wax model of the object he will cast in precious metal. He adds long, thin threads of wax as decorative details, and affixes a cone of wax to the model's base which will serve

as a funnel-shaped pouring channel for the molten metal. When the wax model

is complete, he covers it with powdered

charcoal to insure a smooth casting surface. Then the model is covered with an outer shell made of a mixture of moist clay and crushed charcoal. After the outer shell dries, the entire as- sembly is fired to strengthen the mold

and burn out the wax to leave a cavity

of the same shape as the now-lost wax

model. The mold is then brought to red

heat and the molten metal poured in, When the metal solidifies, the mold is broken away to expose the golden

huaca. Many people have the idea that the lost-wax process means the process was

lost and rediscovered. Rather it simply means that the wax is lost in the process. "The huaca and I are one," Harte

says, but it is neither the search for, nor

the finding of the golden treasures, nor

the scientist's successful pursuit of knowledge, that challenges and gratifies

him most. It is telling the story of the "golden huaca" of Panama to school

children.

In his introduction, he presents a

challenge: "The mythology of these golden artifacts will test your skill and

imagination. For what man living today can understand their meaning, and how

many conclusions can be drawn from

these golden effigies of over 1,000 years ago?" The huacas that were buried in Indian graves to accompany the dead

on their journey to another life are the characters in a tale Harte weaves for the children. The warrior, the storm

god, the north wind, the frog, alligator

and eagle all take part in the adventures

of a brave warrior who receives a mortal

wound in combat and must make the long and dangerous journey to the valley

of the gods. The warrior's spirit is given seven tests to complete within 28 davs

if he is to gain entrance into the land

of the rainbow, eternal wine and honey.

He must conquer by wit or battle the

alligator god, tiger god, the gods of hunger, fever, sickness and the storm. He is guided and aided by the gods of the winds and the golden frog and the

great white crane. Finally, his perilous

journev over, he is welcomed bv the Great North Wind to the land of everlasting happiness.

These mythological stories over, Harte tells real adventure stories—his own.The letters he receives from the young

students amaze him with their insight

and understanding.

One little fourth-grade girl saw

bevond the folk story. She summed up

in her letter: "I'm glad you kept some

things secret and encouraged us to be

archeologists. But I don't think you kept

too many things secret. I think you gave awav just enough to make it kind of mysterious. I think that huacas are like a big mvstery just sitting there waiting

to be solved."

Fall 1973
Neville Harte heats the tip of

a welding instrument as he prepares

to attach a pin to a huaca.

Reconstruction of steps followed

in casting a bird huaca by Dudley

T. Easby, Jr. Drawings by Elizabeth

K. Easby, reprinted from "Natural

History Magazine."

A. This rough core, m.idc of clay mixrd C. The casting will be done in an invert- wilh charcoal, "ill be broken up and re- cd position. Before enveloping the model

moved after casting, leaving the pine in clay, a cone of wax is added to pro- hollow inside Tins saves gold and also vide a pouring channel. And four wax

permits the making of hollow vessels. rods have been added to provide air vents when the metal is poured in.

Trimming the wax mold before

it is cast is one of the many steps necessary in producing a huaca.

B. The rough core is first covered with a uniform coating of wax. The eyes, tal- ons, suspension rings under the bill, and

decorative holes have been added in the form of wax threads. The founder fin- ishes the details on the wax model with sharp tools. The three black bars are the pegs to keep the core from slipping out

of position during the work.

D. This drawing represents a section through the mold after the wax model

has been melted out. The colored portion

shows where the gold will flow between

the shell and the core. It will rise into the

air vents to form rods that will be later cut off and burnished. The core is finally broken and removed through the hollow

bill and the holes in the breast and the back of the perch.

Spencer Winstead, of Ancon,

one of nine apprentices trained by Harte, learns how to attach wax

filigree work to the main mold.

The Panama Canal Review
By Vic Canel

EVER HEARD OF A LORENZO

sandwich or a Pilon hamburger, or seen Ramona's rolling pin bounce off Paneho's head?

Sure you have, if you've ever fol- lowed the funnies. But you probablv

know the characters as Dagwood,

Wimpy, Maggie and Jiggs. In the Spanish version, not onlv the names, but the onomatopoeia of the comics is different. Maggie's rolling pin goes PUM instead of CONK and the THUD of Jiggs hitting the deck is CATAPLUM!

In the phonetics of the funnies, a Spanish-speaking dog says GUAU

GUAU, while in English it'sARF ARF.

When the doorbell or phone rings, it's TIN TIN or TILIN TILIN. An especially prolonged ring would be TINTIRINTIN.

In manv of the strips, however, where

"Gooc/ Grief, Carlitos,

Snoopy Speaks Spanish!"

the onomatopoeia is an integral part of the overall design of the panel, it is not

translated. As a result, comic book afi- cionados, who read Batman, Superman

and manv of the other adventure comics

in Spanish have added to their vocabulary such words as ZONK, ZOOM,

BLAM AND BOOM.

Though comics as such originated in Europe some 80 years ago, development of many of the techniques, such

as the "balloon" and much of the particular symbolism of the comics, took

place in the United States. Children almost everywhere know

that a saw cutting through a log over

a character's head, or a series of Z's mean that he's asleep. A swirl of stars and other celestial bodies about his head means he has just received a blow

and is seeing stars, while a picture of an electric light bulb signifies that the

' United Feature Syndicate

character has just seen the light or thought of a brilliant idea. A series of exclamation and interrogation marks interspersed with ampersands, asterisks, stars and other assorted symbols indicates profanity in anv lan- guage. The reader is expected to use

his imagination in filling in the unprint- able words in his own tongue and his own choice of epithets.

Such symbolism is very much in evidence in comic strips such as the Katzenjammer Kids, originally published December 12, 1897, in the New

York Journal. Later named Los Pilluelos (The Little Rascals) in Spanish, the

strip was the creation of Rudolph Dirks. When Dirks left Randolph Hearst's paper and tried to take the strip with

him, the case was taken to court. The

final settlement did not come until 1912,

when the court ruled that Dirks had a

PEPITA

P4 UNA GR.MJ

< K nit; Features Syndicate

Fall 1973
I Hall Syndicate

right to draw the characters he had

created, but the title of the strip

remained Hearst property. Hearst promptly hired Harold Knerr to draw

the Katzenjammer Kids, while Dirks

continued using the same format and

characters under the new title. The Captain and the Kids. So far as is known,

this is the onlv comic strip ever to have

been published in two separate versions. There is an interesting sociological

phenomenon in the fact that Blondie

(Pepita in Spanish) and Dagwood, a typically middle class American couple

are at the top of the popularity scale in Latin America, where life styles are so very different. One cannot help but

wonder how a character like Dagwood,

abused bv his boss, Mr. Dithers (Sefior

Fernandez in Spanish), henpecked and

outsmarted bv his wife Blondie, has

managed to be a success in a land where

"machismo" is the thing.

Dagwood was not always middle

class. His father, a railroad tycoon, was

a billionaire. But Dagwood was cut off without a penny of the Bumstead

In Spanish when

the Cap'n of the Katzenjammer

Kids snoozes, it is not "z-z-z" but

"b-z-z" and

Dennis' dog never

savs "bow wow."

billions because he married the flighty

Blondie despite family opposition. Of

course, that was before the strip, which

appeared for the first time in the New

York American on September 15, 1930, was widely syndicated and became

popular in Latin America. So, for Spanish-speaking readers, Chic Young's

character Lorenzo has always been a working class family man. Incidentally,

Bumstead in Spanish is "Parachoques"

which means bumper.

The first American comic strip to appear in Spanish, according to the

records, is Ceorge McManus' creation. Bringing up Father (Educando a Papa)

.

King Features sold it to papers in Buenos Aires, Havana and Mexico about

50 years ago. Pancho and Ramona's

dialogue was translated into Spanish bv

the papers that published the strip until King Features established its foreign

department in 1928 and began to do all translations at its New York headquarters.

With some exceptions, the names of comic strip characters in Spanish turn

out to be entirely different from and not

direct translations of English versions. A notable example is Charles M.

Schultz' very popular Peanuts, distrib- uted by United Feature Syndicate. In Spanish, the strip is not called mani

(peanuts), as one might reasonably

expect, but Rabanitos, which means

little radishes. In Mexico and some

other countries, the strip is known as "Carlitos" (obviously for Charlie Brown).

Among the pioneers of U.S. comics,

and indeed the man who has been

credited with developing the strip tech- nique as it is known today, was the late H. C. (Bud) Fisher, creator of Mutt

and Jeff. They are known in Latin

America as Benitin (Jeff) y Eneas (Mutt).

Evidently, whoever translated their names gave Jeff top billing simplv be- cause it sounds better than Eneas v

Benitin. This is ironic, since Mutt started out as the solo star of the strip when it appeared for the first time in the San

Francisco Chronicle of November 15, 1907. Soon after its appearance the strip

Known as Los Pica Piedra (the stone choppers, rock splitters?), the Flintstones are popular in Panama. Fred is Pedro and Barney

is Enano (midget). "Knock knock" comes out "toe toe" in Spanish.

@SA tVOCNS . . . fj\c?<2Ug T£ P/?XeC£ ZODRIGOj ama

< H.tnna Barbera Productions The Panama Canal Review
El Pato Donald El Raton Miguelito

moved to the San Francisco Examiner,

where Jeff made his debut on March 29, 1908. Mr. Augustus Mutt, as he was

called, was on a visit to a mental institu- tion where the inmates were about to reenact a scene from a real life trial that was taking place in San Francisco at the

time. Just then an insignificant little runt by the name of Jeffries happened

to walk into the room and was promptly

pinned to the wall by the inmates. Mr. Mutt rescued him from his plight,

shortened his name to Jeff and made

him his protege.

Now drawn by Al Smith and dis- tributed by McNaught Syndicate, Benitin y Eneas is still just as popular

as ever. Another of the perennially popular

comic strip characters of old is Popeve,

pronounced Poh-peh-yeh in Spanish.

Unlike Jiggs and Dagwood, whose

comic appeal lav in the area of domestic

tribulations, Popeve emerged as a

strong, independent he-man tvpe. He first appeared in the New York

Evening Journal on January 27, 1929,

as an additional character in the strip called "Thimble Theatre," created bv

Elzie Crisler Segar. Preceding Popeve

© Walt Disney Productions

among the players of the "Theatre" were Olive Oyle, who in later years was

to be known to the Spanish speaking

world as Rosario, and her brother,

Castor. Shortly afterward came hamburger-hound Wimpy (Pilon in Latin

America), and still later came crawling

across the panel Popeye's adopted baby

son, little Swee'pea, known to Spanish

speaking readers as Cocoliso (Smooth

head). For many years, Popeye's super- human feats after ingesting a can of strength giving spinach have been used

as a shining example bv mothers in many

lands to induce children to eat their vegetables.

While retaining the element of humor,

Popeve was probablv the forerunner of the more serious adventure strips in which the featured character was a

strong, intrepid hero—an image to evoke

admiration and not laughter.

