What happened?

When Manuel Noriega was running the show in Panama this was a Social Club for his top commanders. You can see it was severely damaged during the US invasion that took place in 1989. Since then it has been sold several times to private investors and the hope was that it would be turned into a hotel. Recently, it appeared in one of the James Bond films - Quantum of Solace - in the evening party scene. it is also used by the kids as a diving platform and often they also skate there. Even though it is very neglected it has been used for fashion shows, concerts and for filming of many commercials.

So what is missing? What happened? You can easily spot the before and after as the tree shows that it is definitely as big as it looks.

Many times the old buildings (especially when we get a lot of rain and wind) start coming apart. The tree and part of the building collapsed! The only problem with that collapse is that all the debris has blocked access to the beach. Right now this site is under renovation and reconstruction to become a luxury hotel. Perhaps that idea will finally come to pass.

El Valle de Anton

El Valle de Anton is the largest continually inhabited volcanic crater in the World. It's nestled in the second largest volcano (extinct) in the world. A five by three mile crater created when a volcano blew its top off five million years ago. The result was a lovely steep valley surrounded by jagged mountain peaks and rich volcanic soil that gives way to flowers and green forest as a result - ideal for exploring ancient (11,000 years old) historic paths. The local community is mainly descendant of the Guaymi Indian Tribe.

A major draw to El Valle is the market held every Sunday morning in a market hall on the main road. You can buy directly from the Indian artisans themselves. Apart from vegetables, fruit, plants and flowers you can buy handicrafts such as wooden bowls, paintings on wood, hammocks, molas, baskets and ceramics.

There is no real center to the town but most tourists like to go and take a look at the square trees, and golden frogs which can be found on the grounds of the Hotel El Campestre. Another place to see golden frogs is at El Nispero, a small zoo with a wide selection of native animals and birds. The are streams and the backdrop of the hills is very dramatic. The zoo is another great location to see the Golden Frog with black spots that lives only in this region and is in danger of extinction.

Another popular activity is the canopy zipline ride where you can whiz through the forest in a harness through the canopy of a rain forest ending over a waterfall. In addition you can hike the cloud forests of Gaital National Monument nature preserve where you will observe wildlife and learn more about the habitat.

A hike to the top of Sleeping Indian Woman is highly recommended. The mountain is known as La India Dormida and yoou can definitely see the mountain from town. It looks exactly like a sleeping Indian woman and has a legent attached. The hike takes about 3 hours and includes spectacular views of the valley, a waterfall and a tour of a native sugar cane mill. At the end you can cool offf in a natural swimming pool.

El Valle is one of Panama's best birding areas and you will enjoy birds going in any of the hikes or just walking around town.

Thermal Hot Waters and Mud baths can be found for just $1.00. Here you can indulge in therapeutic volcanic mud bath and you can even buy some to take home. This place is always filled with Europeans and Americans and has definitely got to be the best bargain. Just past the thermal baths you can find the entrance to Piedra Pintada: large pre-Columbian drawings of figures on huge boulders. There are no official archaeological explanations of these petroglyphs yet.

There are quite a few stores that have opened as a result of the tourist visits and there are many restaurants that you can go to have lunch for under $4.00. There are also many restaurants located in the hotels that offer a full variety of menus.

Rainy season

Today is a very appropriate day to blog about the rainy season. So far we have had rain just about every day and it is currently pouring buckets!! In Panama we have two seasons, dry and rainy, and for some reason they are also called winter and summer - which are opposite the seasons back home in North America. It just means that it rains more during certain months of the year and less in others. The rainy seasons starts in May and goes through November. With so many climate changes I personally think it starts and stops when it wants to.

When planning a road trip or any excursion, you should not wait for Mother Nature to provide you with the perfect day - you learn that after you have been here a while. Generally we dont have rainy days (but just so you know, it can happen) but short scattered showers. When it rains it can be very hard on one part of the city and not be raining in another. All tourism agencies tell you what we have also found out ~ late afternoon is a good bet for a shower and it can be pretty hard rain at times so plan the most you can in the morning. It can also include lightning, thunder and flooding.

