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^{J
David S. Parker Governor-President

Charles I. McGinnis

Lieutenant Governor

Frank A. Baldwin Panama Canal Information Officer

PANAMA CANAL

Rivftw Official Panama Canal Publication

Morgan E. Goodwin, Press Officer

Publications Editors Willie K. Friar, Jose T. Tunon

Writers Eunice Richard, Fannie P. Hernandez,

and Franklin Castrellon

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

Subscriptions: $1 a year, airmoil SS a year; back copies (regular mail), 50 cents each. Published twice a year. Make postal money orders payable to the Panama Canal Company, Box M, Bolboa Heights, C.Z.

Editorial Offices are located in the Administration Building, Balboa Heights, C.Z. Printed at the Printing Plant, La Boca, C.Z.

\

Contents

John F. Stevens An amazing engineering genius, he knew there ivas more

to digging the Canal than

simphj making the dirt fly. Modish Molas

San Bias needlework is adding

a splash of color to clothing.

Funny Things Happen

For the men who put the

ships through, a day may in- clude anything from platypuses to pigeons.

Culinary Capers

Whether Boquete oranges or cashew-apples, Panama's fruits make exquisite preserves and

sauces. "Tokyo Bay" Topples Records

Largest container ship in the

world transits. Mobile Masterpieces

Imaginative husdrivers decorate their vehicles with portraits, pet names, and proverbs. South America on (?) a day

Coping with old and new

money is one of the hazards.

Medical Sleuths

Excellent medical resources

are available to students planning a career in medical

technology.

A Different Way to San Jose Travel off the beaten path.

Shipping

A look at the elegant cruise

ships which use the Canal.

Canal History

12

15

18

20

23

26

29

31

35

OurCover

THE TOKYO BAY, THE LARGest container ship in the world

and the largest ship to transit the Pan- ama Canal, is a snug fit in Miraflores Locks with her beam of nearly 106

feet. The 950-foot-Iang British flag vessel, which transited April 19, 1972,

is the largest to go through the Canal

since the 936-foot Bremen, a German

passenger liner, made her only transit

in 1939. The giant ship, like many other regular customers of the Canal, was de- signed to fit neady into the 110-foot by 1,000-foot locks. Several years ago, the maximum size for ships using the waterway was set at appro.ximately

800 feet for length and 102 feet for beam, but subsequent changes in ship

design and improvements in Canal

capacitv have given shipowners and

designers a bonus. The new Cunard liner. Queen Eliza- beth II, was built with the idea of transiting the Canal although her length is 963 feet. There was some hesitation on

the part of Canal officials not long ago when the 990-foot United States was

scheduled to transit on a cruise. She

never did but the Canal has decided to give it a try on an experimental basis

if she does plan a transit in the future. More photographs and the story of the transit of the Tokyo Bay appear on pages 18 and 19. The cover photograph

is by Melvin D. Kennedy, Jr.

— Q^ 4/ kji

Artwork in this Issue: Toni McGrath

(page 3); Fcter Gurneij (pages 12 and 14); Carlos Mendez (page 15); and Leslie High

(page 20).

Fall 1972
John F. Stevens, an amazing engineering

genius used to the challenge of the frontier,

knew there was more to digging the Canal

than simply "making the dirt fly"

J

N THE SUMMER OF 1905, ALI though President Theodore Roosevelt was telling everyone that he was

going to "make the dirt fly," privately

he was admitting that things on the Isthmus were in a "hell of a mess." John F. Wallace had just resigned as chief engineer and the President was

seeking a successor. He chose John F. Stevens, a forthright leader who

brought to the office a new vigor, cour- age and determination, which many

believe saved the Canal project.

The new chief engineer arrived in Colon on July 25, 1905 and left immediately on a tour of the work. What he

saw convinced him that the President

had not exaggerated the difficulties. The

challenge, however, did not dishearten him. In Culebra Cut (later to be named

Gaillard Cut) he saw steam shovels standing idle and seven work trains derailed and lying in a ditch while workers

milled about uncertain as to what they were supposed to do. He watched two laborers lift a wheelbarrow, which they had loaded with

dirt, onto the head of a third man, who

balanced it precariously and solemnly

marched off to the dumping area. As he looked over the broken dcywn

undersized rolling stock of the Panama

Stevens By Willie K. Friar

Sandy Tompkins, art student at Balboa High School, puts finishing touches on her rendering of Stevens' Circle, which has become a favorite

site for art exhibits and a meeting place for teenagers. This monument to John F. Stevens stands in a small park in the center of Balboa on

the Pacific side of the Isthmus. In the background is the Administration Building of the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal Review
Stevens halted all excavation and put men to work

paving streets, fighting yelloiv fever and malaria, building

piers, machine shops, hospitals, police stations, jails, churches . . .

.-f-,-T7-"iewi=f^-^- - 'T^''mi!^

Fumigation squads. Typical street scene in 1905. Laying brick at Railroad Station.

Railroad, someone pointed out proudly

that there had been no collisions for some time. Stevens answered, "A colli- sion has its good points as well as bad

ones. It indicates that there is something

moving on the railroad." Stevens was 52, in 1905, when he

accepted the position of chief engineer.

Powerfully built and strikingly handsome, he was a man of commanding

presence and considerable physical courage. He was not an "office engineer"

but a pioneer accustomed to facing the challenge of the frontier. Like many

other engineers of that day he had never

received any formal training although

he had a long career building railroads. The Apaches

Two stories are typical of his character. In the 1870's while working on the Arizona Railroad, a construction gang was cut off by the Apaches and the fore- man offered a reward of $500 to any- one who could get through to them.

Stevens was the only man to volunteer. He made the trip on foot through more

than a hundred miles of Apache

territory and led them to safety.

Ten years later, he set out from Montana with hvo Indian guides and a mule

to try to find a route for the Great Northern Railroad across the Rockies. The mule died and the guides deserted but Stevens pushed on alone to discover and survey the vital pass. Railroad men

and mapmakcrs wanted to call the pass Stevens Pass, but he declined the honor. He was used to working in the wilderness with rugged men. On one occasion, a gang of Italian laborers took a violent

dislike to him because he had ordered a contractor to bum the carcass of a mule

that had died of disease. The men

claimed it for food and a crowd of them

chased him a half mile down the rail- road track waving knives and clubs and

yelling wildlv. Some of the irreverent thought that it was a good joke on the

"old man." With these and many other

similar experiences behind him, Stevens was not dismayed by the problems he

faced on the Isthmus. He was the first to realize that the Canal could not be built until certain preparations were made and he set about creating the fundamental organization under which the Canal was

constructed. He realized that the needs were sanitation, housing and feeding, transportation, and proper equipment, and he

ordered a halt at once to all Canal work

until a proper environment could be

created and all elements necessary to the construction assembled.

Yellow Fever He handled the problems of trans- portation and equipment himself. For

the other fields he found the best men

available and put them in charge. He

recognized Gorgas for the expert that he was and put him in charge of sanitation,

giving him all the supplies and men he

needed to cope with malaria and yellow

fever. Before this, Gorgas had met constant frustration and had been told by

Adm. John G. Walker, Chairman of the

First Canal Commission, "the whole

idea of mosquitoes carrying fever is the

veriest balderdash." He placed housing and feeding of workers in the hands of Jackson Smith,

who had worked on large construction

projects in Mexico and Ecuador. One

of his first steps was to build a cold

storage plant, ice cream plant, bakery,

coffee roaster, and a laundry. Stevens saw the need for a commissary system on arrival when he

heard of men going into the jungle for bananas or into the swamps for sugar cane because they were unable to afford

to buy food from the local merchants.

Eggs were selling for $1.50 a dozen. Fish prices had risen because fishermen

refused to make two catches a week

having discovered that with the large

number of new arrivals competing for the limited supply they could make as much on one haul as on two. No Refrigeration

There was no refrigeration service on

the Isthmus so he ordered cold storage

equipment installed on Panama Rail- road steamers, a cold storage plant built

at Colon, and refrigerator cars procured

for the railroad. Frozen products were brought from

New York and deposited in cold storage

at Colon and daily deliveries of perish- able food and ice were made at towns

across the Isthmus. At first there were problems with

delivery and Stevens once \vTote to the commissary manager, "I cannot imagine

why it should take so long to fill this order, and if this is the way the Chief

Engineer's requests are to be handled,

I cannot imagine what attention any

requests from any of my subordinates

would receive. I presume this can be

remedied and those requisitions filled much more quicklv than in this case; if not, I would like to be advised."

Fall 1972
On another occasion he wrote, "Referring to the supplies which were ordered

Friday for my house, mv attention was

called to the condition in which one of the cans of ham was received, which

was, to say the least, terrible. This

morning it was not possible to get within 5 feet of it. I wish vou would kindly see

that such supplies are not sent to me as

it only requires returning of same to the commissary."

Between 1905 and 1907. he saw to it that all the buOdings required—quarters,

hospitals, school houses, churches, jails, fire and police stations—were promptly

erected and put into service.

Tangles of Red Tape

Under his supervision, about 5,000 new buildings were built, old French

buildings were renovated, streets paved, new harbor installations constructed, a sewage disposal plant built, and water mains put in. He installed a telephone

system that made it possible for him to

talk with any of the oflSces, however

small, along the Canal route. When Stevens arrived on the Isthmus

few laborers seemed to know what they were supposed to do, and those who

did had to cope with tangles of red

tape. One regulation, for instance,

required written permission to saw any

board more than 10 feet long. Stevens began cutting away at the stream of unnecessary paperwork.

Looking over the excavation sites, he

saw, at once, that more equipment was

needed and soon realized that the whole

procedure for purchasing had broken

douTi. His next step was to create a machinery' department to recommend

the particular type of equipment

needed.

Twent\'-fi\'e years later, Stevens wrote: "The Department of Machinery was of the utmost importance. A quantity of construction plant, tools and machinery'

such as never before had been gotten

together in the history of the world was

planned, specified, requisitioned, pur- chased and deli\ered to the site in record time. This equipment consisted

of almost ever)- mechanical device

which judgment and experience indi- cated was best adapted to do quickly

and economically the \'ast work which

lay ahead of the engineers.

"Detailed specifications for individual

classes of machinery such as locomotives, cars, steam shovels, etc., were drawn up by the department. Cast steel was substituted for iron, copper boiler tubes for ones of iron and a like standard

of excellence was insisted on for the

entire list. The numbers involved were

enormous. I remember, for example,

purchasing on a single order 125 loco- moti\'es and 75 steam-shovels, and on

another 900 Lidgerwood dumpcars.