Among the earlv adventure comics—

and still very popular—was Edgar

Rice Burrough's Tarzan, first drawn by

Harold Foster. The simultaneous ap- pearance of Tarzan and Buck Rogers on January 7, 1929, marked the beginning

of the straight adventure stories in the

© \EA Service

comics. Drawn by illustrators rather than

cartoonists, these strips were based on

stories written for the popular pulp

trade. Edgar Rice Burrough's story "Tarzan of the Apes" first appeared in 1914 and was followed by many other Tarzan adventures. Buck Rogers was

based on stories written for the science

fiction magazines by Philip Nowlan and were drawn by Dick Calkins. Tarzan (pronounced Tar-SAN in Spanish) still stands among the most

popular adventure comics in Latin

America, along with Mandrake the Magician, the Phantom and Superman.

While Superman is still Superman in Spanish, the Phantom is called by the

literal Spanish translation of his name,

El Fantasma. The list of adventure comics which

made their debut during the 1930's is lengthy. In 1931, when the law was

finally catching up with Al Capone and

he was on the verge of being sent to Alcatraz, came Chester Gould's Dick

Tracv, still the top crime fighter in the comic strip world. During the month of January 1934,

King Features Syndicate launched three new adventure strips in rapid succes- sion—Secret Agent X-9, a police adventure strip; Jungle Jim, obviously de- signed to compete with Tarzan; and

Flash Gordon, King Features' answer to Buck Rogers' space age adventures. All three were drawn by one of the most

versatile artists of his time, Alex Raymond.

In October 1934, a young artist whose distinctive style was to be imitated by other comic strip authors, in the fol- lowing years launched his famous Terry

and the Pirates. Milton Caniff was amons the first artists to introduce

8 Fall 1973
cinematographic composition into the

comics. Working with brush and pen, he achieved striking lighting effects, made use of close-ups and violent black and white contrasts. While many of the humorous comic

characters have completely different names in Spanish, adventure comic

heroes are known to Spanish speaking

readers by their English names, or a rough Spanish equivalent. Thus, Milton

CanifFs Terry and the Pirates translates to Terri y los Piratas, while Charles

Flander's Lone Ranger is called El Llanero Solitario (The Lone Plainsman).

The demand for variety in comics

during the thirties was great. Newspapers began to call on magazine cartoonists to put their characters in strip form. Among these was Otto Soglow's

Little King (El Reyecito in Spanish),

which had been published as a single

panel feature in the New Yorker. Papers

also borrowed from animated cartoons. Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse (El Raton

Miguelito), created in 1928, broke into the newspaper comic strips in 1931 and

was followed later by Donald Duck, who

is called El Pato Donald in Panama,

but is known in some other Latin American countries as El Pato Pascual. Goofv,

by the way, is known to the Spanish

speaking world as Tribilin. Another comic character who was to gain popularity in Latin America under

the unlikely name of Trucutu was Vince

Hamlin's prehistoric man, Alley Oop,

born in 1934. World War II brought a great change

in the character of adventure comics.

Nearly all of them became involved in fighting the enemv. If not as members

of the Armed Forces, like Terrv, who

became a pilot in the Air Force, thev

fought enemy agents and saboteurs on

the home front, like Dick Tracy.

Early in the war Milton Caniff was

asked to create a comic strip designed

to bolster GI morale. The result was a

strip called Male Call, featuring a curvaceous, scantillv clad heroine called Miss Lace. The war also produced other new

strips, such as Sad Sack, the creation of

Sgt. George Baker. Sad Sack was the

personification of the poor slob destined

to do all the dirty details. Another satire of military life came

later with the appearance of Mort

Walker's Beetle Bailey in 1950. Though

also abused by his sergeant, Beetle, unlike the uncomplaining Sad Sack, is a

crafty goldbricker.

Among post war comics that have

gained popularity in Latin America are Dennis the Menace, by Hank Ketcham,

which made its appearance in 1951. In Spanish the impish terror is called Daniel el Travieso (Daniel the naughty).

A more recent addition to the comic

strip scene in Latin America is Dick

Browne's hard fighting Viking, Haggar

the Horrible, known to his Spanish

speaking fans as Olafo el Amargado

(Olaf the Bitter). This strip must be a challenge to translators, since at least in one recent installment which ap- peared in La Estrella de Panama,

Haggar spoke all of his lines in verse. Translators also must be careful in their choice of words, since syndicates

distribute to all Spanish speaking countries and the meaning of certain words

may differ from country to country.

A perfectly good word in Panama, for example, may be offensive in Argentina

or Uruguay.

One syndicate representative recalls

an incident which had Panama readers

calling the paper to protest the use of an unprintable Spanish appelative for prostitute. In the Spanish version of

Tillie the Toiler, she is Cuquita la Mecanografa (the typist). The strip, which

used to appear in La Estrella de Pan- ama, one day included the word RUTA

(Route). But when it appeared in the paper, the "R" had lost its descender

and was converted into a "P". The

newspaper relayed the protests to the

syndicate and complained bitterly about

the embarrassing situation in which it had found itself. But the syndicate

produced proofs and tearsheets from

other newspapers which had carried the same strip, showing that it had appeared

correctly.

Further investigation proved that the "R" had been purposely modified as a parting shot by a disgruntled shop employee at La Estrella who had been

given notice of dismissal.

Haggar the Horrible rhymes

in either language

when he says: "Every day seems

like Sunday in July . . . and it makes the Vikings

cry."

TODOS LOS DIAS DE JULIO PARECEN DOMIN"

G0S...Y HACEN LLCRAR A LOS VIKINGOS

DJ7 ROjTE!

foW DUTY

George Baker

probably should have used a boa or a fer-de-lance in

this Sad Sack

scene, since rattlers would be a rarity

in Panama.

Syndicate

The Panama Canal Review
i—Don Winslow Saves the Panama Canal

A COUPLE OF SINISTER SABOTEURS WORKING

for an insidious enemy spy, called Scorpia, very nearly

blew up the Panama Canal in 1952. But they did not reckon with the cunning of Comdr. Don Winslow, a veteran

U.S. Naval Intelligence Officer. Don Winslow of the Navy was the title of a successful adventure strip created by a real life Naval Intelligence

Officer called F. V. Martinek. The author served in the Navy during World War I, then spent 4 years with the FBI. So he was a stickler for authenticity. In the Panama Canal adventure, for example, which ran

for nearly 3 months in the daily strip, he included some

characters from real life. One of the first contacts made by

the fictional Don Winslow upon his arrival in Panama was

with Capt. W. S. Parsons, USN, who actually was Captain

of the Port of Cristobal at the time. A later sequence finds Winslow greeting his old friend Luis

Noli, of the Star & Herald, an English language newspaper which carried the dailv strip at that time. Noli recalls that the late President Jose Antonio Remon,

In the September 24 strip the scene switches to the enemy agents in Panama with Red Hawk saying to Banana

Hawk; ". . . we still need a short time to perfect our plans."

The next installment shows Winslow meeting with Port Captain Parsons. Their conversation is interrupted when a West Indian by the name of Reginald reports that he saw

a mysterious man sending a radio message from one of the tunnels at Fort San Lorenzo. As Reginald leads the officers

to the tunnel where he saw the man, he stops short of the entrance when he spots a fer-de-lance snake. Winslow

immediately surmises that the snake was planted there to keep out intruders. After disposing of the snake, Winslow

and his partv approach the cave and eavesdrop on the

saboteurs.

It is revealed that they plan to blow up Gatun Dam and

the bridge at Gamboa, simultaneously. Pointing to a map,

one of the enemy says "this is Gatun Dam. It spans the northern and lower end of a deep valley through which

the Chagres River formerly flowed to the sea." And in the

next panel: "Behind the dam is Gatun Lake, covering 165

DON \fINSLOW - M< nilif r or Ihr I'rcs.

I KNEW you'd want

TO KNOW ABOUT TUIS^

PLOT,. COLONEL, BECAUSE OF

YOUR SPLENDID COOPERATION

IN TUE PAST.

Bv Frank V. Martin.

^AMERICA MUST BE PROUD OF SUCH^

MEN AS YOU. WINSLOW. PARSONS

AND CULLEN ... WORKING NIGHT AND DAY TO PROTECT OUR

REPUBLICS AGAINST

OUR ENEMIES.... WE'LL HELP

YOU FlGMT

THESE

SCORPlOM

SABOTEURS

who was a follower of adventure comics, one day greeted

him at a presidential press conference with: "Hey Noli,

I saw you in Don Winslow of the Navy this morning!"

Martinek had met Noli and Captain Parsons during a research trip to Panama and decided to make them a part

of the sequence for added realism. The first installment in the storv of the attempted sabotage of the Panama Canal appeared in the Star & Herald

of August 31, 1952. The scene opens with Winslow in a

confidential conversation with his commanding officer. In the next panel an informer is caught eavesdropping at the

door. Upon questioning, he reveals Scorpia's plot to sabo- tage the Canal and indicates that the enemy spy network

extends from New Orleans to the Canal Zone. During a brief stop in New Orleans before flying to Panama, enemy agents attacked and seriously injured Red

Pennington, one of Winslow's assistants. He then decides

to recruit another naval intelligence officer, Ross Pizzitola, as a replacement for Pennington in the Panama operation.

Pizzitola, it happens, is aboard a ship called the SS Chiriqui, which is en route to Cristobal, but still a long way

from the Isthmus. So Don Winslow overtakes the ship and

lands his helicopter on deck to pick up his new assistant.

square miles. It is clear that if our plan works, all the water

will pour into the sea, draining the Panama Canal." Don Winslow reports the plot to the police commissioner,

identified as Colonel Somar. As he is leaving he encounters newsman Luis Noli. (See above.)

Saboteurs in frogman suits went out in two launches

and attached charges to the dam and to the bridge. Meanwhile, Winslow hovered above the launch at the dam,

where he ordered the saboteurs to jump into the water or be blown up themselves. Parsons in another helicopter

blew up the saboteurs' launch as it attempted to detonate

the charge at the bridge.

Once the would be saboteurs were dealt with, Winslow

headed back to Fort San Lorenzo to capture the ringleaders,

who had heard the explosion and assumed that their nefari- ous mission had been a success. They were celebrating

their victory with round after round of toasts when Winslow's men threw a grenade into the entrance and stormed

in and arrested them.

The Panama adventure ends with a celebration dinner

in Panama, where an unidentified official thanks Winslow

"for saving the belt that links the Americas in their fight

for peace."

10 Fai.l 1973
B

A

S

E

I

A

Recalling, perhaps, the grandeur of balseria in times gone by, this Guaymi in

his holiday hat and tiger-tooth collar epitomizes the valor of his Indian nation

that was not vanquished by the conquistadores.

