Fast Facts
- Named for: Possibly “butterflies” or “bannaba”=distant place or “place of many fish,” both in indigenous tongue.
- Capital: Panama City
- Long/Lat: 8.6 N/79.3 W, only 6 hours or 3000 miles SE of Castro Valley. Very close to the equator.
- Population: 4.3 million, 65 Castro Valleys
- Size: 29,000 sq mi, or 1600 Castro Valleys
- Avg temp in April: 90 F/32 C (humidity 85%/ CV usually around 70%)
- Median household income: $7,800
- Ethnicity: 65% mestizo (mixed), 12% indigenous, 10% Black, 7% white.
- Main industries: Trade, commerce, shrimp, copper, hydropower
Sometimes there is serendipity; the stars align. Things can be helped along by choice, but happy accidents may begin the process. Today is the day to write a post on “P” and today, as it happens, we are going through the Panama Canal. The A to Z challenge meets the travel blogs! Due to this exciting circumstance, I will write two posts. Today, I will cover the country of Panama in the same fashion as before, A through O. Tomorrow we will talk about the reason for the trip: going through the Canal.
The Most Ancient History of Panama
Today, let’s focus on early pre-Canal history. Really early, 200 million years ago: Pangaea.
If long-lived intelligent beings were to look through a telescope at this part of Earth, they might ask, Can’t they make up their minds? First, it’s all land, then it’s all sea, then land, then sea, then land… In other words: Pangaea, the Central American Seaway (CAS), the isthmus, the canal, then all the bridges. Humans want all the ways to go, sometimes through the water and sometimes on the roads.
Continue reading “P is for Panama”