In the mountains we get a lot more rain because we are in the rainforest. Many times we can see the coastline below and it is very sunny while we might be in the middle of a downpour. As you drive up the mountains you can tell immediately that the forest almost wants to take over the roads. There is dense vegetation, beautiful flowering plants, and quickly growing trees. The same phenomenon happens in the mountains ~ it can rain in a certain area and not rain at all just a couple of blocks away. I personally feel the lightning and thunder are stronger up here and joke about the fact that this is so because we are so much higher in the mountains.

I think the only ones that really enjoy all the rain is the kids, they just go outside and play in the rain while the rest of us have to wait it out. The best thing about the rain is the fact that everything is so green, but also it is so much cooler and fresher! It can cause delays and even heavier traffic but sometimes the good outweighs the bad. As we drive up towards the mountains you see everyone walking and going about their business when there is a downpour and I often ask my husband "don't they know it is pouring?" They usually don't carry an umbrella and it is sad to see elderly people or children walking getting totally drenched. I supposed they are used to it, but to me it is sad.

NOTE: Water ~ and lots of it ~ is essential for the operation of the 50-mile long Panama Canal. The canal watershed and associated lakes (Miraflores, Gatun and Alajuela) provides the water so that the canal is deep enough for ships to pass through and for the locks to function properly. Every ship transiting the canal requires over 50 million gallons of fresh water be flushed away.

Diablo Rojo! What is that?

Indianapolis 500 car race? Nope, but that is what you would think these people are doing. You think they are trying to see who wins! These people are the Diablo Rojos (Red Devils) or taxi drivers. When they are not in the middle of traffic they try their very best to pretend they are in the Indianapolis 500 race. The "Diablo Rojo" is very famous in Panama but also infamous! Their demise will either be a giant step forward or the death of a cultural icon. They are recycled US school buses and they have been a permanent fixture in Panama forever! Since there is no alternative, Panamanians crowd into these very decorated, loud, buses and literally hang on for dear life!

The artwork on the buses is definitely unique! I guess those of us that sit in our cars or watch from the sidewalk whereas most people need to get to where they are going and probably wonder why tourists or others like to always be taking pictures of the Diablos! They are really different. And they are hard to forget when their exhaust is ready to claim your life or at least your lungs!

You might want to take a chance and climb on board of one just so you can tell the tale one day of what it was like but I personally will remain grounded where I know I am as safe as I can get.

It is good to know they are being replaced by brand new buses that will not add more to the pollution.

Snow cones!

In Panama these are called "raspaos." As you walk around Casco Viejo or drive through any place in the country you will eventually see one of these guys, usually under a shade tree in one of the plazas. But you can also spot them moving down the sidewalks along the road, beaches or anywhere in the city. They make snow cones the old fashioned way - from a big block of ise they purchased at the start of the day.

A traditional Panamanian one means any flavor topped with cream! Usually sell for 35 cents - what a bargain!

Allbrook then and now!

When you say Albrook Mall everyone knows what that means ~ Panama's largest mall. Let's first take a look at how it got to be what it is today. It has undergone some big changes in the last 75 years.

Let's start back in the 1900's with what was called "Balboa swamp." After the completion of the Panama Canal in 1914 security concerns brought about a slow but steady increase in the numberof US military installations in the Canal Zone. In 1922 the "Balboa Fill Landing Filed" was completed and as the name implies the swamp was "filled in" and the river was diverted undergeround to make room for the airfield. in 1924 it was renamed "Allbrook Field" in honor of Lt. Frank P. Albrook - the general area is still referred to as "Albrook" although many of the facilities, including the airport,now have names honoring Panamanians.

Today: Albrook Field was expanded and improved many times over its lifetime and eventually transferred to Panama in 1979 as a result of the Panama Canal Treaty. Today, Marcos A. Gelabert Airport (still called Albrook by many) is now Panama's primary domestic airport with scheduled service to most areas of the country. This picture taken from the same location as the old photo, shows just a portion of the current airport and gives you a general idea of the changes over time. The Panama Canal can be seen in the upper left corner of the picture.