. . . Some French cars, locomotives and

dredges were, it is true, reconditioned

and put into ser\ice but 95 percent of the equipment used in building the

canal was new; and of the immense

amount ordered during my time as Chief Engineer, every single item, I am

told, was well-adapted to its job.

Nothing was wasted."

Stevens was one of the greatest rail- road authorities of his day. From laying

track in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona

and finding and surveying routes in

Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming, he had

gone on to become president of one of the largest companies in the United

States. He saw at once that the Panama

Railroad, antiquated and rusty though

it was, must be made into the instru- ment of disposal for the spoil from the digging of the Canal. Stevens was the first man to think of using the Panama Railroad as a convex'or belt to move the soil that \\'as dug

out. One of the big problems of the French was how to transport the spoil efEcientlv. B\' the end of 1906, Stevens had rebuilt the railroad, recruited new men from the United States to nin it and established a good working rela- tionship between those who worked on

the Canal and those who worked on the

Railroad.

Greatest Single Factor

All material in Culebra Cut was waste and had to be disposed of, and Stevens

desis;ned a simple but extensive and

flexible s\stem of trackage which proved

a success and was in use until the last \'ard of material had been removed from

the Cut. Stevens said of the system:

"This was probablv the greatest single

factor, in the nature of a machine, that contributed to the successful building of the Canal." When he arrived on the Isthmus,

there were onh' 35 locomotives, 24

coaches and 560 flatcars. When he left after 18 months, there were 293 loco- motives, 52 coaches, 16 cold storage

cars, and 3,915 flatcars. In place of the 73 miles of light-weight track, there were 350 miles of hea\ v relaid track. The new railroad was the busiest in the

Workmen cooking beside the railroad track. One of the new mess halls at worksite. Dining room of Tivoli Hotel.

. . . houses^ hotels, schools, mess halls, a cold storage

plant, bakery and laundry, and setting up a

commissary system.

The Panama Canal Review 5
—"—"* Be*'

Lov.H'ghHooorUpo"

STEVENS EXIOatB

ASiGEISlOAL

I

II I III Ertd by

1 Man ^Nho 1»>'» oppo'"'""!'--*

world, running up to 570 trains a day

compared to 20 in the past. The trip across the Isthmus had been cut from

5)2 to less than 2 hours. Surveying the railroad svstem, Stevens

said, "I don't mind trying to make the

dirt fly, now that we have somewhere

to put it." With the proper preparations made,

Stevens ordered excavation to begin in Culebra Cut in earlv 1906. It was now

necessar\' to know what kind of Canal was to be built—a sea-level or a lock

type. He had drawn up plans for both

but was convinced that the onlv practical plan was a lock type. Still he was

faced with the problem of convincing

Congress and the Senate. A subcommittee of Congress voted in Mav 1906 in favor of building the Canal at sea level. Roosevelt had doubts and summoned

Stevens to Oyster Bay to get his opinion.

Of the meeting, Stevens said, "I talked

to Teddy like a Dutch uncle . . . and

soon convinced him that a canal with

locks was the only possible answer." The President was convinced but

not the Senate and Stevens was

forced to argue his case before a Senate

committee.

He had firsthand information of the volume and the violence of the waters

of the Chagres River which had been

called "the lion in the path of a sea-level canal," as well as all other problems

involved in the construction of such a waterwav. He set about in a straightforward manner to convince the committee,

though he hated the job of lobbyist. After he outlined his plan, which in- cluded an earth dam across the Chagres

at Gatun near the Caribbean end of the Canal, one Senator was concerned

about whether or not it would be absolutely safe and suggested it be rein- forced with a masonry core. Stevens considered this an unnecessary expense. The Senator did not agree and said, "I suggest you are too positive in your

opinions, Mr. Stevens." "Well, I am a positive man."

"I suggest to vou that this dam ought

to be made stronger."

"The dam is strong enough. This is

like killing a duck; when you kill him

he is dead; there is no use trying to kill him deader."

Finally Stevens' plain speaking and common sense prevailed. The Senate voted 36 to 31 for a lock canal, and the House followed suit. Years later Stevens wrote in the

Journal of the Society of Civil Engineers: "I have been privileged to do some little service to my country, and

the greatest service I ever gave it was,

I am sure, the part I took in preventing

foreign votes from foisting a useless thing—namely a sea-level canal as pro- posed bv the majoritv of the Consulting

Board—upon a too credulous American

people."

Roosevelt Visits Stevens returned to the Canal Zone

and the work was continuing at a steady pace when the President made his visit in November. Stevens was with him

throughout his tour of the Canal construction sites. Roosevelt saw and

approved the layout of the complex but

elastic trackage svstem on different

levels within the Culebra Cut, the efiR- cient coordination of train schedules with excavation and the judicious choice

of dumping sites. He was photographed

in the driver's seat of a 95-ton steam

sihovel while he watched how well the

system worked; that trains did not have

to wait for their loads; and shovels did not stand idle for want of flatcars. He

then singled out Stevens for special

mention and commended him for "ad- mirable results" and added that he

hoped that they would continue.

Stevens Resigns But Stevens was not to continue with

the Canal. He suddenly resigned and

terminated his service March 31, 1907. Why did he do it? There have been

many explanations but Stevens himself

refused to discuss the matter, except

after manv \ears, when he wrote: "Various reasons for mv resignation were given by irresponsible scribblers. They all had points of similarity, as they were all stupid and mendacious. In one

respect they were exactly alike; they were all absolutely untrue. I resigned

for purely personal reasons, which were

in no way, directly related to the building of the canal, or with anyone

connected with it in any manner."

Stevens stayed on onlv long enough

to transfer authority to Maj. George W.

Goethals, who had been appointed bv

the President to replace him.

When Stevens left the Isthmus April 8, the reception at Cristobal brought to- gether almost every American in Cris- tobal and as many as could be brought

from the rest of the Canal Zone in a

series of special trains. It was the largest

crowd that had ever gathered to say bon

voyage to a ship leaving Colon.

In a final ceremony at the ship, Stevens was told that the men had subscribed for some tokens of their regard.

These included a silver service, a watch

and a gold ring. Three gifts had been

selected because the men wanted him

to have something he could pass on to each of his three sons.

r**^^^^^^.^

President Theodore Roosevelt, in white suit, is accompanied by Stevens, second from the

President's left, as he tours construction sites in November 1906.

6 Fall 1972
For many years, Stevens had worn a

plain gold ring of which he was particularly fond. It had been stolen and

the men had ordered one made up as much like it as possible. They also pre- sented petitions signed by more than 10,000 workers. The original petition

had read: "Please withdraw your res- ignation and remain in charge of our work. We will show our appreciation

and loyalty by working for you even

harder than we have up to this time." A group of foremen suggested that the wording be changed "for the men consider that they can hardly promise to work harder than they have been as each and all of them have given their entire efforts." They added however that the sentiment toward Mr. Stevens "is one of admiration and respect."

Just before he went aboard the SS

Panama, Stevens replied to the farewell speech by W. G. Bierd. He said that 2 years before he was almost overawed

by the amount of preparation and construction work required, but that conditions were now such that he felt absolutely assured the Canal would be

opened by January 1915. He asked the men, as their sincere friend, to take any

little differences and complaints direcdy

to Colonel Goethals, for whom he asked

the same loyalty as heretofore had been

shown to himself. And in paying tribute

to Colonel Gorgas he said that until he

lifted the dark cloud which sanitary conditions placed over the work, he was in doubt as to success. But when this doubt

had been removed he knew that the Canal would be pushed to completion. Gen. George W. Goethals consistendy

made a point of emphasizing his appreciation of the work done by Stevens. Typical were these remarks made at a meeting of engineers in Pordand, Oreg.

Stevens in the office which

he buih at Culebra

overlooking the excavation

of what is now Caillard Cut. Not an "office engineer," he

spent much of his time walking the Canal route and

talking with the men.

"There are three diseases on

the Isthmus," he told them,

"yellow fever, malaria,

and cold feet. And the worst

of these is cold feet."

The Chief Engineer on an outing with Mrs. Stevens, who

influenced him to accept the Canal position, felling him

that his whole career had been in preparation for this great engineering command.

(Please see page 33)

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Ns5^,aP^-«.-r _, j-^l

*\ •^v

,

«<*- ^ .

ji;-

--

'*•

. .*. . .A- WJl^aC -F* ; mam ifh .

^"^J^SStevens moved the headquarters of the engineering organization from Panama to a new town which he built near the Culebra excavation site.

The Panama Canal Review 7
Photographs by

Arthur L. Pollack

WHAT DO PEOPLE DO WITH

molas?

While the Cuna women in Panama's San Bias Islands are doing exactly

what the\' always did witli themwearing them as blouses—mola fanciers

in Panama and the Canal Zone are fashioning them into everything from

purses to lampshades.

And there is no generation gap where

their use is concerned. They are found

on the seat of teenagers' jeans as well

as the skirt of mother's party dress. Grandmother may have a mola-decorated knitting bag while her granddaughter carries a mola shoulder bag.

The traditional mola which is proving

so popular with amateur as well as professional designers, is rectangular in shape and consists of three to five layers of various colored cotton cloth. The

intricate designs are fashioned by cut- ting through the layers of cloth to the

color desired and the edges of the design are sewn so that the stitching cannot be seen. The technique has been

described as "reverse applique" or "cutwork stitcherv."

Mrs. Sherry Holland, of Diablo, models a skirt which she designed to be worn opened up the side or the front.

8 Fall 1972
The Cuna seamstress makes no pre- liminarv drawing but starts out with a picture idea and develops the design

as she goes along. A good mola may

take a month or two to make.

Custom-made molas may be or- dered—at a slightly higher price. Just show the inventive folk artists of the San Bias a picture or sketch of the subject you want depicted and vou'll have

a mola that is not only personalized, but

a unique conversation piece. Of course, the results are sometimes surprising.

A likeness of your familv dog, for example, may be so highh' st\lized that he'll come out looking like a giant anteater. But no one else will have a mola like it. Until recently molas were simply

framed on a background of colored burlap and hung on a living room or den wall, but thev are now being given new dimensions by imaginative people

with a propensity toward individualism. On these pages are some of the inter- esting ways molas are being used by

Isthmian residents with a flair for fashion.

Zindy Wiggs and her colorful shoulder bag attract the attenHon of the Deakins twins, Tim and Tom, as she strolls down the street in Gamboa.