By Jose T. Tunon

The Panama Canal Review 11

IN THE THEATER, ACTORS

about to go on stage are given en- couragement by fellow performers

with the expression "Break a leg!" But when the Guaymi Indians of western Panama play the game of bal- seria—a sort of choreographed mayhem

in which the players hop to the rhythm

of primitive instruments while hurling

balsa poles at their opponent's legs—

the words are taken quite literally. This unique game, enjoyed by the Guavmi for hundreds of years, is still the big event of the year for the present

day aborigines of Panama's Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro and Veraguas provinces.

More than merely a game, the unusual contest provides participants

with a 3-day festival as well as a traditional wav of settling disputes. A balseria also may be organized to test the

physical agilitv and courage of various

groups or certain individuals, or simply

to enhance the prestige of the man who

has organized it. The sport was first mentioned bv

Friar Adrian de Santo Tomas who lived among the Guaymi between 1622 and

1637, and described it as one of the few

amusements they had. More than 300

vears later, Panamanian anthropologist Dr. Reina Torres de Arauz said, "Balseria continues tn be played the same way

as described bv the missionary who saw

it in action several times in the 1620's." To better understand the role of balseria in the life of the Guaymi, one must comprehend their way of life, customs, the ruggedness of the area in which thev live and their tenacious fight

for freedom and superiority.

Each family, or group of families.

lives in virtual isolation in large bohios

nestled in mountain clearings, protected
Contestants take turns throwing the long thin sticks of balsa at each

other's legs.

bv fences of big tree trunks, which fre- quently root and grow into enormous

trees. As a rule, when a daughter marries, the husband comes to live with her

family. Another bohio (thatched roof hut) is built near the large family bohio

and as other daughters wed a "caserio" or village is formed.

The isolation of the Guaymi is more

pronounced during the rainv season when the flooding rivers of Veraguas

and Chiriqui make travel difficult. During this period women stav indoors and

their social life is greatly restricted. Thev seldom leave the confines of their settlements.

But dry season is another matter. It

is the season to be happv, to renew

acquaintances, to visit one's neighbors.

It is the time for a balseria, to get to- gether for a good time, to catch up on

all the news and to have a few drinks

. . . sometimes quite a few.

At one Balseria there were

14 broken legs, 2 men suffered

fractures of both legs, and more

than 40 had cuts and bruises.

However, not everyone can organize

a balseria, for it is, above all, a contest

of superiority and physical aptitudes.

It is proof of solvency and of the re- spect and esteem that the majority of inhabitants have for the organizer of the balseria. A Guaymi without these qualifica- tions need not waste his time trying to hold a balseria. "In reality, balseria is the last in a series of steps by which a man achieves great importance in Guaymi society," said Dr. Philip Young,

in his book, "Traditions and Changes

of Western Guavmis of Panama."

When a man feels that he is ready

to sponsor a balseria, he first makes

sure that he has the full support of his family and relatives, because one man

alone cannot bear the expense of food

and drink that the guests will consume

during the 3 davs of the balseria, which

could bring together as many as 2,000

persons.

Great Quantities of Food

Great quantities of food and "chicha"

(a strong drink made from fermented

corn), to fortifv the contestants and

guests, are prepared well in advance.

Cattle and pigs are slaughtered; women

work hard preparing mountains of rice and other treats for the big party. Preparations begin about 4 months

before the festivities. As soon as the sponsor is sure of the cooperation of

his relatives, and that he really qualifies as a "balsero," he sends an invitation by messenger to an important man of another district. The messenger carries a knotted string, the knots indicating the number of days remaining before

the balseria. If the opponent accepts,

he sends his own messenger back to the sponsor with a similar knotted

string. Each dav a knot is cut from the

string until it is time to travel to the

area where the balseria will be held. The invitation is sent about 3 months

in advance.

Members of the sponsoring side cut

the balsa sticks 2 or 3 months before

the event so thev will be light and dry

for the balseria. The sticks are 5 to 6

feet long, about 3 inches in diameter on one end, 2 inches in diameter on

the other end, and rounded at both

ends. The wood of the balsa tree, which

is common in many parts of Panama,

is used because although very heavy

and spongy when wet, it is very light

but tough and strong when dried. According to Rev. Ephraim Alphonse,

who is well versed on the subject, about

2 weeks before the event it is customary

for the Guavmi of Bocas del Toro to blow on their conch shells, whose

blasts echo through the mountains and

valleys, informing the challenger, "I am ready to defeat you," and back

across the mountain comes the sound

of the defender's conch shell, saving

"Come on, I am ready."

As often occurs at big parties, there are spectators and gate crashers, who

unlike their counterparts in modern

society, bring their own food and drink. Of course, the number of guests de- pends upon the prestige, fame, and

affluence of the sponsor of the balseria. Dressed in their verv best, they come

from all over the mountains, the men

wearing beaded collars (chaquiras), if thev have them, the women in their Mother Hubbards, colored combs and

ribbons in their hair and numerous

strings of beads around their necks. There is an air of festivity throughout

the mountains as thev head for the lla- no, the clearing where the balseria is to be held. Thev bring ocarinas, flutes of bone, and other musical instruments

made of steer horns, turtle shells, and

various kinds of wood.

According to eyewitnesses, the first day of balseria is devoted to setting up

campsites and social intermingling. The women and girls busv themselves serv- ing food and chicha to the guests. There is much eating and drinking.

Everybody is happv and the party lasts until the wee hours of the morning,

when it is time to start the balseria. Meanwhile, the balsa sticks have been

guarded all night to make sure they are not touched before they are used. The game begins with the opponent

leader throwing the first stick at the

12 Fall 1973
A typical abode of the Guaymi in Chiriqui and Bocas del Toro provinces. When

a daughter marries, the family gains a male member and another "bohio" is built close to the big family "bohio."

Bedecked in holiday finery, including

a feather in his hat and a king-size

chaquira covering his shoulders, this Guaymi child watches a game of balseria.

Using a primitive mortar and pestle, a Guaymi mother and daughter remove chaff from the rice that will be consumed by those attending the balseria.With an ocelot as proof of his hunting

prowess, this Guaymi heads for a balseria.

The Panama Canal Review 13
A mannequin with painted face, bird feathers in his hat, wearing his very best and holding a balsa stick, represents a Guaymi ready to participate in balseria. The conch shell hanging at his right

side is used to send blasts that echo far

off through the mountains and valleys

of Chiriqui.

I All photographs are from a recent dis- play at the Panama National Museum).

sponsor, who in turn throws at the opponent. Amid the shouting and cheer- ing of the spectators, balseria is off to a shin skinning start. After the first two initiate the game,

all the men take part, as teams or as individuals. Holding the stick near the ends at chest level, the contestant throws it at his opponent who has his back turned to the thrower, trying to look over his shoulder and guessing

when to leap out of the way of the stick.

If the opponent is still standing, he then throws the stick at his rival. The game

goes on accompanied by music, singing and shouts of encouragement from

the spectators. As many as 150 teams mav be competing, throwing sticks and

aiming for legs below the knee. There

are hits and misses, and frequent acci- dents with other parts of the bodv re- ceiving the brunt of the hurtling stick. The player's aim usually deteriorates in direct relation to the flow of the potent

chicha, which is passed around generouslv. As is to be expected, there are numerous casualties. According to Dr. Luis Carlos Prieto, well known for his work among the Indians and one of the

first outsiders to see a real balseria, there were 14 broken legs, 2 with

fractures of both legs and more than

40 with cuts and bruises at an event he attended.

Music, Singing and Chicha

The competition continues with music, singing, and chicha for 2 davs as long as there are men able to throw

the sticks. On the third day, there is visiting and

bartering. If there is anv chicha left,

it is consumed and preparations are made for the trip back home.

Bright and early on the fourth morning, the Guaymi start the trek back to their villages taking with them food

enough for the journey and the glorious

memories of a great leg-smashing contest. Some men may be returning home

with more women than thev brought

with them as some women opt to leave

their mates for more valiant ones. Composed of some 43,000 people,

the Guaymi are the largest of the Pan- amanian Indian nations and thev still maintain much of the daring and cour- age they were noted for during the Spanish conquest when their chiefs faced the Spaniards and beat them

badly despite their horses and superior arms. Before the discoverv of America,

their domain extended across the Isth- mus from sea to sea but gradually thev were pushed bv the conquistadores, and

those that followed, toward the mountains which served them as fortresses. The Guaymi have been known

throughout Isthmian historv for their valor and particularly well known was

their famous chief, Urraca, once lord and master over all the land that is todav the Province of Veraguas. After defeating the Spaniards several times,

he was captured and taken in chains

to Nombre de Dios and from there to Spain where he was displayed as a war

prisoner. But he managed to escape and return to the Isthmus where he

assembled a sizeable army and inflicted upon the invaders the greatest defeat they ever suffered in Central America.

Signed Peace Pact

After this battle, which took place near Nata de los Caballeros, Capt. Die- go de Albitez signed a peace treaty

with Urraca. He was the only aborigine

of the New World with whom a captain of the Spanish Empire signed a peace pact. Later betraved by the invaders, Urraca again fought them, employing

guerrilla tactics, a type of warfare un- known to the Spaniards. After suffer- ing heavy losses, the Spaniards decided

to leave him in peace and Urraca died

in 1531, in his bohio, of natural causes. Referring to the Guaymi in "An

Archeological Studv of Central America," Dr. Samuel K. Lothrop states, "In

the opinion of main', the natives of Veraguas should be ranked with the fa- mous Araucanians of Chile as the out- standing fighters of the New World, a judgment shared bv the Spaniards who

had served in both regions. The Araucanians had the advantage of rapidlv

mastering cavalry tactics under great leaders and learning how to make

leather armor; the Indians of Veraguas, on account of their rugged country, forced the Spaniards to fight on foot."

A Cherished Tradition

A cherished tradition of the valiant Guavmi. then as now, was the fierce balseria. But in 1962, the Mama Chichi

cult appeared in the mountains of Veraguas and Chiriqui, led bv a "prophetess" known as Mama Chichi, bringing

changes in the moral and social code of the Guavmi. Included in the quasimysterious new social order was the banning of balseria. But Mama Chichi died in 1964 and

her reforms were short lived. Balseria once again is a part of the Guavmi wav

of life and according to Dr. Reina de

Arauz. "All indications are that the

traditional force of balseria will triumph

and it will continue to be a sport with

ritual character and social importance."

14 Fall 1973
CYCLING AND RECYCLING ARE

both good for the ecology.

And although air on the Isthmus is virtually pollution free, many ecologyminded residents are helping to keep it that way while pedaling pounds awav. With the price of gas going up and

fuel shortages looming, many local res- idents are finding they can save money,

lose excess weight and fight pollution

if thev leave their automobiles at home.

Bicycles are back and 10 speeds are

all the rage. Canal Zone retail stores report that bicvcle sales have increased more than six-fold in the last 2 years. In 1971, they sold 330 bikes. Last year

the figure was up to 2, 122 and this year's Christmas sales are expected to put the 1973 figure well above that. Also making their appearance on the

local scene are the new "trikes," the

adult three-wheelers that manv find ideal

for shopping. And they're easy to park. Doctors recommend bicycling for good health. Some even practice it themselves, as evidenced by one of the pic- tures on these pages. Even police patrols are using bicycles on their nocturnal

rounds.