Viveca Kochman, Canal Zone College student, wears a brightly colored traditional mola blouse with white bell-bottomed pants.

Mrs. Earl R. McMillin, of Gamboa, models mola-covered shoes. At left is a handbag featuring the same colors as the shoes.

The Panama Canal Review
Mrs. Charles Griffiths, wife of the Commander of the U.S. Naval

Forces Southern Command, who collects items with a

turtle motif, holds a turtle made from a mola which was given to

her by a friend as a souvenir of Panama. On the floor are a few others from her collection. At right: A unique piano bench

cover made by Mrs. William H. Beeby, of Balboa Heights.

The Classic Cuna CostumeTHE CUNAS USE TWO MOlas to a blouse, one in front and one in back, usually of the same

design and color. Thev add sleeves and a yoke edged with borders of a blending color. The earlv Cuna blouses were

knee length and were decorated with

a band of red at the bottom. As

colored cloth became more common

and as island traders brought in needles, thread and scissors, in ex- change for coconuts, the women ex- panded their decoration, shortened

An attractive San Bias seamstress wears

the typical everyday costume of the women of the Islands.

the blouse to waist length, and

gradually developed the technique

of cutting outlines of the desired

figures in the top laver of cloth allowing the next layer to show the

design.

Not unlike fashion-conscious women all over the world, a San Bias

lad)' discards a blouse when the

colors get dull or when she feels the need for a change in wardrobe.

Having discovered that tourists will buy almost anvthing made of molas, she usuallv offers the used

blouse for sale or rips it apart and

sells the two molas separately. Seri- ous collectors are alwavs on the

lookout for these as thev know that the Indian women save the best ones for themselves and the used

molas, though faded, are often su- perior in design and in needlework.

10 Fall 1972
Quite different from the traditional Cuna blouse is this one made by Mrs. Holland. Around her waist is a mola necktie.

Thirty molas were needed to make this banquet-sized tablecloth which Capt. Julius Grigore, USNR, took with him when he left

the Canal Zone following his retirement.

:j&j^3^^^'^tj^ Iff, ** ^~y x*4

Anne Castles, Canal Zone College student, wears a bikini which she made

from two molas.

The Panama Canal Review 11
From Platypuses to Pigeons

^^

1"MHHU TklH^> TiappcH

A^CHA onci tLnc Panama r anama Canat

By Jose T. Tufion

s

SUPPLYING EARTHWORMS FOR

platypuses, coping with a phosphorus fire, removing a raccoon from a towing locomotive, or being chased by

a barracuda, are not a part of the every- day hfe of the people who keep the

ships moving through the Panama

Canal, but these and many other such

incidents illustrate that life is not always routine along the waterway.

Although transiting ships often re- quest unusual supplies, there was a fluny of excitement in the 1950's when

it became necessary to fly in 10,000

earthworms from the United States to supplement the diet of three platypuses

that were being taken from Australia

to a zoo in the United States. About the same time that the earth- worms were being flown to the Canal

Zone an unusual fire broke out aboard

a ship transiting the Canal. The ship was carrying a cargo of phosphorus

which was destined to be made into matchheads. Cristobal firemen wet the cargo down, quenching the fire. A short time later, they discovered, however,

that the phosphorus had gotten into cargo nets and onto docks where once

it dried out, workmen walking through

it were starting new fires with every

step in the same way that a match

ignites when struck. Finally, all the phosphorus was removed but not before some of the men had gotten a "hot

foot." Locks Division towing locomotive

operators like to tell of the time when

ship traflSc was stymied at Miraflores for 2 hours by a "gato solo," a small raccoon

native to Central America. The animal

hid out in the interior of a towing loco- motive making it necessary to dis- connect electrical equipment while everyone searched for him. As helping

hands approached, the frightened ani- mal crouched deeper inside the mechanism. Finally, while ships' crews stood by and visitors cheered, a fire hose was

used by locks employees to dislodge

their unwelcome guest.

Gatun Locks, which are located fur- ther from civilization and closer to the

jungle than the locks on the Pacific side, have had more than their share of jungle visitors. There have been cai- mans, snakes, small jungle animals and

birds. Then one day in 1952, lock employees were startled to see a deer

swimming in the channel just above

the locks. Linehandlers put out in a rowboat to rescue the animal but the deer drowned. The softhearted emplo\ees sadlv lifted the bod\- upon the

locks wall and tried to give it artificial respiration, but in vain. The crew of a transiting ship was

surprised one sunnv morning, to see a

flock of pigeons taking off from the

lock wall at Miraflores. Seagulls, peli- cans, sea terns—yes. But pigeons—hardly.

These birds were a special breed of homing pigeons that had been shipped

to the Canal b\' their owner in the United States. The idea was to set them

free at the Canal and let them find their way back to San Antonio, Tex. The flock of 19 pigeons had arrived en Pan Am flight 401 consigned to Frank A. Baldwin, Information Ofiicer. They were released 2 davs later bv

Judy Frizell and Jane Holgerson, Canal

emplovees. Whether it was the weather

or the Canal that set their navigation

systems awr\', no one knows. But 18

of the pigeons were never seen again.

The 19th turned up a few weeks later when a resident of the interior of Pan- ama near Santiago came bv the Infor- mation Office saying a pigeon had

taken up with his chickens and he

would like to present a bill for food to

its owner.

Linehandlers, who row out to in- coming ships at the locks to take on

the ship's lines and connect them with

the towing locomotives, usually live a

fairly placid life. So imagine the sur- prise of two boatmen on the sea side

of Gatun locks, when a huge barracuda

12 Fall 1972
leapt from the water with such force

that it landed in the rowboat. After a few desperate attempts to kill the monster, the men left the boat to the barracuda, jumped out, and swam to shore. Later thev were able to pull the boat in and kill the maneater. They

found that the fish weighed more than

54 pounds and had teeth measuring

3 inches. Although the locks were built to accommodate the largest ships in exist- ence in 1914 and were expected to be

large enough for an\thing that would

be built for some time, it was only 14

years later that the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier Lexington knocked down a number of heavy concrete lampposts

at Gatun and Miraflores Locks. According to a newspaper account

of the passage, the U.S.S. Lexington

arrived in Balboa the afternoon of March 26, 1928, little the worse for the 12-hour trip through the Canal. But four of the concrete lampposts were

missing from the locks and a handrail on the Pedro Miguel Locks had been

smashed flat. The Lexington took a toll of three lampposts at the Gatun Locks as she was being stepped up to the lake level and another at Pedro Miguel when

the vessel became slightlv turned in the channel and the prow struck the

post, crumbling it into rubble. No one had thought that the Lexington would be much trouble since her

sister ship, the U.S.S. Saratoga, had

made the transit a short time earlier without incident. Thev were the largest ever to transit the 110- by 1,000-foot

locks up to that time. They were 888

feet in length and had beams of 107.9

feet.Because of this accident, the Pan- ama Canal removed the handsome

lampposts and replaced them with

metal ones located at a greater distance from the wall of the locks. These in turn were replaced bv aluminum posts

in the 1960's after the aircraft carrier Valley Forge knocked down the visitors' pavihon at Miraflores and came within

inches of flattening the metal hght posts. The ornamental tops of the old lampposts were not lost to posteritv however.

They can still be seen these days along

streets in the Canal Zone and decorating

driveways and gardens in the Republic

of Panama.

The wealth of fish in the locks be- came known to the Panama Canal employees as soon as one of the chambers was imwatered for inspection and re- pair not many years after the Canal was

opened to commerce.

^iii^W^-f"

All the lampposts along the locks' wall are still in place as the U.S.S. "Saratoga" transits in March 1928, but her sister ship, the U.S.S. "Lexington," which came along shortly afterward,

knocked down four of them at Miraflores and Gatun Locks.

%^^*\1

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The old lampposts were taken down and their decorative tops were used to line driveways

and as traffic bumpers. One of them offers a challenge to Luis Sullivan who takes a leap while he waits for the schoolbus at Pedro Miguel.

The Panama Canal Review 13
Workmen found that the chambers

acted as huge fishbowls, and, with the exception of a shark that followed a

ship from the Pacific into Miraflores and died in the fresh waters of Miraflores Lake, they and transiting ships

lived in peaceful coexistence. Many a snapper and snook captured

in the locks have been served at Canal

Zone dinner tables. During locks overhauls, employees often are seen going

home with loads of fresh fish slung over

their shoulders. Not so welcome are some of the other

things that turn up or sink dou-n in the

locks.

A large rope fender of the tvpe used

on tugs was located in Miraflores Locks

recentl}' by a diver, who was called when one of the lock gates refused to

close. The wa\'ward fender held up

traffic in the west lane for an hour and

47 minutes.

Recently, a truck ran off the bridge

crossing the lower end of Gatun Locks.

Traffic in the Canal was delaved while

a locomotive crane fished it out. Then

there was the box- who rode off a locks wall at Miraflores on his bic\cle. The

bo\' managed to swim to safety before

traffic was disrupted and the bike was

recovered a few hours later.

After a slide in Caillard Cut September 21, 1915, this island came up from .30 feet of water. Legend has it that a dipper dredge operator promptly planted a British flag on it.

Other debris found in the Canal and

the locks range from pieces of ships' keels that somehow break off from the

larger vessels, logs of various sizes that

float in from flood-swollen rivers, and

once, a 10-ton boulder was found hv

a diver in the southern approach to Miraflores Locks east chamber.

It also has been necessary from time

to time to fish people out of the locks,

particularly- at locks overhaul time

when visitors, taking a look at the

floor, take a misstep and end up in a sump hole. During the earl\- da\s of the Canal

operation, an island suddenly appeared

in the Canal channel following a slide

in Caillard Cut. Oldtimers sav that a dipper tender sitting in the Isoom of the dredge Paraiso "discovered" the

island and promptly placed a small

British flag on its top. The flag planter,

who tried to include Creat Britain in the Canal operation, was identified as a native of Ireland, who said he did it in the name of the "auld country."

Cristobal harbor held much excite- ment in the early days of the Canal

and oldtimers still remember the whale

that moved into Limon Bay about 50

\ears ago. The 120i-foot mammal,

weighing 125 tons, grounded in the shallow waters east of the Canal prism

and remained there until it was killed 2 days later by a group of Canal em-

' ployees who planned to render its blubber at the Mount Hope abattoir. The whale carcass was towed to Pier 6 in Cristobal but the 75-ton loco- motive crane was unable to lift it from the water to the railroad flatcars assembled for transportation to Mount

Hope.

When salvage efforts were abandoned

shortlx' after, the whale was towed

about 12 miles out to sea by a Panama

Canal tug where it was later bombed

and sunk by U.S. Navv planes from

Coco Solo. Thus was eliminated the only whale ever known to menace the navigation of the Panama Canal.

Still there are people living near the Canal who remain oblivious to all of the unusual happenings. Their attitude

is something like that of the old man

who during the last davs of the construction of the waterway was warned

that the rising waters of the newly made

Gatun Lake would soon flood his house,

and he must move. He sat calmly

beside his hut as the water began to ,, rise around his feet and said, "I've heard that story before. The French

told my father that 30 years ago."

14 Fall 1972
*-)

ulinary

Capers

By Fannie Hernandez

MANGO-NUT BREAD

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IT IS COMMON THESE DAYS TO

regard with simple awe those people

who have the temerity to make their own bread and marmalade.

But it is surprisingly easy and,

although it can be time consuming, the

smell that comes from the kitchen when

bread is baking or marmalade is cooking is only slightly short of heaven.

Show me the man who can resist a slice of warm homemade bread,

dripping with creamy butter and

smeared with homemade jam or mar- malade and I will show you a cold- hearted Scrooge with the bah and

humbug thrown in free for Christmas.

Bread can be made in a delightful

variety of ways anywhere but there are few places in the world where the

ingredients for easily made marmalade

and preserves hang from a tree or a bush nearly all year-around as they do

on the Isthmus. Panama's citrus fruits could well hold

their own anywhere in the world. Oranges, both sweet and sour varieties, tangerines, grapefruit, limes—all tree- ripened—are available the year-aroimd

and most plentiful during the citrus season from December through March.

It is not unusual to see golden oranges and white orange blossoms on the trees

at the same time. The same occurs with

grapefruit. Seedless Boquete oranges, about the

size of grapefruit and larger, are a beautiful sight and delicious eating. The common all-purpose oranges are sweet and juicy, their natural sugar devel- oping as they ripen on the trees. Anyone with an orange tree on his premises may find himself with more

than he can use and a good way to use up the bonanza is to make orange marmalade. Here is a recipe for a marmalade similar to the English type:

SWEET-BITTER ORANGE

MARMALADE

8 oranges, quartered 2 small limes, quartered 8 cups sugar a teaspoon baking soda

a dash of salt Remove the spongy inner portion from

the peel of four oranges and with a sharp knife, cut the peel into very thin

strips. Do the same with the limes. Put

in a cooking pot and add three cups

of water, the soda and salt. Cover and

simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Separate the pulp from all the oranges and limes, being careful to remove all

the white part. Add the fruit pulp and

juice to the cooked peel. Heat to a boil and stir in the sugar. Cook at a slow

rolling boil until the liquid begins to thicken. This will take about an hour. Remove any scum that may form on

the top. Let it set for a few minutes and

stir up. Put in sterilized jars and seal with paraffin or let it cool and freeze in containers. The marmalade also may be

put into sterilized jars or glasses and

placed in the refrigerator. It keeps fine for months.

Most people who enjoy cashew nuts

are not aware that the nut is found

hanging from a pepper-shaped red or yellow fruit called cashew apple. Very common in Panama, cashew trees are known as the fences that grow and bear

fruit in April and May. When farmers need new fences they simply plant

cashew nuts, seedlings or pieces of branches of the tree and in a few years

there is a fruit-bearing fence! In the

tropics, most fruit trees are not difficult to grow. Simply plant a seed and let nature do the rest. They need little coaxing.

The attractive cashew-apple has a spongy pulp which contains a milky

juice that is sweet with a tart aftertaste when eaten fresh. It can be used for making a delicious wine, candied, or

for making preserves. Here is one way

of making cashew-apple preserves that are delicious on ice cream or served with cream cheese as a dessert.

CASHEW-APPLE PRESERVES

Cut enough of the fruit into strips to make four cups. Place in cooking pot

and add four cups sugar, one cup water and one tablespoon lime juice. Cook over

a slow fire until the fruit is tender and

the liquid thickens. Put in sterilized

glasses. Keeps in the refrigerator for months.

The Panama Canal Review 15
I •••-

MANGO-NUT BREAD

2% cups diced firm ripe mangoes

1 tablespoon lime juice 2 cups flour

I'a teaspoons baking soda

iJz teaspoons cinnamon

'i teaspoon salt

14 cup chopped nuts

'i cup raisins, soaked in brandy

Hi cups brown sugar, not packed

3 eggs

% cup vegetable oil

Add the lime juice to the mangoes

and set aside. Sift the dry ingredients

together and add the nuts and raisins. Mix lightly with a fork and then add

the sugar. In another bowl, beat the eggs, add

the oil and beat to a froth. Add the mangoes and then the flour mixture,

tossing lightly until it is all mixed.

Line the pans with waxed paper and

grease. Bake at 325° for an hour or until done. (Test with a toothpick.)

••-A- -AFor the cook who is not allergic to lesser known fruits in the realm of tropical cooking, we offer a few more reci- pes that are sure to upgrade the accomplishments of even the most versatile. A favorite fruit of Panama is the mango that grows in various shapesround, long, narrow and kidney-shaped.

Sizes vary from a large one the size of a papaya to a small one about the size of a peach. Mangoes have a smooth

skin that ranges in color from all shades

of yellow to orange and red, with a pale

yellow pulp running into orange. The

taste has been referred to as a delicate combination of apricot and pineapple.

Few items in the food world equal the

exquisite flavor of a cool, ripe, sliced mango at the breakfast table. After eating your fill and baking pies

and chutney, try making something a

little different. Here is a recipe for a

delicious, moist, mango-nut bread that comes to Culinaiy Capers from Hawaii

through the courtesy of Emily Bolton,

president of the Balboa Women's Club,

and Mrs. Joseph Lockman of Panama,

who discovered the treat on a recent

trip to Hawaii. Mrs. Bolton added her

individual touch to the recipe by

soaking the raisins in brandy, while

Mrs. Lockman substituted brown sugar

for the white sugar called for in the

original recipe. The bread freezes beautifully and the Balboa Women's Club

has been busy baking and freezing it for the annual bazaar bake sale. This recipe

makes one large loaf and a small one.

GROSELLA SAUCE

For a cranberry-like sauce to be used

as a relish for meats and fowl, try the

fruit of the grosella tree, a small, yellowish fruit with a tiny seed and an acid

juicy pulp. The fact that it turns red when it is cooked makes it a perfect

substitute for cranberry sauce. Here is one way of making the grosella sauce. Clean and sort the grosellas and

place in a pan with a little water. Cook

until tender, being careful they do not

scorch. Put them through the ricer and

measure the pulp. For each cup of pulp, add one cup of sugar. Add a little water. Cook until the sugar is dissolved and then boil rapidly until thickened,

stirring constantly. Add a dash of powdered ginger. Put in sterilized glasses and seal. Also keeps fine in the

refrigerator for several months.

Panama's tree-ripened fruits give an

exquisite flavor to breads and preserves.

i

16 Fall 1972
(f^emlitidcent of

Qranamotker 3

Kitclten

For those who have the time and do

not mind getting their hands in dough,

here is a recipe for homemade bread

that is reminiscent of grandmother's

kitchen and the good fragrance of bread

baking. Since the art of breadmaking

requires skillful kneading and what may

be considered "hard work," you might

as well make three loaves as one will

siu'ely be eaten while it is still warm

from the oven.

CRUSTY HOMEMADE BREAD

2 tablespoons sugar 2 tablespoons lard or shortening

3/2 cups boiling water 3 teaspoons salt 2 packages dry yeast or 2 yeast cakes

1 cup lukewarm water 12 cups flour, sifted

In a large bowl, mix sugar, lard, salt, and boiling water. In a small bowl,

sprinkle the yeast in lukewarm water and let it set. When the boiling water

has cooled, stir up the yeast and add to the water mixture in the big bowl. Add

six cups of flour and mix with a wooden

spoon. Add three more cups of flour and mix. Then place the dough on a wooden board and add the remaining

floiir, kneading with the hands. Knead

until the dough no longer sticks to the board and cover with a towel. Let it

rise in a warm part of the kitchen until

it doubles in bulk. Knead again and let

it rise again. Divide the dough into three pieces and form into loaves. Place

in greased loaf pans. Let it rise again.

(About an hour should be enough.)

Bake in a preheated oven at 375° for about an hour or until the loaves are golden brown and sound hollow when

tapped. Turn each loaf on its side to

cool. Try it with some of the orange marmalade.

Three golden loaves of freshly baked bread and English type Bitter-Sweet Marmalade.

Boquete oranges.

The Panama Canal Review 17

fOm MV WPKS RECORDS

THE TOKYO BAY, THE LARGEST

container ship in the world, made Canal history in April 1972 when

she became the largest ship to transit

the Panama Canal. She also set a new

record for tolls, pa)ing $40,045.50. The ves'iel arrived at Cristobal the day before her scheduled transit and

because of her size waited outside the breakwater until dawn before she could

start up the Canal chaimel. She carried

four Canal pilots. The 950-foot container vessel was a snug fit in the Panama Canal locks with

her beam of nearly 106 feet. She was

tlie biggest thing to go through since 1939 when the 936-foot SS Bremen, a German passenger liner, made her only

transit.

It is possible that the Tokyo Bay, and

four similar vessels being built in Europe

for the European Far East trade, will be

the largest ever to go through the Canal. She and her sisters are to go on a regular schedule between European ports and the Far East and will pass through

the Canal on an average of one

each month. The five container ships owned by

the Overseas Containers Ltd., have a

seiv'ice speed of 26 knots and carry more than 2,000 containers each. They

are members of the Trio Alliance, a consortium of British, Cennan, and Japa- nese shipowners formed to promote container service between Europe and the Far East.

In addition to the Overseas Containers Ltd., other companies in the group

include the British Den Line with three

ships; Hapag Lloyd A.G. witli four

ships; Mitsui-O.S.K. Lines with two; and Nippon Yusen Kaisha with three. By coincidence, another member of the Trio Alliance transited the Canal northbound at the same time that the Tokyo Bay came south. She was the 882-foot Elbe Maru owned bv Mitsui- O.S.K. Lines of Japan making her maiden vo\'age from the Far East to Europe. The two \'essels met in Gamboa

Reach, The Elbe Maru is a sister ship

of the Rhine Maru which made her first transit in February- 1972 and until the

arrival of the Tokyo Bay held the rec- ord for paying the highest commercial

tolls.