A favorite spot for bicycle enthusiasts

in the Canal Zone is the Fort Amador

causeway, where serious cyclers can

test their 10-speeds on a long straightaway or pause to watch the weekend

fishermen wet their lines, or look at the

ships as they enter or leave the Pacific end of the Canal. And while sitting on the banks of the Canal one can even see bicycles moving

about the decks of transiting ships. Deck

officers on large container ships, where

the space between bridge and bow is more than 2 acres, have found bikes convenient for making their rounds.

The popularity of bicycles among

Americans seems to rise and fall with

changing times, while remaining constant among Europeans who have always

paid a higher price for fuel. In Latin

America, on the other hand, few adults seem to ride bicvcles except in races. The present surge in the popularity

of cycling, along with the recycling of many products is, as we have noted,

closely related to the new ecology consciousness, which has caused changes in the packaging of materials, the manufacture of detergent, and changes in other areas of industry. One mail order

Framed by her bicycle, Wisia Kaliszczak cools off after a long ride to the end of the Fort Amador causeway.

The Panama Canal Review 15



Paika*;, VcaicK, ana Vyttcni

But Ai>o Dcuivon <w<£ Biwg

r

4-

± TX..MHXAHA AEPMOHTOB

C:apt. Aran Oganov, the 47-year-old skipper of the Lermontov, commenting on the opening of the Leningrad-New

York route, said thaUt is considered a goodwill mission by the

Soviet Union and is not expected to pay for itself until sometime in the future. He noted that the ship has a capacity of 700 passengers but was only half full. He said that it takes

at least 450 to make a profit. Evidence of the goodwill theme was an exhibit of photo- graphs along one corridor showing Americans and Russians working together in such things as the space program. It was

entitled, "Peace Through International Cooperation."

What is it like to cruise with the Russians? One writer found the atmosphere aboard the Lermontov so

tvpicallv Russian that he described it as a good way to visit Russia without setting foot on Soviet soil. A few hours aboard the Lermonroi1 and there is a feeling

of being already in Russia. Someone is strumming a balalaika;

a peek into the music salon reveals a ballet dancer practicing

a pirouette for the nightlv show; a display of classic wooden

Russian dolls in one of the shops catches the eye; or one is bemused by the Cyrillic alphabet on the signs about the ship. In the card room, chess plavers bend over their boards and

in the Festival Lounge on the top deck, Alexander Garaburda

and his Jazz Quartet are plaving "Moscow Nights." (They

also frequently played Lara's Theme from Dr. Zhivago even

though the book is still banned in the Soviet Union.) Along with the music, there's plenty to drink with six bars dispensing Vodka, Scotch, Bourbon, or whatever vour favorite

- i

drink might be, as well as Danish and German beer. Though

not available inside Russia, all kinds of American soft drinks

are on sale on the ship. Ice cream and expresso are offered by the bar which operates in the heated, enclosed swimming

pool area. Newspapers and magazines are strictly Soviet. There is no

current world news available as the small English language newspaper, which is published every four days, contains mainlv biographical data on the crew and notes on tourist attractions in Russia. Some found this a relief. Others felt frustrated and cut-off from the world. At 10 o'clock each night, waitresses, bartenders and sailors turn into beautifullv costumed, skillful entertainers and put on a show of professional quality in the music salon. The ballet mav be performed bv vour favorite bartender while the salesgirl from the boutique turns out to be an excellent harpist, or vou mav spot the staff captain of the ship, dressed in peasant

blouse, plaving the balalaika in the ship's orchestra.

All members of the crew are required to have a university education and one suspects that they are selected for assign- ment to the ship not only on the basis of education but for their music and dancing abilities as well. Russian language lessons, dance lessons and lessons on the

balalaika for children and adults are provided everv morning.

N'ightlv movies feature some Russian films with English dubbed in; Russian-made Disnev-stvle cartoon shows for the

children; and documentaries on such things as the ballet, the Kremlin, and Leningrad's Hermitage Museum.

M.S."MIKHAIL LERMONIOV

A departure from Russian entertainment was bingo, a passion with some of the passengers even though the caller fre- quently confused the I and the O, causing the plavers to ask them to be repeated. This he patiently did in French, Russian, and English before proceeding to the next number. The laundrv service, as several passengers noted, must be

the fastest in the world. Not only is everything returned within

a few hours, but even the socks are carefully ironed and the

smallest rip sewn up bv hand.

Thoughtfully, an English translation of the laundry list is provided for the benefit of passengers who have not learned enough Russian to tell their shirts from their shorts. But most

are somewhat puzzled to read the strange warning at the bot- tom: "No responsibility is accepted for the shrinkage or damage to any article or the washing out of colors of a

fugitive nature." And for anyone who wants to sample Russian food, the menu offers dishes from all over the Soviet Union. It is not haute cuisine, bv any means, and there is none of the elaborate

continental service. It is, however, wholesome and good and

the service is fast-too fast in fact for some tastes. It includes

caviar and sturgeon and a great assortment of Russian soups. The famous borscht, with freshly baked Russian black bread,

is a meal in itself. Especially popular were the pane akes accompanied bv caviar. On the wine list are Georgian wines

at $1.60 a bottle and French ones at slightly higher prices. Birch juice, a clear beverage which is made from the sap

,,f the birch trees of Russia, was available at everv meal. But

Scenes aboard the "Lermontov" show Captain Oganov with his staff and on the bridge with women officers; chess players; entertainment in the Festival Lounge including male crewmembers in a take-off of Swan Lake; and classic Russian dolls in the souvenir shop.
The "Lermontov's" chef holds a recipe

session for those passengers who wish

to leam Russian cuisine.

DINNER

nPOUIAJIbHblM OBEX!

JULY 20th, 1973

Black Caviar on Crackers Shrimps Salad with Lettuce Tongue in Jelly wilh Horse-radish

Orli Halibut, Tartare Sauce

Chicken Shnitzel Ministersky with Fruits

Cheese Board

Ice-Cream Cognac Aroma

Tea - Coffee

Pastries Mineral Water Vodka Stolichnaya

Dry White Wine

Dry Red Wine

Typical of the daily dishes are these included on the menu for the

farewell dinner.

for those who prefer other foods, there

is also steak and French fries, and a

variety of dishes from other countries. There are no rubles aboard the ship.

The currency is the U.S. dollar and all other currencies must be converted.

The chef samples a glass of Kvass,

a Russian beverage made from rye bread and yeast, after giving passengers

the recipe.

This is handled at the ship's post office where one may encounter a long line of stamp collectors carefully making

selections from the great variety of stamps available, some of which are reproductions of the most famous works

of art in the Hermitage Museum. There was one skeptical elderly gentleman

who had little faith in such beautiful stamps and asked the post office attendant, to her dismay, if she was sure "the stamps will work."

An enthusiastic group gathered for the wine and vodka tasting partv where

carafes of water bad been placed on the

table to drink after each sample had

been quaffed. One American student

took a sip of water, thought it over carefully, and solemnly announced that it was excellent and that he recognized it as coming from the Volga. Introducing

Georgian wines, the master of cer- emonies suggested that the reason the people from Georgia live so long (one man has been reported to be 168 years

old) is that thev drink the local wine.

Still the vodka, which was served"

straight, the Russian way, followed bv

mineral water, was the most popular

beverage of the evening.

Amateur night for passengers proved

that there were a number of uninhibited passengers among the German, Canadian, French, English, Russians, and

Americans on board, but not much

talent. Members of the crew, joining in to liven up the program, stole the show

when a group of sailors and one of the bar waiters, dressed in tutus, per- formed an outlandish Swan Lake ballet sequence.

Built in 1972 in Eastern Germany,

the Lcrmontov is the newest of five

sister ships. The others are the Alex- ander Pushkin, the Shota Rustaveli. the Taras Shvcnchcnko and the Ivan Franco, all of which, like the Lermontov, are named for famous Russian literary fig- ures. The Shota Rustaveli is seen fre- quently at the Canal en route from England to Australia; the Alexander Pushkin has been providing service from

Montreal to Leningrad for the nast 7

years; and the Taras Shvenehcnko will

be coming to the Canal sometime during the winter cruise season. Flagship of the Baltic Steamship

Co., the Lcrmontov is 586 feet long,

has a beam of 78 feet, and a max- imum draft of 26 feet. She is fitted with

stabilizers (anti-rolling devices) to pro- vide a smooth ride even in rough seas. A one-class ship, with 11 decks, 7 of them for passenger accommodations,

she has a crew of 326. Accommodations are available in 10

different types ranging from a deluxe

suite on the boat deck to a four-berth cabin without bath on the third deck.

All cabins have individually controlled air-conditioning and heating systems

and telephones as well as comfortable

modern furnishings with everything

kept spic and span by an army of energetic young stewardesses. The price is low. A two-berth cabin

is about $480 for the trip from New

York to Leningrad. For similar accommodations on the France to Southampton only, the cost is $803 and on the Queen Elizabeth II, $870. The Lermontov, however, is not a luxury ship of the type to please the cruise passenger who

is looking for elaborate continental food

service, formal dress balls and casinos

like those found on the large cruise

liners. It is not a floating resort but a comfortable, practical passenger ship

which can provide a cultural experience.

It takes 14 days for the Lermontov,

which has a top speed of 20 knots, to make the trip to Leningrad, with stops

in England, France and Germany. This

is about half the speed of the mothballed SS United States. It is enough

time for passengers to relax, make

friends, and learn something about the Russians while enjoying all those special

pleasures which cruising offers. Even those taking the most casual

interest in things Russian were pleased

to flaunt bits of knowledge acquired on the ship—such as that the Russian

word for "red" also means "beautiful" and that it is from this meaning that Red Square derived its name or that Ivan the Terrible received his epithet

from an English translation of the Russian word that means "awesome" not

"awful." Arrangements for travel on the Ler- montov, which has three trips scheduled

during the summer months in 1974, can be made through the Baltic Shipping

Co., 19 Rector St., Suite 3304, New

York, New York 10006. A tourist must have a visa and each

city to be visited must be listed on it. A visa is issued only after all hotel accommodations have been confirmed.

20 Fall 1973
Since the Soviet Union stretches almost halfway

around the earth, only a small portion can be

seen in a brief visit, but the Lermontov's

4 days in port afford enough time for

a look at Leningrad and Moscow.

The ship's schedule provides enough

time for a hrief look at London, Le

Havre and Bremerhaven before arriv- ing at Leningrad, the sea gateway to Russia. There is time to see only a small

part of the wealth of art in this city, which has 40 museums, including the Hermitage with its 1,020 rooms, known

the world over for the masterpieces on

exhibit there. It has been said that if a person spent onlv a few minutes in front of each painting, it would take 20 years

to view every one of them.

The Hermitage collection, which is housed in five buildings including the Winter Palace, is considered by many

to be the greatest art collection in the world. It has 3 million objects including

38 Rembrandts, 40 Rubens, a Leonardo

da Vinci, a priceless collection of gold

objects 2,500 vears old and five or six rooms of Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings. One has to walk 15

miles to visit each of the 322 galleries.

From Leningrad, one can leave the

ship and go by train or plane to visit the Kremlin, with its five exquisite

churches, and the Armorv which contains the crown jewels, carriages and

other artifacts from the age of the

czars, and see Red Square and the world

famous St. Basil's Cathedral, with its 9 onion domes, each with its own

unique style and color. It was commissioned in the 16th century, to com- memorate Ivan the Terrible's victory over the Tartars. There is a legend that when the cathedral was completed Ivan asked the two architects, who designed

it, if they could create another just like

it and when thev said thev could, he

ordered their eves put out so thev would

not be able to do so.

Scenes in Moscow and Leningrad—Colossal statues supporting

the porte-cochere at one of the entrances to the Hermitage Museum; chandeliers and the decorative ceiling in a Moscow subway

station; St. Basil's Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow; gilded columns

and wall panels in the Winter Palace; and the Church of the Assumption,

where czars of Russia were crowned, erected inside the Kremlin Wall in 1326

The Panama Canal Review 21
y

aV7"OU WON'T HAVE TO PACK

X and unpack or fight airport

crowds or meet tight schedules or deal with reluctant taxis. This elegant ship

will be vour hotel, easing you gently

away from one port to another and you

also will have a chance to observe the Panama Canal in operation while lounging on the sundeck." So reads the bro- chure of one of the cruise ships calling

at Panama Canal ports during the winter

cruise season, and judging bv the number of ships arriving dailv at the Isth- mus, more and more people are being

enticed bv such suggestions and are heading south bv ship for their winter

vacations. Although manv of the ships travel- ling south are the newest and most lux- urious vessels afloat, others are old cus- tomers that have been through the Canal many times. But old or new, most

are destined for exotic spots that stimulate the spirit of adventure, such as Easter Island, the Galapagos, Mombasa,

Kenya, Colombo, Ceylon, or the Straits of Magellan.

In the past, the big cruise months for Panama were December, January, and

February. But this year, the vessels began arriving in earlv September.

Others now ignore the drv season alto- gether and make their appearances

regularly in the late summer or earlv spring on around-the-world voyages. Some of the early arrivals this fall were the Norwegian America Line

Sagafjord; the Royal Viking Sky, of the Royal Viking Line; the Gripsholm and

Kungsholm, both owned by the Swedish America Line; the Victoria, of the

Icres Line; and the Veendam, of the Holland America Line. All arrived in October.

Pacific Ford has the Ocean Monarch

on its spring cruise schedule listing

May 28 as its arrival at Balboa en

route to England.

The Island Princess of the Princess

Cruises, featuring a lido deck with

sliding roof, will arrive January 23 from

San Francisco to the Caribbean and

return through the Canal March 26. C. Fernie & Co., agents for this ship,

also are agents for a U.S.S.R.-flag cruise

ship, the Taras Schecchcnko, due in Cristobal January 27 and February 21 on Caribbean cruises. This agency also handles the Russian Fedor Shalyapin,

the former Cunard Line Franconia,

which arrived in Cristobal early in De- cember en route to Australia on a one- way trip from Southampton, England.

After that she will make two Pacific

cruises. The French Line represents the Paquet Line's Mermoz making 11 calls

in Cristobal on Caribbean and Mexican

cruises and the Renaissance due Jan- uary 22 on an around South America

cruise. The French Line's famous

France, which is too large to transit the Panama Canal, will not come to Panama

this year but leaves New York January 4 on a 92-dav luxury world cruise.

The SS Veendam, en route on an around South America tour, is the former SS Argentina of the Moore- McCormack Line. The Royal Viking

Sky, newest addition to the Royal Viking

Line, was en route from the West Indies

to San Francisco. This vessel, along

with her sister ships, the Royal Viking

Star and Royal Viking Sea, are sched- uled to make other transits through the Canal during the cruise season. With the exception of the Veendam, C. B. Fen ton

is agent for these ships.

Pacific Ford, agent for the Veendam,

has announced that it will arrive at Balboa on a world cruise April 12, and

will be docking in Cristobal. This

agency also announced the arrival of the Volcndam on November 23 on a Caribbean cruise and in Cristobal on

January 12 to transit the Canal on a South Pacific, South America cruise. The Volendam is the former Rrasil

of the Moore-McCormack Line. The

23,000-ton vessel was extensively al- tered for cruise service with her promenade deck transformed completely.

In addition, her sundeck observation

cafe was renovated and a number of new cabins added to her upper and

boat decks. New decor and carpeting

throughout the vessel completed her

multi-million dollar face lifting. She is now designed to carry up to 500 vacationers plus a crew of about 350. The Hanseatic, the former Hamburg

of the German Atlantic Line is due

March 23, 1974 on a Caribbean cruise and the Shaw Savill Line's Northern

Star went south through the Canal in November and will return northbound

May 1.

This unusual

photo, taken with

a telephoto lens, shows both Pedro Miguel and

Miraflores Locks

as the "Royal

Viking Sky"

makes her first transit of the Canal on her maiden voyage

from Europe to U.S. west coast.

22 Fall 1973
CANAL COMMERCIAL TRAFFIC BY NATIONALITY OF VESSELS
made regular visits to the Isthmus last

year, will do so again this year sailing every other Saturday from Port Everglades and calling at Nassau, San Juan, and several other Caribbean ports as well as Cristobal. Among the January arrivals are the

Vistafjord, flagship of the Norwegian

America Line making her second trip

through the Panama Canal on Jan- uary 10 on an around-the-world cruise. The ship, a running mate of the Sagafjord, has new style stabilizer fins which

brought her across the North Atlantic

early this year "sailing smoothly as a swan" in the teeth of a heavy gale. The

elegantly appointed 25,000-ton vessel was specifically designed for the American cruise market and among her dis- tinguishing features is the Vista Dining

Room located on the upper deck to afford passengers an ever changing view

of the sea. All of the 500 or more

passengers can be accommodated in a

single sitting. With the recent acquisition by the Orient Overseas Line of the American

President Line's President Wilson, only

five American passenger vessels remain

active and all operate out of the west

coast of the United States. They are the Mariposa and Monterey, of the Pacific Far East Line and Prudential Grace's Santa Maria, Santa Mariana and Santa Mercedes. According to Boyd Bros., the Monterey is due to arrive at the Panama

Canal, later in the season, from Mexico

en route to Haiti and will return to San

Francisco passing through the Canal

July 5. Boyd also handles the Neptune

and Jason, two cruise vessels of the

Epirotiki Line, which will make Cris- tobal a port of call during the winter

Caribbean cruise season.

With this issue, The Panama

Canal Review loses a senior member of its editorial staff. Eunice Richard, a veteran of more than 20 years with the Panama Canal Information

Office, retires before the next issue. A versatile writer and experienced

newswoman, she has contributed

articles on a wide variety of subjects,

and has made a speciality of shipping news. Her farewell feature, a

nostalgic flashback to the days when

Panama's traffic moved on the left, appears on page 25.

PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES SHIPPED THROUGH THE CANAL

( All cargo figures in long tons

)

Pacific to Atlantic

Fiscal Year

5-Yr. Avg. Commodity 1973 1972 1961-65

Petroleum and products (excluding asphalt )__ 8,186,605 2,516,877 1,805,862 Manufactures of iron and steel 7,866,842 7,670,401 1,036,394

Lumber and products 5,392,268 5,581,236 4,004,201 Ores various __ 4,996,350 4,248,594 1,009,694

Suea'r - ——. 3,347,338 3,413,574 2,296,584

Petroleumcoke 1,896,898 1,202,891 N.A. Pulpwood 1,515,147 1,224,547 517,629

Food in refrigeration (excluding bananas) 1,493,521 1,393,292 898,880

Metals, various 1,343,699 1,385,442 1,187,362 Bananas 1,304,070 1,133,869 1,161,381

Autos, trucks, accessories and parts 1,030,364 849,408 17,302

Paper and paper products 754,815 614,945 200,598

Sulfur _ --- 742,701 675,864 98,508

Coffee L 555,034 510,146 419,012

Molasses 517,495 576,281 154,220

All others 11,766,388 13,584,804 15,886,953

Total 52,709,535 46,582,171 30,694,580

Atlantic to Pacific

Fiscal Year

5-Yr. Avg. Commodity 1973 1972 1961-65 Coal and coke 13,645,489 14,114,249 6,061,195 Petroleum and products (excluding asphalt)__ 12,689,644 13,448,955 11,384,781

Com — - --_— 8,436,204 3,795,678 1,501,869

Phosphate 4,580,992 4,208,082 2,137,487

Soybeans 4,497,660 3,770,267 1,449,114

Metal, scrap 3,234,160 1,392,742 2,663,773

Wheat _ 2,785,691 2,049,840 565,795

Sorghum 2,563,311 1,149,158 N.A.

Ores, various 2,489,814 2,477,926 309,593

Sugar 1,794,403 1,777,025 1,011,013 Manufactures of iron and steel 1,768,726 1,475,152 1,500,673

Chemicals, unclassified 1,248,009 895,085 657,500

Fertilizers, unclassified 1,096,459 810,969 388,007

Rice 864,828 603,711 154,248

Paper and paper products 649,413 743,305 428,942

All others and unclassified 11,049,691 9,939,410 7,204,338

Total 73,394,494 62,651,554 37,418,328

CANAL TRANSITS - COMMERCIAL AND U.S. GOVERNMENT

Fiscal Year

Avg. No.

transits 1973 1972 1961-65

Atlantic Pacific to to

Pacific Atlantic Total Total Total Commercial vessels: Oceangoing 7,082 6,759 13,841 13,766 11,335 Small 1 404 318 722 777 547

Total Commercial 7,486 7,077 14,563 14,543 11,882

U.S. Government vessels: 2 Oceangoing 168 205 373 413 250

Small 1 56 62 118 148 157

Total Commercial and

U.S. Government 7,710 7,344 15,054 15,104 12,289

1 Vessels under 300 net tons or 500 displacement tons. 2 Vessels on which tolls are credited. Prior to July 1, 1951, Government-operated ships transited

free.

24 Fall 1973
Recently, after threading his way through the labyrinth of detours caused by

the street and highway improvement projects in Balboa, one disoriented motorist

said, "There hasn't been so much confusion since the big changeover from left to right hand driving in 1943." The person who made this remark had to be an oldtimer. Few presently residing on the Isthmus remember that traffic on the streets of Panama and the Canal

Zone once moved on the left hand side just as it presently does in England.