A LONG WAY UP-Two Panama Canal

deckhands cbmb up the Jacob's ladder on

the side of the "Tokyo Bay," which is taller than a seven-ston- building. The giant

vessel requires 24 deckhan<ls. tvvo boatswains, and four Canal pilots for her trip through the Isthmian waterway.

With only slightly more than 2 feet to spare on eachcftt^d 25

feet on each end, the container ship "Tokyo Bay' "*es into Gatun Locks at the beginning of her transit of ihe.^v*!,^ The

world's largest and most powerful container ship bee^n • transit

at 4:30 a.m. and cleared Canal waters at about 4:ftQ r?'^t;»the west chamber, dwarfed by the "Tokyo Bay." is the Viticello Victory," which is 736 feet long anil has a beam d^ feet.

Two of the largest ships ever to use the Panama Canal, the 950-foot "Tokyo Bay, " and the 882-foot "Elbe Maru," pass at Gamboa Reach

on their maiden transits. The "Tokyo Bay" was making a south- bound transit and the "Elbe Maru" was going north. They are two

of the 17 giant ships being placed in service bv the Trio Alliance. Hundreds of Isthmian residents and Canal officials lined the banks

of the Canal on both sides of the Isthmus to see the two big ships.

The 855-foot-long "Rhine Maru," which for a short time held the record for paying the highest commercial Panama Canal tolls, passes Contractors" Hill on a recent northbound transit. The vessel held the tolls record until the arrival, in April 1972, of the "Tokyo

Bay." A member of the Trio group of container ships, the "Rhine Maru" travels between Europe and the Far East at a maximum

speed of 26 knots. The ship is owned by the Mitsui-O.S.K. Lines.
mOBILE

niASTERPIECES I

By Vic Canel

The artwork on Panama buses and '^chivas^''

is a colorful expression of individuality

FREE LOVE," "HOT PANTS,"

"Mr. Big Stuff," may sound like

titles for X-rated movies, but they're

not.These, along with many proverbs,

sayings and catch phrases, are names

given to their vehicles by imaginative

Panamanian bus operators as an ex- pression of their individuality. Usually

lettered on the rear of the bus in Old

English script with fancy flourishes and

capricious curlicues, the names are a part of the colorful decorations that makes Panama's buses unique.

The more elegantly decorated buses have brightly colored paintings inside and out, ball fringe on the windows,

religious figurines and fanciful touches which may include gaily dressed dolls or crocheted items. Perhaps as a tribute to Panamanian

womanhood—or to womanhood in gen- eral—a girl's name is often painted on

each of the side windows.

Naming buses is said to have started when the first self-propelled public conveyances made their appearances in the cities, during the second decade of the century. Those early vehicles,

called "chivas" (goats) were nothing more than sedans or pickup trucks with the after end removed and re- placed by a wood and tin body. They

accommodated sLx or eight passengers on lateral benches and the entrance was

at the rear. The name "chiva" is said to be

derived from the fact that the solid wheel vehicles jumped like mountain

goats when driven over Panama's cobblestone streets. Samuel Lewis, a retired Panamanian

journalist and publisher, recalls that among the early pioneers of public

transportation in Panama, circa 1911, was a Jamaican chiva operator who for reasons known onlv to himself, per- mitted no women aboard his rattletrap conveyance. He would drive down the

street soliciting passengers and shouting: "Men Only!" But apparently his male chauvinism was no obstacle to success. Mr. Lewis says he prospered

and soon bought a second chiva. Operators gave chivas pet names to distinguish them from those of their competitors. Their efforts at originalitv

produced some fairly spicy names and,

at one point, the mayor of Panama

ordered names removed from all public conveyances. The custom was later re\'ived however and extended to the

larger buses. Some of the first chivas were chaindrive Ford pickup trucks operated by

East Indians in turbans. Hindus were

the principal operators of bus transportation in Panama before World War IL

In the beginning, there was no or- ganized transportation and no large

fleet operators. But enterprising indi- viduals ran their own jitney service to take employees to work. Among the first was a Canal employee named Harry

Conley who had a small bus in which

he took coworkers from Ancon to the Administration Building and back during the 1920's. But a great majority of bus operators in the years that followed were East Indians. During World War II, when the number of workers in the Zone in- creased with the employment of additional personnel for defense projects,

concessions were granted to some 20

bus operators to provide service in the Canal Zone, including military reserva20 Fall 1972
A bigger than life-size

portrait of Franco Nero, star

of Italian Western movies,

peers menacingly at

tailgating motorists from

the rear of this Chorrera

bus. The actor also is featured in the interior

decorations which include a cartoon reproduction over

the mirror that says "Love is ... to travel with Franco Nero every day."

The fancy sign on the rearview mirror says

"I will always be for you."

tions. Most of the concessionaires and

their drivers were Hindus.

Gas and tire rationing and the unavailability of spare parts combined to make this service something less than

efficient. But it was not until 1952 that the services were consolidated and a single concession granted. The principal stockholder was an East Indian

merchant, Gursan Singh Gill, who

owned two oriental stores in Panama

City, and most of the drivers, of course, were Hindus.

Eventually, Gill bought out his five partners and sold out to the present

operators of the Canal Zone bus service. The 70 or 80 chivas still seen in Pan- ama are destined to disappear as the country streamlines its public transportation system and consolidates inde- pendent operators and cooperatives

into two principal organizations, a coBus paintings portray everything from comic strip characters to figures of Greek

mythology. This bus, named "Prometheus

in Chains," features a painting of the titan atop the Caucasus as well as a scene of Panama City's Balboa Avenue.

PPOHIBIDD

FUMAR

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Teodoro "Billy" Madrifian has specialized

in painting scenes on buses since the 1940's.

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The Panama Canal Review 21
operative known as the Cooperativa de

Transporte Metropolitano, and a cor- poration called Corporacion Unica de

Transporte.

The evolution from the eight-pas- senger chivas to the gaily painted 50- passenger buses of today was gradual.

Chivas made from cars and picknps were used until the early thirties. Then,

in 1934, a Colombian, the late Froilan Arce, got the idea of buying )2-ton chassis and motors and building the bodies locally. Those chivas remained in service

until after World War II. Then, in 1946,

the first "busitos" made their appearance. These are the small, 16-passenger

blue buses which at that time sold for $3,600 complete or $900 for the chassis and motor only. In 1960, local operators began to import 24- to 30-passenger buses and,

as the city grew and the demand for public transportation increased, 40- and 50-passenger buses costing $9,000-

$10,000, were placed in service. But throughout, the chiva has sur- vived and is patronized by faithful passengers who usually ride the same

one each day and know each other as well as members of a car pool.

Among the principal routes served by today's chivas—mostly of 1952 vint- age—is the one extending from downtown Panama along Balboa Avenue to the shanty town called Boca la Caja,

east of Paitilla Aii-port. The ride to the

end of the line costs 10 cents, but the

chiva will take you as far as Santo Tomas Hospital for only a nickel. One driver on this route, Juan Antonio Olivares, has been behind the wheel

of chivas for 32 years. In addition to the Chiva he drives on the Boca la Caja route, he owns a small busito. As

a small fleet owner—five buses or less- he belongs to an organization called El Tercer Grupo (the third group), made

up of small independents who are not

affiliated with either the cooperative or the corporation. So there are basically three types of buses in Panama—the venerable chivas, the "busitos" and the larger buses. Though the earlier chivas were painted

with bright and imaginative designs, most of the surviving ones are plain.

The greatest profusion of artwork is now found on the larger buses. There

are paintings of pastoral scenes, reli- gious motifs, well-known landmarks

such as the bridge that spans the en- trance to the Panama Canal, the ruins

of Old Panama, likenesses of film and

TV personalities and even comic strip characters. A random sampling of buses along busy Via Espana or Central Avenue during rush hour can be

an amusing pastime. One bus is named

"Marshal Dilo"—phonetically honoring

the character portrayed by James

Arness in the TV series "Gunsmoke."

Others are named "The Fugitive" and

"The Untouchable." Still others bear

phrases and sayings such as "Let's Forget the Past"; "God Forgives, Not I"; "Forgive Them Lord"; "It's All In The

Game"; and "What You See Is What

You Get." A few of the signs are in English.

Many of the buses have been lettered and decorated by Teodoro "Billy" Madriiian, a former employee of the Pan- ama Canal Dredging Division, who

began specializing in the art back in the forties. Billy says the custoi of painting

scenes on buses got stai.ed when one

bus operator conceived the idea and it was later noted that tourists were

stopping to photograph his bus. The

idea caught on quickly and soon operators were competing for originality.

As they did, the decorations became

more and more elaborate. The cost of bus decorations' varies according to how elaborate they are. A simple scene on the back of the bus

may cost anywhere from $15 to $25.

A complete job, with paintings inside and out, lettering of names, phrases

and girls' names in the windows can

cost up to $120.

Many Panama bus riders are likely

to view with nostalgia the passing of

this charming custom as the Panama

Government prepares to modernize its public transportation system with shiny new buses which have large picture

windows, but, alas, no expressions of

individuality.

Some "chivas" do double duty. Those that come from

the interior carrying produce, passengers and chickens are popularly called "Chivas Gallineras" (Chicken Chivas).

'•••tj& ^^^"^

Paintings of Panama's famous flat arch bridge and its historic cathedral along with a couple in typical dress help to publicize some of the

country's tourist attractions.

22 Fall 1972
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY-IT

goes further in South America,

so they say. But those preoccupied U.S.

tourists, counting on their fingers as they wander from shop to shop in Santiago, Rio, or Buenos Aires, are probably uncertain just how far it is going

for they are bewildered at trying to figure out the local exchange rate. One tourist discovered that he was

getting excellent service from almost everyone after he tipped a bellhop the equivalent of $6 for opening the windows.

It works the other way too. Try giving

a tip which amounts to several U.S.

cents. Money exchange is one of the hazards of modem air travel. Visitors go from one country to another so quickly

that there is no time to obtain coin of the realm let alone figure out its value

in relation to the U.S. dollar.

It gives a traveler a desolate feeling

to find he has purchased something, or

is about to purchase something, only to discover that the money in his purse

has no more value than wampum.

Of course this happens only in small

shops, en route from an airport, or di- rectly after arriving at a hotel when the

hall porter or a bellboy stands around

expectantly.

A Financial Wizard

In most hotels in South America, the

traveler can get his money exchanged

at the hotel desk. The question of how

much to tip comes next and unless one

is a financial wizard, there seems to be no way to figure out the problem

quickly.