Thirty years and a million cars later, there are few things left to remind the Isthmian motorist of the old drive to the left rules. Some of the changes were

simple. They included the switching of traffic signs from the left to the right side

of the roads to face right hand traffic. This was done in all towns and along all highways. At Diablo Heights, the onlv change was the reversal of one-way traffic around the parking area in front of the clubhouse and a change in the angle of parking to conform to the right hand drive. Direction of traffic was reversed in the five main traffic circles in Balboa and

Balboa Heights in accordance with the recommendations of the traffic committee. One-way traffic on the Prado in Balboa also was reversed with cars going

toward the Service Center on the right hand side from the direction of the Administration Building and on the left hand side from the Service Center toward

the Building. Pier Street near the Terminal Building in Balboa has remained the same to this day so as not to interfere with traffic of cars waiting for ships.

When Left Was Right

By Eunice Richard

ONLY THE HORSES HAD TROUble. All other traffic switched from the left to the right without incident the morning of April 15, 1943.

It was a red letter dav for motorists and operators of other types of vehicles

in the Canal Zone and Panama. It was

a day that had been in the planning and

discussion stage for more than 20 years. Death and disaster on the highways and

byways of the Isthmus had been predicted. Taxi drivers protested. Confirmed left hand drivers, resisting

change, had debated the question with

the Automobile Club. Ministers of the Panama Government had called it il- legal. Top police officials had argued it out with highway experts. But with an

international highway under construction and World War II bringing in hundreds of new workers accustomed

to the right hand drive, the change was

inevitable. So after weeks of publicity in the local press, pages of instructions to the traffic police and the public, the big moment

finally came.

At 5 a.m. on April 15, the sirens and

fire whistles in Panama blew for 3 minutes. All vehicular traffic on the Isthmian

highways came to a complete stop. And

then like a slow ballet, everyone shifted over to the right hand side of the road. To the complete surprise of everyone,

the change from left to right hand drive was made without any of the trouble anticipated by civilian and military police in the Canal Zone and the national police of Panama. The local press reported the only

difficulty was with the horses that pulled

the little two-passenger coaches known

locally as "carramettas" (a corruption

of the Spanish word carromato which means coach) in the cities of Panama

and Colon. They seemed unable to understand why they could not go along

as they had always done. One coachman

on Fourth of July Avenue was seen having considerable difficulty with his horse that insisted on heading down the

left side of the road.

Officers stationed at traffic circles and

one-way streets where directions had

been reversed reported no difficulty on

the part of most drivers although one

officer had to whistle down a police captain who was entering a one-way street from the wrong direction. The only accident had nothing to do

with the change. It involved a police

officer who rammed into the back of a garbage truck, causing about $60 worth

of damage to his own car. On one Armv truck, a soldier rode on the right fender as a guide. The

truck started down the wrong side of the road as it swung onto Fourth of July Avenue from the military reservation entrance, but the soldier called to the driver to pull onto the proper side of the road before there were anv complications.

Much of the success of the switch

from left to right hand drive on the

streets of the Canal Zone and Panama

could be attributed to the careful planning bv the two traffic departments and

the campaign in the newspapers which

even printed drawings of arrows on which appeared "drive to the right" to be pasted on drivers' windshields. Police warned about overconfidenee after a few days of driving on the right

hand side of the road and motorists were cautioned about careless driving,

drunken driving and speeding. As the police pointed out, there were more complications than the simple

shift from the left to right hand side of the road. Both the Canal Zone and Pan- ama made many changes in traffic reg- ulations as well as in the direction of

The Panama Canal Review 25
THOSE WERE THE DAYS when traffic was so light that it didn't matter too much whether one drove to the right, to the left, or straight down the middle of the road; hut as time passed,

traffic picked up, and left hand driving produced safety hazards,

particularly for the motorcyclist with a sidecar. Today,

with the right hand driving rule now in effect for 20 years,

traffic moves efficiently down the hill from the

Administration Building at Balboa Heights under

the direction of the Canal Zone Police.

travel on streets, effective on the day

of the shift. A one month breaking-in

period called for reduced speed limits

for all vehicles to 12 miles per hour for private automobiles and 10 miles per hour for other types of vehicles. Luckily

for the police in 1943, traffic was light

and gasoline was being rationed. Motorists were warned about the obvious safetv hazards and told what

to do if traffic approached on the wrong

side of the road. "Stop the car. If possible, drive off the road. Blow the horn. Under no circumstances attempt to pass

the other car on the wrong side." Keeping right after a left turn was

another hazard as there were pedestrians who had become confused and

watched for traffic approaching from

the wrong direction before stepping

from the curb. Pedestrians were urged

to cross the street at the end of the block onlv and to use marked cross- walks where provided.

Most Isthmian drivers came through

the ordeal in fine shape and with hardly anv bent fenders. And there was at least one group of workers in the Canal Zone

that hardly noticed the change. They

were the emplovees at the third locks

site in Gatun, where the right hand

drive rule had been in effect since the work had begun more than 2 vears

previously.

When work started on construction

of the third set of locks in 1940, a proj- ect which was never completed, it was

decided that the right hand drive would

cause fewer traffic accidents in the construction area, since practically all of the truck-drivers were fresh from the United States. In 1928, Panama and 13 other countries in the world had "drive to the left" rules which are still in effect in Great

Britain, Ireland and several countries where there has been British influence. Some said that the original horse-cab

drivers in Panama were natives of the

British Caribbean islands and, despite

the growth of international touring and

the Dopularitv of the American auto- mobile built for right hand driving, the custom persisted.

There were few roads on the Isthmus

when the United States started to construct the Canal in 1904 and the side

of the road taken by a horse and buggy

or the slow moving early motorcars made little difference. But by 1928, there were warnings of

serious traffic problems to come with

the increase in vehicular traffic and

the construction of the Inter-American

Highway. An article . in the Panama

American in 1931 said, "It is important

26 Fall 1973
that the automobiles of Panama and the Canal Zone be transferred to the right side of the road before the Pan American Highway is opened if vehicular

confusion, approximating the linguistic

tangle encountered bv the builders of the Tower of Babel, was to be avoided.

"Should this strip on the through

route from Alaska to Patagonia retain the left side drive, the interesting result would be signs notifying motorists

to transfer to the opposite side of the road when crossing the Panamanian

border." The storv predicted that this would mean that for a few miles on

each side of the border garages estab- lished "to salvage the dozens of daily

wrecks" would do a thriving business. Even without the Pan American

Highway, there were many accidents in Panama in the 1930's which could be

attributed to the fact that U.S. manufactured vehicles came with right

hand steering and drivers had to pull out in the center of the road to see ahead before passing a car. Driving

motorcycles with sidecars was especiallv hazardous. Some buses had exits on the right side and passengers had to disembark in the middle of the street. Since the local bus and "chiva" driv- ers had gone to considerable expense

to convert vehicles purchased in the United States for driving to the left. thev objected to spending additional monev to again change the exits. Taxi

drivers were against the changeover

also but gave no reason. Public opinion, influenced bv the newspapers and the Rotarv Clubs in Panama, began to favor the changeover in the mid thirties when editorials and articles began to appear in the local papers. In 1936, the American Federation of Government Emplovees passed

a resolution in favor of a change in

traffic regulations to permit vehicular

traffic to use the right hand. Members

of the Panama Metal Trades Council

added their names to the ranks of Isth- mian residents in favor of the change

to right hand drive. The Cristobal- Colon Rotarv Cub went on record for the fourth time in support of the traffic change. One member objected, however, saving the left hand drive was a

thrill for the tourists. There have been a number of theories on how England came to adopt

the left hand drive system in the first place.

Quoting the National Geographic, one student of the problem wrote in the Panama American in 1936 that the practice may have come from the habit of the English coachman of sitting on

Above: "Carramettas" line up for

passengers at the Panama City

Railroad Station in 1906. Used

for transportation on the Isthmus

before automobiles were available,

thev were always driven to the

left. At left: Cars adhering

to the left hand rule wait at the Panama City crossing in 1930. Lower left: Cars move along

Central Avenue in today's

bustling Panama City near

the site shown in the photo above.

the right side of the driver's seat. "He

grasped the whip in his right hand. In passing another coach, he wanted to be in a position from which he could

best prevent a collision. So he passed an oncoming coach on that coach's

right. From his seat on the right of his coach he could see how near his wheels came to those of the other vehicle." On the continent, it was more fre- quently the custom for a postilion, or

rider, to guide the horses instead of a coachman. The postilion took his place

at the left of the lead team in order to have his right hand free to grasp the

nearest bridle. He also wanted to avoid

collisions but being on the left, it was

better for him to turn his horses to the

right. In the United States, it was suggested, the right hand rule was adopted

because the oxen took the right side in the old davs. Oxen were the draft ani- mals most used in the colonies and the

driver directed them by voice and whip.

He held the whip in his right hand and

trudged along on the left of the oxen.

In the National Geographic survey

of the situation in 1936, about 60 of the nations and colonies of the world

favored the right side drive, 43 clung

to the left. The need for a uniform

rule was not so apparent in the United States and Canada as in Europe.

The National Geographic commented,

"Consider the problem of a motorist who tried to drive in those dav from

Norwav to Italv through the Dolomites.

He started bravely out from Oslo, keeping to the right until he reached the Swedish border. Thereupon he kept to the left. Let him have his wits about

him because when he ferried over to Denmark, he must again move over to the right of the road. Germanv was the same. Back again to the left in Czechoslovakia. And just as the bewildered

autoist gets used to left driving in Austria, he must steel his nerves to switch

back to the right rule of the road in Yugoslavia and Italy." In England, where the vehicular

traffic kept to the left and the rule of the sidewalk or pathway was to keep to

the right, there had been some confusion before the English rule of the road was made a law in 1835. But before that date the following

poem appeared in an English journal:

"The law of the road is a paradox

quite As vou're driving your carriage along

If vou go to the left you're sure to go

right."

The Panama Canal Review 27
K

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ess

SALSIPUEDES

By Franklin

SALSIPUEDES. OR, GET OUT IF You Can. Not an order but the name of one of the oldest and most

legend-shrouded streets in the city of P;inama.

It also is one of the few streets to have kept its name during all the years

of its existence. Officially, it has been

East 13th Street since the early 1900's but no one, except perhaps the city

mapmaker, recognizes this fact. Going back into the mists of timePanama Citv was founded more than

300 vears ago—Salsipuedes was mentioned bv historians as a cobble-stone

lane lined with shops and houses owned

and inhabited mostly by Chinese.

The name seems to have come about

following a series of mysterious deaths and disappearances, some of them con- nected with children. In fact, early res- idents of this section of the city and its environs used to scare their children with a Salsipuedes version of the bogeyman.

Whether or not these stories are true, the present street, with its hundreds of peddlers and stalls, is more like a crowded, colorful country fair than a place to be feared. Country Fair

According to Panama historian Juana

Oiler de Mulford, whose book on Pan- ama was published in the 1940's, Salsi- puedes was located outside of the old walled city which was entered by the Puerta de Tierra near La Merced

Church on 10th Street. When night

fell, residents of the city of Panama

were careful to hurry home behind the

walls as those unfortunate enough to be

caught outside after dark were liable to be murdered or robbed or both. Needless to sav, it was the wealthy classes, the government officials and other important people who lived within the walled section. Panama in those days, as it is now, was a meeting place of the Americas—

the crossroads of the world. Outside the

walls was one of the wildest collections of outlaws, soldiers of fortune, and

vagabonds in the hemisphere. Some

were gold-hunting gringos headed for California. Others were looking for for- tunes in Panama and, like the Chinese,

had settled on the Isthmus to open a shop, a restaurant, or an opium selling

establishment, most of which were

located then in Salsipuedes.