There are several dandy little books

put out by banks and tourist agencies

to help the hapless traveler on money

matters. But none of them can do much

for the person who tries to add up a dinner bill which includes a cover

charge, a sales tax, a percentage for tips, and sometimes a donation to the local Red Cross. Perhaps the most discouraged travelers are those who return after a shopping expedition and find that they have

The Panama Canal Review 23

on (?) a day

paid more for their purchases than they

would have if they had obtained the same items in a luxury store in New

York. This can happen easily when one

is not only figuring the exchange rate but also sorting out "old and new

money" and determining the different values of each. In Argentina and Brazil, although new currency was issued several years

ago, old bills and coins, as well as the new, are in circulation. And shopkeepers sometimes quote prices in the

old currency. The Argentines and Brazilians seem

to accept it all as a matter of course, but for the new arrival it boggles the mind, especially if one is not only

counting Brazilian cruzeiros but trying

to figure out the difference between

Portuguese and Spanish.

Money Exchanges

In most countries of South America

there are regulations that money can be changed only at the official rate and at government authorized money

exchanges. But a tourist with U.S. dollars to convert may find himself surrounded with

self appointed money changers who

come in the form of maids, bellboys and

even hotel clerks who will come to the hotel room, knock discreetly and

whisper the latest exchange rate on the black market. In one country, standing

outside most banks and hotels are eager

looking young men carrying brief cases, who are not businessmen but "unofficial" money changers who ask "cambio?" in a discreet tone as anyone with

a camera around his neck approaches.

A Burglar

After the tour is over, there is still another money problem for the tourist. What to do with all those small bills and

coins that manage to hide in the bottom

of pocketbooks. The problem was solved

for one tourist when a burglar entered her hotel room, snatched up the accumulation and disappeared out the window.

The police recovered the loot and

solemnly read off the list of currency:
30 Peruvian soles; 15 Ecuadorean sucres; 20 Chilean escudos; 10 Para- guayan guaranies; 4 Brazilian cruzeiros; 5 Argentinian pesos; and 4 Italian lire (she had traveled South on an Italian ship)

.

Sightseeing South American style is

fun. One only has to relax and enjoy it. TraiRc in most of the cities has to be

experienced to be believed. A taxi ride

is a wild experience and there is a fleet of Volkswagen taxis in Rio that travels

at 120 kilometers an hour whose drivers could qualify for the Indianapolis

Speedway.

According to the newspapers there

are frequent accidents, but most res- idents seem to emerge unscathed after a wild ride through the center of the

city with every other vehicle jockeying

for position on a three-lane throughway.

Most taxi drivers speak English, or a reasonable facsimile of the language,

and like cab drivers everywhere they

are delighted to point out interesting landmarks. They also like to expound

on local politics and their philosophy of

life. Most everyone seems to have an

uncle in New York, Miami, or Los

Angeles through whom they have accu- mulated a vast store of information

about the United States. Because of the age and size of many

of the taxis in some South American

cities, the number of passengers per taxi

is limited strictly by law. Woe unto

those who think they can get a party of

six into a five-passenger car. The taxi driver will usually refuse to budge.

However, there was at least one case where the driver was persuaded to take a whole group when one member of the party agreed to lie on the floor of the

car.

Oversize Veal Cutlet

Speaking of the floor of the car, in Chile, some of the drivers fill the floor of the passenger compartment with

sawdust on rainy days to soak up the

excess water that collects. It sounds like a good idea but it is rather disconcerting

to discover that the last 3 or 4 inches of one's trousers are coated with a layer

of the fine sawdust or that the jacket

you accidentally dropped on the floor resembles an oversize breaded veal

cutlet. Rates vary according to the city but

they also may change from one month

to the next. In this case, the taxi driver

will take the amount registered on the

meter plus an additional amount, which

he apparently figures out on a slide rule and then adds a percentage for a tip

provided by law. ( In one city, it was a matter of reading the meter and then doubling it. ) He won't refuse an additional tip but then he won't stand around with his hand out either. In most cases, he is a polite fellow even when faced with a group of confused

and excited visitors who aren't quite sm-e where they are going or occasionally even what city they are in (if they

are on the "Around South America

Quickie Tour" ) . Rio and Buenos Aires seem to be confused most frequendy as demonstrated by one lady, who to the consternation of the taxi driver, asked

him what the Brazilian embassy was

doing in Rio as he drove through Buenos Aires pointing out the sites of

interest. Rides into the country are in comparison, pretty tame affairs. During the day the driver jogs along at an even pace and is fairly good at repairing a

tire or making an ailing engine regain

its health. Many motorists either are good mechanics or they have access to good mechanics as a matter of necessity since there are a large number of old

cars on the road. In Uruguay there are

early Model "T" Fords which qualify

as classic cars in the United States.

It is at night that the automobile

drivers of South America come into

24 Fall 1972
their own and the North American

visitors retire to the ranks reserved for the children and those not fleet of foot. In most places, there seems to be a law that the headlights on a car are

illegal and that only dims or parking

lights are to be used even on the open

highways. This gives most visitors the

feeling that they are groping through

a London fog with a candle but the

local citizens have the art of night

driving down to a fine point. They bolt along the country highways at a nonnal

daylight pace and turn on their lights

only when their radar wams them that a similar darkened vehicle is approaching in the other direction. This proce- dure blinds both drivers but they pass with room to spare and continue on in darkness.

Hundreds of Fireflies

In many cities, automobiles travel with dim lights. Drivers turn on the

brights only at street comers or when

they apparently want to get the lay of the land. It gives an eerie impression

from a high building at night with the

lights of the moving vehicles blinking

off and on like hundreds of restless

fireflies. Most visitors making either a lei- surely tour or a fast swing by air through

the hospitable lands to the south will compare notes and agree that travel is indeed broadening. Some tourists merely groan and declare they are eating

their way through South America.

Whether travel is by ship or plane,

there is some kind of a conspiracy to keep the passenger fat, dumb, and

happy while he is aboard. Unless one

boards a plane in the middle of the

night, food comes at regular intervals which get closer if one passes a time

zone. Food may be anything from a

five-course meal to a light snack of soup and several kinds of three-layer

sandwiches—with something sweet, of

course.

"Medias Lunas"

After leaving the plane or ship, the

toiirist is introduced to the delightful South American habit of eating five or six times a day. The way South

Americans manage to pack five meals

into a day is easy. They are spaced

throughout the day. After breakfast,

which often includes tasty crusty crois- sants in Argentina, which they whimsically call "medias lunas" or half moons; a pre-Iunch snack at 11 a.m.; lunch at 2 p.m.; tea at 5; then comes

dinner up to midnight. And anyone who

Few visitors leave Paraguay without a sample of the famous nanduti or spiderweb lace. It is made only by the women

and some items of intricate design take up to 5 years to complete.

manages on less than three courses at lunch, a full-course high tea, and a five- course dinner is a piker.

Lunch and dinner are accompanied

by two or three kinds of wine and may

be preceded bv cocktails and followed by liqueurs. Because of the high cost

of imported gin or whisky, cocktails usually are the delightful pisco sours which taste innocuous but pack a wallop

as one group of visitors found to their surprise. Pisco is a grape brandy, best known in Peru, although it is sei-ved in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay.

Meat has ti-aditionally been a staple

diet in Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay—

and by meat, they mean beef or beefsteak. At present there are certain meatless days, weeks, or as in Uruguay 6

meatless months, which means that during these periods beef is not served

in restaurants nor can it be purchased

in the public markets. Instead, the

Popular with tourists shopping in Peru are Uama and alpaca rugs, both the all white and the brown and white styles, which come in a variety of designs and shapes.

visitor is offered a menu which lists such things as lamb, chicken, a wide

variety of seafood, and a dozen or so other delicious dishes guaranteed to make one forget the beef. South Americans consider these meatless days a hardship and it may be for those who have become accustomed to a daily diet of beef but visitors are happy with the substitutes and the

variety of delicious ways they are prepared.

The Argentine's well-known love of beef extends to almost eveiy part of the cow and it may come as a shock to dis- cover exactly what that delicious litde tidbit you nibbled with vour drink really

is. Those at all squeamish might be well advised to skip reading the English

translation if there is one, because the language there appears to have been

taken from a veterinarian's anatomy

textbook.

Meatless Days

If it is not a meatless day, one way

to tell when one has arrived in a South

American beef eating country, without

looking at the road signs is to stand in the main plaza and sniff. The smell of

grilled beef fills the air as every res- ident, whether he is roasting his lunch on an open air fire or eating in a roadside restaurant, has his noon meal. The

same thing happens at night and it may

in the morning, if anyone gets up early

enough to find out. But most South

Americans are continental breakfast

eaters unless they have had a close association with the British, whose

influence is still felt over the land. Up There

The French also have left their in- fluence on the cooking of South America and any visitor who thinks that he

can leave the groaning board with a cup

of black coffee is mistaken. Dessert or

"postre" is likely to come in the form

of French pastry or ice cream tortes loaded with fresh whipped cream—none

of that synthetic dietetic stuff. Most

tourists make a mental note to go on a

diet when they get home and proceed

to dig in. With such gustatory adventures and

a very favorable rate of exchange awaiting them in South America, more and more Isthmian residents are heading

that way and finding it fun, while on

vacation, instead of saying "down there

in the Canal Zone," to be able to say "up there in the Canal Zone."

E. R. and W. F.

The Panama Canal Review 25
Medical Sleuths

Canal Zone College in joint program with

Gorgas Hospital trains medical technologists

to fill growing needs of modem medicine.

Anna A. Haug, of David, is training to become a medical technologist. Here she does an

analytical test to find the hydrogen-ion concentration of an unknown

in chemistry class at Canal Zone College.

WHILE AN ACCIDENT Victim lies in critical condition in Gorgas Hospital's emergency room,

Cristina Quiros Bunyea swiftly analyzes

a blood sample to determine the type so

that the blood transfusion that may save

the man's life can be administered

immediately.

Since this is an emergency, she puts

this particular job on her top priority

list. But across the hall, Angela Scott and Diovelis Diaz can work with less urgency. While one tests blood serum

for antibodies, the other grows and

identifies bacteria taken from a patient's

throat. These top-level medical laboratory

workers and their colleagues also analyze chemical composition of body

fluids and tissues, look for parasites,

examine urine specimens, run tests on

toxic substances and perform numerous

chemical, microscopic, bacteriological ' and other medical tests to help physicians diagnose and treat disease. They are medical technologists, members of one of the newest and fastest growing associated medical professions

indispensable in the practice of modem

medicine. These medical sleuths work

behind the scenes and have something

to do with just about every patient who

enters and leaves a hospital. Their services to humanity are available 24 hours

a day, 365 days a year. Excellent medical resources in the Canal Zone are available to students planning a career in medical technolo- .

gy. For the past several years. Canal

Zone College and the Gorgas Hospital

School of Medical Technology have

offered a joint program in the field. The

4-year program has been approved by

the Middle States Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools and the . Governor of the Canal Zone, giving the

college authority to grant the bachelor

of science in medical technology degree.

It was awarded for the first time in May

1970. SLx bachelor of science in medical

technologv degrees were conferred the

following year and eight medical technologists received their degrees last May.

The training program consists of 3 . years of studies at Canal Zone College

mainly in chemistry and biology, and a fourth year of internship at one of the 400 approved schools of medical tech- nology in the Canal Zone, the United

States, or Puerto Rico. The training is rigorous and demanding and due to the . advanced scientific nature of the studies, a student at the end of 3 or 4 years

is well prepared for professional train26 Fall 1972
At a Coulter Counter in the Hematology section of the Gorgas

Hospital Laboratory Service, Diovelis Diaz is screening for blood diseases such as anemia and leukemia. Miss Diaz is a May graduate of the Canal Zone College-Gorgas Hospital Medical

Technology 4-year program.

At Gorgas Hospital, Ignacio Scope, who received a

bachelor of science degree in medical technology last May,

works on an analysis which gives the results of six different tests at 1-minute intervals—glucose, creatinine, potassium, sodium, carbon dioxide, and chloride, A newer and more sophisticated machine at the

hospital does 12 tests.

ing in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy,

optometry, nursing, veterinary science,

chemistry and biology.

In addition to the general education

requirements in English, social science,

humanities, science, mathematics, and

physical education, medical technology

students are required to take zoology,

anatomy, microbiology, histology and

parasitology, in the biological field. In

the physical sciences, they are rec[uired

to complete laboratory and lecture courses in general chemistry, organic

chemistry, qualitative analysis, quantitative analysis and general physics.

Ehiring the fourth vear of internship, the student completes courses in hematology, clinical chemistry, clinical bacteriology, clinical parasitology, serology, blood bank, urinalysis, histopathology,

mvcologv and clinical microscopy. At

Gorgas, he receives 52 weeks of training, rotating in the different depart- ments of the hospital's Laboratory

Service. The majority of candidates from

Canal Zone College have interned at Gorgas, but since the number of qualiA recent graduate of the Canal Zone College-Gorgas Hospital School of Medical

Technology 4-year program, Ena Archibold de Mendiz^bal,

differentiates white blood oelk.

The Panama Canal Review 27
With increased emphasis on

research in medicine and in industry

the demand for qualified technicians far exceeds

the supply

Bed candidates exceeds the capacity of Gorgas, several have gone to approved

hospital schools in the United States. Most of the medical technologists employed at Gorgas Hospital have been

trained under the joint Canal Zone

College-Gorgas Hospital School of Medical Technology Program.

Following successful completion of the internship year, they are eligible to

register for the national board examination administered by the American

Society of Clinical Pathologists. Upon

successful completion of the examination, they are ready for employment as registered medical technologists.

Roberto Beverly, left, and Annie Fifer

are distilling water during a

chemistry laboratory class at Canal

Zone College.

Canal Zone College has formal agree- ments with Tampa General Hospital;

Baptist Memorial Hospital, Jacksonville, Fla.; University of Puerto Rico

Medical School; Berkshire Medical

Center, Pittsfield, Mass.; Veterans Administration Hospital, and Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, Fla. Candidates are also eligible to apply to any of the other approved schools. The cost of training to the student is modest. Tuition is paid for only the first 3 years and the fourth year of study is free of charge. Most of the schools of medical technology in which Canal Zone College candidates have been

accepted pay the student a small sti- pend. Gorgas Hospital is currently pro- viding each student with a stipend of $1,300 per year and Tampa General

Hospital is paying $1,620 a year. There

are no fees or charges of any kind at these two institutions. Some of the

schools provide room and board and a few have additional fringe benefits. During the current year, medical

technology has been selected as the major field of study by 70 students attending Canal Zone College. High

school preparation for medical tech- nology majors should include at least 3 years of mathematics and 2 years of

science.

structor for the first year course on the

introduction to medical technology.

Medical technology as a profession is said to have originated in 1896 at Johns

Hopkins University in Baltimore but it was not until World War I that medical

laboratory science began to be recog- nized as a specialty. Today, it is a highly

sophisticated profession, invaluable to health specialists. Due to population

A close working relationship exists between the Canal Zone College science

faculty and the Gorgas Hospital lab- oratory staff. Honorary faculty rank was

confened this year on Dr. Gordon

Flake, Dr. Carolina White and Dr. Jerry

L. Hanis, three Gorgas doctors who

serve as instructors of the fourth-year

classes and supei-vise the laboratory

work of the intern students. DeWitt

Myers, chairman of the science department of the Canal Zone College, is the

educational advisor to the Gorgas Hospital laboratory staff. The college has a medical technology advisory committee

composed of Dr. Harris Meyers, Dean

Glen E. Mui-phy and Norman Altenberg, college registrar. Ricardo Vallarino, supervisory medical technologist

at Gorgas Hospital, is the college ingrowth and the increasing complexity of medical science, the demand for medical technologists is constantly expanding. More and more people are using

hospitals, laboratory tests are routine in physical checkups, and more hospitals are being built. Medical technologists

are needed also in industrial medical

laboratories, in medical research pro- grams, and other areas of development

and research. The ever increasing emphasis on research in medicine and in- dustry offers the medical technologist

unlimited opportunities for promotion

to supervisory and chief technologist

positions. As the demand for qualified technicians far exceeds the supply, the outlook for employment opportunities is bright indeed. F. H.

28 Fall 1972
A DIFFERENT WAY

by Sott Jfrie —

THE TWIST MAY BE DEAD AS

a dance, but its memon- lives on

in Sixaola, Costa Rica. That's the nickname for a gasolinepowered conveyance that runs on a narrow gauge railroad between this tiny

town on the Panama border and Fields, Costa Rica, some 20 miles away. And

if \ou ever ride it or watch it sway as

it rumbles down the track, you'll know

how it got its name. Few Canal Zone or Panama City

residents enter Costa Rica at that point.

Most fly directly to San Jose or take the Pan-American Highway on the Pacific side of the country. But, if you like beautiful scenery and the adventures of traveling off the beaten path, take a

train to San Jose. The entire trip cannot be made bv

rail, but a good portion of it can. In

fact, it combines air, bus, rail and water

transportation, which makes the ad- venture even more interesting. And it can be done over a long weekend, if you fly back.

Shifting of holidays to Mondays will provide Panama Canal employees with no less than eight 3-day weekends in 1973 and a good opportunity to visit many of the interesting spots that lie within easy reach. The charming Costa Rican capital,

with its pleasant springlike weather,

has alwa\s been a favorite destination

for Isthmian residents on brief holi- da\ s. But bv the circuitous route, getting there is half the fun. The highlight of the trip is a spectacular, 6-hour train trip from Puerto Limon, Costa Rica's busy Atlantic seaport, up to San Jose.

Bill Hall and Al Jenkins, of the Comptrollers Office, made the trip last spring. Though thev took 4 days, it can be completed within a 3-dav weekend, as was done a few weeks later b\' a Canal Zone couple.

HaU and Jenkins started their trip at 7 a.m. with a COPA flight from Tocu- men International Aii^port that took them first to the island capital of Bocas

del Toro Province and, after a brief stop, on to Changuinola. During the hour

and a quarter flight from Panama to Bocas, COPA serves the Panamanian

The Panama Canal Review 29

version of a continental breakfastcoffee and a tasty empanada.

The low-level flight from Bocas to Changuinola offers a view of the seemingly endless orderly rows of ba- nana trees and the railroad bridge over

the Changuinola River.

If you are lucky, the flight to Changuinola will get \ou there in time to catch the passenger train that leaves each morning at 9 a.m. for the 8-mile run to Guabito, on the Costa Rican

border. If vou miss the train, as usuallv happens, a taxi will take you there for $5 over a dirt road that parallels the

tracks, though not al\va\'s on the same

side. Hall and Jenkins had allotted one day for visiting the banana plantations. They o\'ernighted at the Changuinola Hotel which is just a short walk

from the airport. The couple who made

the trip later missed the train by about

•5 minutes, but beat it to Guabito in a cab. Formalities for exiting Panama and

entering Costa Rica at this point are not at all complicated. You show Pan- amanian officials your Canal Zone exit permit, then walk a narrow pedestrian

plank across the railroad bridge that spans the Sixaola River, which marks

the boundary betvveen the two countries. At Sixaola vou check in with

Costa Rican immigration authorities. A simple tourist card or a visa is the onh' document required.

"The Twist" is a vellow truck with

flanged wheels which pulls a small passenger coach and an open freight

wagon along the narrow gauge track. It runs on a rather erratic schedule which

bears little relationship to the official looking timetable posted in the immigration office. Speculation on arrival and departure times seems to be a popular local pastime. When the Canal

Zone couple arrived in Sixaola thev

took note of the posted timetable and

sat down to wait for the 10:30 a.m. departure. When the scheduled time

had come and gone, thev were told that "The Twist" had had some mechanical trouble the day before and

would be delayed for an indefinite period. Shortly after noon a man walked

up to them and gravely volunteered

m
If you fire of waiting for "The Twist" and opt for an air taxi flight from Sixaola to Limon, you are taken to the airfield in a burro-powered railcar.

At Sixaola, Costa Rica, just across the Panama border, you take "The Twist" for the 20-mile rail trip to Fields.

Expert boatmen pole passengers

across the Estrella River to Penhurst, Costa Rica, to board the

train to Puerto Limon.

food order as soon as possible, since a

full "Twist-load" of hungry passengers

frequently is more than the restaurant can handle. The nejct leg of the trip, from Fields

to the banks of the Estrella River, is usually made in a fairly comfortable

bus. The couple who followed Hall and

Jenkins made the 25-mile trip in a stake body truck, which perhaps offered an even better view of rich tropical jungle scenery as it lumbered along the hilly,

dirt road. Roughly midway, at Cahuita,

there is a brief rest stop with just about

enough time to buy a soft drink at the

general store and take a short walk

down one of the town's grass-covered

streets, leading down to a beautiful beach. Fare for this leg of the trip, whether by bus or truck, is 7 colones, or about 90 cents. When passengers alight at the edge

of the Estrella River, a horde of small boys swarms around them vying for the right to carry their luggage while

the adult cayuco operators beckon them

toward their dugouts. It costs only 1 colon, or 13 cents to cross the river into Penhurst.