In addition to being the Chinatown

of the Isthmus, the narrow street which

led to the docks and seawall of Panama

was a hive of activity during the day.

Castrellon But at night the hill down through Sal- sipuedes became a shadowy gateway

to a gambling and drinking haven for the lowest tvpes on the Isthmus. There was an unwritten law in those days that whoever found himself after 7 o'clock

at night in a gambling den, a cantina, or any kind of a store in Salsipuedes,

remained where he was to save his life. To venture forth after that hour was to court death. With lights low or nonexistent as they were in the davs preceding the turn of the centurv, it was easy to imagine

Salsipuedes as the hellhole of the city

and attribute most of the notorious crimes to demons in human form who

came out at night to prey on defenseless

citizens. One of Mrs. Oiler's stories concerns an aristocratic but weak-willed gentle- man named Don Francisco del Corral,

whose passion for gambling led him to perdition and death in Salsipuedes at the hands of a sinister foreigner to whom he had forfeited his fortune—and

his wife. Legend has it that the stranger was reallv the devil in disguise and that he took the soul of Don Francisco as pavment for his sins. The beginning of the end of the street

as a gathering place for gamblers and

opium sellers may have been signaled

bv the fire in 1884, which destroved most of the wooden buildings from Sal- sipuedes to the present day Lottery Plaza. Six prisoners locked up in the old city

jail died in the holocaust before the fire- men could drag them to safety. The

firefighting unit, formed 7 years earlier, was the forerunner of Panama's modern

fire department. Chief of the Bomberos

at the time was Ricardo Arango, who

also was Governor of the Department

of Panama, then a part of Colombia.

Ass Struck Dead

Salsipuedes even plaved a part in the historv of the new Republic of Pan- ama, for it was there that the onlv blood

of the revolution of 1903 was shed. According to official accounts, Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero had just pro- claimed the Independence of the Isth- mus of Panama without bloodshed

when the Colombian gunboat Bogota,

harbored in Panama Bav, began indis- criminate firing upon the citv. This

bombardment which lasted only half an hour and lobbed a mere dozen shells into the citv, was ineffective. But it resulted in two casualties—a Chinese

gentleman who was eating dinner at his home in Salsipuedes and an ass struck dead in the slaughterhouse.

28 Fall 1973
The hustle and bustle of Salsipuedes

seen from the top of the street at

the intersection of Central Avenue.

In the center is the Homsany store which was the old Hotel Italia until 1894 and was later the luxurious residence

of a distinguished Panama family.

The roofs on the street venders' stalls were added in 1969.

The house on the left in this old picture

obviously is devoted to the sale of opium.

It was run by Chinese and a great

majority of its customers also were

Chinese. After the fire of 1894,

this opium business was moved to the

intersection of 13th Stret and Avenue B. At present the site is occupied bv the Bala de Oro bakery.

The Panama Canal Review 29
Pinatas, Toys, Incense, Oranges, Photos,

Bread or Herbs

' HT1 r i

L

Today's Salsipuedes is more like a colorful country fair than a place to be feared, and customers come from distant points to shop amid its carnival atmosphere. This ancient camera, which has a pan of developing chemicals inside, usually

attracts a crowd when the sidewalk photographer reaches inside and pulls out a wet print.

Street vendors, called "buhoneros" in Spanish, started moving into Salsipue- des as a sort of adjunct to the big public

market, which was established in 1900. At first there were only a few. Bv 1947

there were 20 or 25 "buhoneros" in business along the narrow street. Thev

would set up tables and portable stands on the sidewalk, forcing pedestrians to walk in the street. Several attempts were made to move the vendors to other

locations but thev kept coming back. The battle of the street peddlers and

the merchants and the Panama Municipal Government finally ended in 1969

when former Mayor Eliecer Alvarado

ordered the construction of permanent

stands all along the street and closed

the entire Salsipuedes area to vehicular

traffic all the wav from Central Avenue

to the market. Officially', it was named

Alcalde Alvarado Commercial Center,

but nobodv ever calls it anything but

Salsipuedes. At present there are about 250 street vendors in Salsipuedes and neighboring

streets. Many of them belong to a union and thev pay from $3 to $5 a month to the municipal government in taxes depending on the type of merchandise they sell. The street has been a major tourist attraction for manv years and even upstages the more luxurious shops and

shopping centers in other parts of the

city.As one writer put it some vears ago,

it is a place to buv anything from love

potions to lizards and lotions. There are

toys, ladies' lingerie, stainless steel, roach poison, jewelrv and gimcrackerv

of even' description. A cure for vour

ailments, physical and otherwise, may

be found in little stalls selling herbs and

leaves. Some have exotic names and

cure everything from a sore throat to

liver trouble. There are second hand

shops selling tools, pipe, electrical fixtures, clothing and golf balls. Despite the new supermarkets, the

old ways still persist in Salsipuedes,

where sooner or later all Panama passes on the wav to the market. When night

falls, however, the hubbub dies down

and the street goes back to another era. With a little imagination, a visitor can

see the sinister shadows of its former

residents crossing from one sidewalk to another. With a little more imagination one can feel the icy fingers of fear that must have touched the unfortunate

visitors who lost track of time and

remained outside the city wall after

nightfall.

30 Fall 1973
Panama

Portobelo Awakens

Real Panama Hat

Seviche Panama's Money Trees Orchids

All About the Mola

Modish Molas

Cane Cages Come in Many Shapes

From Panama's Primitive Past Comes the Chaquira

Mobile Masterpieces A Bird Watcher's Paradise

It's More Than Pot Luck at La Arena The Pollera Down in the Darien

Taboga

Panama—Focal Point of History

Flowering Trees The Panama Canal

A

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J

Special Review Reprints Popular Panama Articles

Noic is your chance to have reprints of the most popular articles to appear

in recent issues of The Panama Canal Review. Whether you are interested in

the mola, tlic chaquira, the pollera, or recipes for seviche, you will find

them in this special edition of the Review.

A list of the articles, which have been selected from issues published between 1965 and 1973, appears at left. Orders should be sent to The Panama

Canal Review, Box M, Balboa Heights, Canal Zone. Each copy comes in a

special envelope with a gift card, which will be inscribed as you request. Single

copies, regular mail are $1 each, airmail $2. Check or money order should be

payable to the Panama Canal Company. The special edition is on sale also

at Panama Canal retail stores and military exchanges on both sides of the

Isthmus.

The regular edition of the Review is available by subscription for $1 a year

regular or $2 airmail. You may subscribe when you order the special edition.

The Panama Canal Review 31
•Culinary

Capers

By Fannie P. Hernandez

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FROM EARLIEST TIMES, SOUP, THE LIQUID FOOD, HAS HELD AN

important place in mankind's nourishment. Where other food was often

lacking, or in short supply, there usually was a bowl of soup made with yesterday's leftovers. In times of disaster, soup has fed large masses of people who

would otherwise have gone hungry. And "adding water to the soup" has saved

the dav for many a housewife who has been faced with unexpected guests

at mealtime.

A caldron or soup kettle, dispersing aromatic vapors from simmering pieces

of meat, fish, edible scraps, bone and herbs, has been a familiar sight on the

kitchen range or hearth since antiquity. Not so many years ago, every kitchen

had a coal- or wood-burning stove and the simmering soup kettle was as much

a part of the scene as the brewing coffeepot.

With the advent of gas and electric ranges, soup making became a forgotten

art, and in these days of rapid-pace living and eating, the can opener has

displaced the soup pot. However, with the skyrocketing prices of food, especially meat, the housewife would do well to restore the past art of the freshly

homemade soup, giving reign to her imagination and to the use of fresh local ingredients.

It is said that a good honest, homemade soup can make a meal or save a meal. When the fare is skimpy, add a soup; when there are remains of uncon- sumed edibles in the refrigerator, invent a soup. As an appetizer, a whiff of an aromatic soup can stimulate the palate. As a main course, a hearty soup, containing ingredients of plant and animal origin, supplies a high degree of man's daily food requirements. Because of their digestive and nutritional qualities, soups are essential in the diets of infants, the elderly and the ailing.

Stew is related to soup and so is pudding. One of the earliest references to soup in the English language describes it as "kind of sweet pleasant broth,

made rich with fruit or vegetables and spices." These sweetened soups gradually

thickened into puddings.

Down through the ages, everv civilization, every country or regional area has enjoyed and been sustained by its own particular version of soup. The

French housewife has fed her family a sturdy soup of meat and vegetables

known as pot-au-feu, literally "pot on the fire:" Italian monks kept a pot of minestrone simmering on the hearth clay and night to feed hungry, wears'

travelers who might be stopping by the abbey; the Spanish have puchero and

the lavish cocido in the style of the pot-au-feu, with the broth served first separately followed by the meat and vegetables; Russian cooks combine beets,

cabbage, leeks and parsnips, their most popular vegetables, with meat to concoct their specialty known as borsch, which thev serve with a big, boiled white

potato and thick slabs of dark brown bread; Scandinavians have preferred fruit soups often made of dried fruits and served before the main dish or as a dessert; the Greeks, a soup flavored with lemon; the early settlers in the United States learned from the American Indians how to make chowder; Panama has sancocho,

a banquet in itself. As to be expected, it was the French who perfected the art of soup making

and it is estimated that ten thousand soups originated in Paris kitchens alone. Knowing the basics, soup making has no limits. Recipes can be changed, given

a new twist, or discarded altogether.

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32 Fall 1973
Soup is a hospitable dish that can be

adapted to the whirlwind of modern day

living when members of the family are on different schedules. A pregame bowl

of savory, bubbly soup will satisfy teen- agers rushing off to sports events and

it's great, too, for an idle stay-at-home

Sundav evening. A pot of good soup is worth its weight in gold for entertain- ing that "petit comite" of guests who

have been invited for holiday eggnog

or cocktails and decide to linger for a gab fest. And what can be more hospitable than inviting the gang over for a bovl of soup after one of those "on the town" sprees or after a late, late New

Year's party.

In tropical Panama, it is traditional to serve hot soup before the main course

at lunch and dinner. Based on meat,

poultry, fish, seafood or vegetables, soups run the gamut from the simple

"caldo" to "sancocho," an entire meal.