If the food ran out before vou got your order in back at Fields you'll

probably be ready to try the candle-lit restaurant across from the Penhurst

railroad station before train time. The train for Limon leaves at 7:30

p.m. The trip takes 3 hours and costs 3 colones. There is one kerosene-lit passenger coach and a number of

freight cars loaded mostly vidth cacao. By the time the train airives in Puerto Limon, one is ready to bed down

for the night. There is a choice of three moderately priced hotels within walking distance of the railroad station— the Caribe, the Park, and the Lincoln,

all about equal in quality and price. Rates run between $3 and $4 per

person. The Caribe and the Park should

by rights switch names, for the Caribe

overlooks the park and the Park overlooks the Caribbean.

Puerto Limon bears a striking like- ness to Colon or to practically any port

city in Central America, for that matter.

If you decide to tarry there, there are

a few interesting sights. Among the

favorite pastimes for visitors is to go to the teeming piers and watch the load- ing and unloading of ships. There is a

well-kept park with v/alks shaded by

West Indian laurel trees. A half hour

away by bus is the Balneario Portete, where there is a small bathing beach

and restaurant. The road to Portete

follows the coast and offers some

beautiful scenery.

But whatever you do, or however

long you stay in Limon, be sure to buy

your ticket for the train to Costa Rica

as far in advance as possible. Seats are

limited. The best train to San Jose is the Pacheco, which leaves (prompdy)

at 6:10 a.m. Get to the station early

and sit on the left side to enjoy the spectacular view. The fare is $2.10 and for

a few extra colones you can reserve a

seat in the "carro salon." The scenery changes rapidly as you

travel toward San Jose. First you are going through cacao country. Early in the journey you come to a junction

called La Junta, where a spur line called Linea Vieja (Old Line) comes in from

the left. This was originally intended

to go all the way to San Jose, but the route was changed when it was found

it was impossible to circle around the west side of the volcanoes into the central plateau. But the spur proved useful anyway and has been in operation ever since. Here you will see many

people making connection with the main line. During most of the trip, the railroad follows the raging Reventazon River

as it courses between cliffs alive with

jungle growth.

En route, you will see two volcanoes,

Turrialba and famed Irazii. And the scenery gets more and more spectacular

as the train climbs higher. In the 30-mile stretch from the city of Turrial- ba to Cartago, just 12 miles out of San

Jose, you climb 3,000 feet. The air is crisp and filled with the sweet scent

of pines.

You arrive in San Jose shortly after noon, just in time for lunch. And you

will probably be ready to eat unless you were tempted to buy some of the empanadas, hard-boiled eggs, ice cream and other offerings hawked by small boys at each of the train stops. On the hour-long flight back to Pan- ama one might look back on the long

overland trip with the satisfaction of having experienced an adventure that the ordinary tourist does not enjoy.

Once you have made the trip, you

probably will never make it again, but

chances are you'U never regret having

made it.

Those who have made the trip de- scribed in this article recommend that you take along a book or magazine to read, perhaps a package of cookies to nibble on, a canteen of drinking water, and, to better endure the long periods on wooden seats, an inflatable cushion.

30 Fall 1972
Cruise

Ships

WINTER AND SUMMER CRUISes are becoming more popular than ever as travelers discover the

jo\s of living at sea under the same

luxurious conditions that they would

find at a first-class hotel with such things

as sightseeing tours, gourmet meals, orchestras, entertainment, and superb

service throvm in for good measure.

In addition, many cruises can be

combined with air or rail transportation

for a more varied vacation. Tourists now can travel from Europe by air and

return b\- ship or go from the U.S. east coast bv train to California and catch a ship that will take them back to the

east coast via coastal ports and the Caribbean Islands. Manv of these hand- some cruise ships make regular trips

through the Canal and often stop long

enough to let their passengers enjoy the many interesting sights on the Isthmus.

The P & O Line luxury liner "Canberra" has been passing through the Canal since 1963. She is the biggest passenger liner to be built in England since the "Queen Elizabeth" and

is one of the largest commercial liners to use the Canal. She is passing through Miraflores Locks with a few of her 1,000 passengers on top deck watching operations. While transiting the Canal, luncheon is served on deck and the P & O menu includes everything from kangaroo tail soup and cumquats to Halibut Cutlet Baron Brisse and Cromesques Toulousaine.

New in looks and new in design was the passenger liner "Southern Cross" when she made her first visit to Canal waters in April 1955. Built in Belfast, Northern Ire- land, primarily for low-cost tiavei, she has accommodations for 1,600 passengers.

A sleek addition to the list of cruise ships passing through the Canal is the German vessel 'Hamburg' which was completed in 1968 in Germany. The vessel, which is the fourth German ship to carry the name Hamburg since the beginning of the century, makes a southbound transit while the west lane at Miraflores Locks is out of service for overhauL Known for the amoimt of space set aside for both public and private rooms, she has 319 spacious cabins including 20 deluxe apartments which accommodate 600 passengers.

The Panama Canal Review 31
The Holland America cruise liner "Rotterdam" enters the Panama Canal from the Pacific entrance passing under the bridge that crosses the Canal at Balboa. The big ship is escorted by two tugs and usually docks at Balboa before continuing on her cruise schedule. The

"Rotterdam" is a regular visitor to the Canal dvu-ing the winter cruise season. She has accommodations for 1,.369 passengers.

<
PRINCIPAL COMMODITIES SHIPPED THROUGH THE CANAL

(All cargo figures in long tons)

Pacific to Adantic

Commodity 1972 Manufactures of iron and steel 7,670,401

Ores, various 4,248,594 Boards and planks 4,158,423

Sugar 3,413,574 Petroleum and products 2,516,877

Fishmeal 1,873,132

Food in refrigeration (excluding bananas) 1,393,292

Metals, various 1,385,442

Plywood and veneers 1,303,417

Pulpwood 1,224,547 Petroleum coke 1,202,891 Bananas 1,133,869

Autos, trucks, accessories and parts 849,408

Sulfur 675,864

Paper and paper products 614,945

Allothers 12,917,495

Total 46,582,171

Fiscal Year
CANAL CONfVIERCIAL TRAFFIC
Canat tit4t(na

THE ROARING 20's WERE OFF

to a good start in the Canal Zone

50 years ago. The Panama Canal had

been in operation nearly 10 \ears and

World War I, with the resulting difficulties for Canal traffic, was over. Ships were beginning to use the Canal on a peacetime basis and some of the larger passenger and cargo ships made transits. One of the first was the steamer Empress of Australia owned by the Canadi- an Pacific Railroad, which arrived at the Canal July 1, 1922, from Hamburg and

made the transit July 6 after receiving

repairs at the Cristobal shops. She was

conspicuous in Canal waters because of her size, according to the Canal Record, and was one of the largest ships to ha\'e made the transit up to that time. She was 590 feet long with a 75-foot beam and a registered gross tonnage of 21,447 tons. The Empress was built in Germany as the Tirpitz and was on her

way to enter the transpacific service. A high record for tons of cargo car- ried through the Canal was set in July

1922 by the steamer Marore of the Ore

Steamship Corp. She made the transit July 19 with 20,000 tons of iron ore bound from Cruz Grande, Chile, to New

York. The previous record was set by a

sister ship, the Bethore, making the

transit in May with 19,000 tons of ore. The Tivoli Hotel, center of the social scene in the Canal Zone, was condemned

as a firetrap by the Canal Zone Fire Division. To eliminate this hazard, auto- matic sprinklers were installed throughout the hotel by a New York firm at a reported cost of $27,688.40.

Some people on the Isthmus were

worried about flaming youth in 1922. The Star and Herald published a fea- ture story saying that flappers were not popular in the Canal Zone. "Bobbed

haired girls who powder their knees

must play second fiddle to their more

conservative sisters who wear their hair long and don't roll their stockings," the paper said.

The Panama Canal Review 35

25 Years Ago

.\N OUTBREAK OF INFANTILE

paralysis in Panama and the Canal Zone

had health authorities worried both on

the Isthmus and in Washington, D.C. 25 )ears ago. Officials of the U.S. Public

Health Ser\'ice and other agencies ob- served the epidemic closely and assured

local authorities that they stood ready

to do evePi'thing in their power to limit the spread of the disease. Meanwhile it was announced in the

local newspapers that a $1 million obstetrical building would be built for Gorgas Hospital as part of a long-range

plan for improvement of medical facilities at this Canal Zone institution. Funds

for the building were to be provided in an appropriation bill signed in August

1947 by President Truman.

A steady employment level for the

ne.xt 2 years, followed bv an increase in the number of Panama Canal employees, was predicted in 1947 by Canal personnel officials. The prediction was based

on the fact that the Canal was approaching normal peacetime operations for the

first time since 1939 and on the belief that Congress would approve some type

of construction for enlargement of Canal

facilities. The Canal's peak employment

was reached in 1942 when construction on the third locks was in progi-ess.

10 Years Ago

THE CANAL ZONE GUIDE SERVice, an elite corps of multilingual men

and women who lecture aboard ships

and escort visitors to the locks, Gaillard Cut, and other points of interest in the Canal Zone, was organized 10 years ago. Taking a personal interest in providing

information for tourists and local res- idents on the engineering and natural wonders of the Canal Zone, former Gov. Robert J. Fleming, Jr. was most instru- mental in the formation of the service which has been popular from the start. During the first fiscal year, 84,688

visitors took a look at the locks installa- tions under the supervision of the Canal

Zone Guide Senice. By 1971, the

millionth person had visited the locks since the inauguration of the service with more than 100,000 touring the

locks each year. These figures do not

include the hundreds of persons who

took advantage of the Guide Service for tours to other points of interest. The program also included the instal- lation of attractive "Center of Interest" signs in both English and Spanish along

the sti-eets and highways of the Canal

Zone. Similar signs were erected to mark

recreation sites.

SS "Empress of .Australia" in south end of Gaillard Cut near Paraiso. Equipment, at right, belonged to the Panama Canal Dredging Division, which was based at Paraiso before the

construction of new headquarters in Gamboa.
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