Sancocho de Callina

Sancocho, what may be called Panama's national dish, is robust enough to be a meal in itself. It is often served as such for Sunday dinner and on special occasions. Like many of the national

dishes it is a half soup, half stew, rich and satisfying. Anyone who has eaten a dish of chicken sancocho will concede

to its superiority. There are several versions, made with either meat or chicken

or a combination of both. Here is one version of the great San- cocho de Gallina:

a 4 or 5 pound stewing hen, cleaned, dressed and cut up (a nice, big roaster

will do as well)

1 large onion

ripe tomatoes

green peppers

garlic cloves, mashed

quarts cold water

1 pound yucca

2 medium size otoes

1 pound name

3 green plantains

'A pound zapallo (pumpkin)

3 ears of tender corn

1 pound potatoes

salt and pepper

coriander and parsley Place the cut-up hen in the cold water with the herbs and salt and pep- per and cook slowly until the hen is tender. While it is cooking, chop the

onion, tomatoes, peppers, and add to the pot with the garlic. Cut the corn and plantains in 1%-inch pieces and

add Then chop the remaining vegetables (not too small) and add. Continue cooking until all the vegetables

are tender. Season to taste. For a little more zip, add a bit of hot pepper. Serve

in large soup dishes. For meat sancocho

use 2 pounds of beef brisket or flank- steak (cut-up) and increase the quantity

of vegetables.

Caldillo

Caldillo, a fragrant tomato, onion and

egg combination, rings the bell as one

of the favorite of all soups served in Panama. A gustful main dish soup, it has become famous as the "after the

late party" soup and a bowl of fire-hot caldillo at the Panama hotels or social clubs is a must as a reviver of exhausted

carnival revellers after 3 days of partying. Here is one way to make Caldillo: 3 green peppers

'A cup chopped green onions 4 large ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 small can tomato paste (6 oz)

8 cups of consomme or chicken broth cayenne pepper or aji chombo

salt and pepper cream or evaporated milk 12 eggs

In a large heavy pot, saute the vegetables in a little butter for about 5 minutes, add the tomato paste, and cook

slowly until well blended and vegetables are soft. Add the cayenne pepper or aji chombo and salt and pepper

to taste. Add the consomme and bring

to a boil and simmer. About 10 minutes

before serving, break eggs separately

and add two at a time to the simmering

soup. As they set, remove the eggs to

six individual bowls containing about

i/3 cup of warm milk or cream and fill the bowl with the caldillo.

Esteem for provincial food is shown in "Sancocho Santeno" prepared by Dr. Maria

Villalaz de Arias, Panamanian physician, whose recipe calls for a hen and the following

chopped vegetables: 2 pounds name; 1 green pepper; 1 large tomato; Vz pound cabbage;

1 big onion; 3 garlic cloves, mashed; 4 coriander leaves; Vz teaspoon oregano; and salt

to taste. Put the hen in a pot of cold water to cover. When soup begins to boil, remove foam. Add chopped tomato and onion. When the hen begins to get tender, add name and cabbage.

About 5 minutes before removing from fire, add coriander and salt. Serve with fluffy, white

rice and fried plantain.

The Panama Canal Review 33
Shrimp Caldillo An even more delicious version of the

life giving soup is Shrimp Caldillo made

this wav: Cook two pounds of raw shrimp in 6 cups of lightly seasoned water until thev turn pink. Strain and use this water

as the stock for the soup. Peel and de- vein the shrimp, cut in pieces (not too small ) . and add to the soup after it has come to a hoil. Simmer and correct sea- sonings and continue with the rest of the recipe.

Fish Soup

Hugged bv two oceans, it is only

natural that Panama has fabulous fish and seafood soups. They come in as manv varieties as there are fish in the

sea. Unlike meat soups, fish takes very

little cooking time. Here is a superb Fish

Soup that is simple to make with a few

ingredients: 2 pcnmds of white fish

1 large onion, sliced 6 sprigs of parsley

1 stalk celery or celery leaves

1 hay leaf

1 pound name

salt ami pepper

flour and lemon juice 6 cups of water Clean and cut the fish in 34-inch

slices, reserving the heads and bones. Sprinkle the slices with lemon juice and

dust with flour, salt and pepper. Frv

in olive oil until tender. Make a fish stock bv cooking the heads and bones

in the water with the onion, parsley, celerv and bav leaf. Simmer for vi hour.

Strain the stock and remove anv edible

fish particles from the heads. Add these

to the stock with the fried fish and

name. Cook slowlv until the name is tender. Correct the seasoning. A little

aji chombo mav be added for a "hotter" soup. Clam Chowder

One of the most popular soups in Pan- ama is made with fresh clams that are

available at the market 7 days a week.

Make excellent Panama Clam Chowder

this way:

4 cups fresh clams

l',i pounds name, peeled and cut into small

pieces

1 medium onion, chopped

1 large tomato, chopped

1 sweet pepper, chopped

1 coriander leaf 8 cups hot water

salt and pepper

Place clams in salted water for half an hour. Remove and put into hot water and cook until the clams open up. Drain

and save the water. When the clams

have cooled, remove from the shells and

clean. Cook the onion, tomato and pepper with the coriander in a little oil until

soft. Rinse the name well. Strain into a pot the water the clams were cooked in

to remove anv sand. Add to this water

the cooked vegetables, the name and

the clams. Simmer about 20 minutes or

until the name is tender.

Guacho

A flavorful half soup, half stew tvpe

meal for the heftier appetites is Guacho.

It can be made with chicken, beef or

pork, combined with beans or guandu

and rice. Mention the word "guacho" to

a Panamanian and it will immediately

evoke the goodness of the melange.

Here is one wav to make it:

1 pound red beans

1 pound rice, washed several times

J/i pounds salt pork, cubed

1 pound yucca, cut up

1 pound name, cut up

1 sweet pepper, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1 stalk celery, chopped

3 or 4 cloves garlic, masfwd

1 small can of tomato paste Wash beans and put in a large pot

with plentv of water. Add 1 tablespoon

of salt, and boil until almost tender. Add the salt pork and as the water

cooks awav keep adding more until the beans are cooked. Then add the rice, blending it well with the beans and

meat. About half an hour later add

the vucca. In another half hour, add the name. When the name is tender, the guacho is ready to serve. While the gua- cho is cooking, make a "refrito" with the remaining vegetables and tomato paste. Put a big tablespoonful of "refrito" on

top of each serving of guacho.

Avocado Soup

As a Christmas gift to the readers of Culinary Capers, here are simple in- structions for making a delicious Avocado Soup when thev are in season:

3 cups chicken consomme

2 avocados, mashed

1 avocado, cubed

whipped cream or evaporated milk Add the mashed avocados to warm

consomme and blend thoroughlv. Cook

slowlv. stirring constantly until the soup comes to a boil. Remove from the fire immediately and pour over the cubed

avocado in the soup bowls. Put a dollop

of lightlv salted whipped cream or a little evaporated milk on top of the soup. This recipe serves two or three.

What can be more satisfying than a dish of delicious fish soup made "quick and easy" wit! Panama's bounty from the sea!

34 Fall 1973
Canal fllitowj,

50 Years Ago

A

COLLISION IN CRISTOBAL

Harbor between the SS Abangarez, of the United Fruit Company,

and the U.S. Submarine 0-5 proceeding

from Coco Solo to Balboa occurred in October 1923. The submarine sank im- mediately in 36 feet of water. The event became one of the most pictoriallv doc- umented stories of submarine salvage

ever made. An underwater diving record was made when Sheppard J. Shreaves, a Canal Zone diver in his rescue at- tempts, made the longest dive up to that

time.

It also became the first attempt at physically lifting anv vessel the size of the 420-ton 0-5 submarine off the ocean

bottom. When the surviving crewmembers were mustered after the submarine

sank, it was found that five men were

missing. Efforts were started at once to

raise the sunken submarine by the Navy

and the Panama Canal divers working

with the floating crane Ajax. The sub- marine was brought to the surface 31

hours later on October 20 when two of

the missing men were taken out. The

bodies of two others were found floating

in the bay but one was never found. The Isthmus was inundated bv the heavy rains that fell over Gatun water- shed October 23 and 24, 1923. Since

this was 10 years before the construction

of Madden Dam, the runoff which went

directly into Gatun Lake was at the

highest rate in the history of the Canal.

It brought an interruption of Canal traffic due in part to the strong current at Samboa, where the waters of the Chag-

'es River reached the Canal channel,

ind in part to the use of the lock culverts to discharge excess water from Gatun Lake. Eleven gates of the spillway were opened and when the flood was at

ts height, the sidewall culverts at Gatun

md Pedro Miguel Locks also were

spened. The rains started again October

24 but this time over the surface of the

lake. Again traffic was suspended while

the sidewall culverts at Gatun and Pedro Miguel Locks were used to spill >vater from the lake. All rainfall records

)n the Atlantic side for the complete

nonth of October were broken in onlv

i days from October 22 to 25.

The SS Easterner , which transited the Canal August 15, had as part of her

cargo a veritable zoological garden consisting of camels, kangaroos, opossums, wombats, lions, emus, cockatoos, parrots, geese and a number of snakes, liz- ards and turtles. The ship was en route from Sydney, Australia, to New York. Also on board were 12 tons of dried

ferns. 25 Years Ago

THE BILL EXTENDING THE

United States income tax to the Canal

Zone was introduced into the House of Representatives in May 1948. News of the tax bill was a surprise since information from Washington, at the time the measure was being drafted, was that it was unlikely that it would be presented

before the next session of Congress.

Meanwhile news sources at Balboa

Heights expressed the belief that the

Selective Sendee bill, approved bv the

U.S. Senate, would applv to the Canal

Zone and would require a local board

svstem to be established with a quota

to be filled from the Canal Zone. Margarita Hospital, which had been

in operation for the past 6 vears, was

closed and the patients were transferred

to Colon Hospital. Secretary of Defense James Forrestal announced he was

streamlining medical services for the

U.S. Armed Forces and civilians in the Canal Zone. Fort Gulick Hospital also was closed. U.S. Ambassador to Panama Monnett N. Davis announced that the Board

of Directors of the Export Import Bank

had approved the application of a loan

for $2 million to be used toward the construction of the Hotel El Panama

which was to be built bv Hoteles Inter- americanos, S.A. with the backing of the Panama Government. It also was an- nounced that when this hotel was completed, the Tivoli and Washington Hotels would cater onlv to official U.S.

visitors.

10 Years Ago

THE COMPLICATED BUSINESS OF

moving the Panama Canal Printing Plant from Mount Hope to La Boca was carried out 10 years ago during the months of October and November.

Overseeing the move, which involved

the transfer of hundreds of pieces of equipment and the relocation of 61 employees were John B. Coffey, then Print- ing Plant Superintendent, and W. R.

Price, foreman.

Three U.S. manufacturing companies

submitted bids on the furnishing and

installation at Miraflores of major components of a steam generating unit which was to add 22,000 kilowatts to the electrical power generation potential of the Panama Canal power system.

It was to go into operation in approximately 2 vears.

ALMOST 60 YEARS AGO-Workmen dismantle the Governor's House in June 1914

preparatory to moving it to Balboa Heights. The house was originally located in the construction-day town of Culebra on the banks of what is now Gaillard Cut. The Panama

Canal Review is interested in hearing from readers who may have other old photographs

of the Governor's House as well as any items of furniture originally associated with it.

The Panama Canal Review 35
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