The Gran Terminal de Transporte de Albrook: This gigantic terminal (this picture only shows have its size) is the hub for bus service to every corner of Panama and international service to Costa Rica and Mexico - it sits on part of the old airport. Buses of every description, from the diablo Rojo to sleek long range expresses, depart around the clock and because it is so affordable they carre a LOT of people. During the last Carnival break in February, they estimated over 350,000 people used the terminal. While you're waiting you can eat (food court) get a haircut, do your banking and of course shop - it even has its own police station.

Albrook Mall is Panama's largest mall and as you can guess it occupies a portion of the original air base - it sits next to Gran Terminal and across the runway from the current airport's terminal. This is an area that Panama did a good job of recycling a base they received from the United States.

It is great for us because we do not have to cross town to get to this mall, we can bypass the city completely. For high end stores you will have to go to Multiplaza Mall where you will find a selection of designer shops like Hermes, Louis Vitton and others. Albrook has two "HomeDepot" type stores, three food courts, lost of ice cream and it is nice and cool. It is also two levels and VERY LONG - great for exercise. It will be very convenient for us when we have to purchase items for our construction because it can be accessed easily and quickly.

National Folkloric Festival of La Mejorana

The National Festival of La Mejorana is held this year between 22-25 September. In 1949 Manuel Zarate, with a group of friends from his hometown, Guarare, initiated a tradition that has become the most renouned festival in all of Panama. Today, 60 years later, it continues to promote Panamanian folklore and keeps protecting traditional customs that are an integral part of the provinces in Panama. Together with the Patron Saint Festival of the Virgin of Las Mercedes, the Guararenos, the people of Guarare organize each year an event that gather in this little town in the Azuero Peninsula folkloric groups with the common objective of enjoying, spreading and preserving the Panamanian culture. Musical dances, singing, bullfight, oxcart parade and other expressions and competitions take place during the festival. The "mejorana" is the type of guitar that is used for this type of music (see in poster on left) Also please note that this is this year's queen of that festival.

The beginning of construction!

Maybe a better title for this blog should be "the end of a nightmare." This is the end of a 10 month process to get a construction loan. I must pick up the story at this point because I feel that if I started at the beginning it would take too long to narrate all that we have been through: the copies we have had to make, the trips to the US Embassy, documents notarized, legal documents that have had to be drawn in the city, copies of builder chronology of construction, copies of house plans, letters that we have had to obtain from many sources for different reasons, more copies and more letters, and more legal documents, life insurance, insurance to cover builder and his employees and construction site, new insurance which is a bond required of builders so that they will not walk away and leave construction unfinished, more copies, permits, and more permits, more notaized documents.....well I imagine you get the picture.

The loan was approved three months ago. Now it has been a question of the bank and their lawyers making a series of mistakes that have caused unnecessary delays. We cannot believe it has taken this long to get our first disbursement and we have come to the conclusion that things are going to move as fast as the bank wants them to move, and that means SLOW. As it has been our custom to macro-manage this process, last Thursday I called the bank to find out if there were any news. I was told that we should be receiving our first disbursement in our savings account today. The loan manager also added that I should call my builder and make sure he is ready to start immediately because once the money gets disbursed - the six month countdown begins today.

No sooner we were up and about this morning, we received a phone call from the bank just after 8:00am. "Please come down soon this morning and get your check to give to your builder so he can get started immediately," the loan manager told me. At this point, how long can it take to get a check? Down we went and inquired about the necessary steps to obtain a cashier's or certified check. We sat down and were given several forms we had to fill out. By now we are not amazed at being told we have to fill out multiple forms. One was to provide all the pertinent information from the check, the other was to transfer funds from the savings to the checking account because funds could not be withdrawn from the savings for that transaction. After completing those my husband is told he did not sign it exactly as the passport signature, i.e., needs a middle initial not the entire middle name written out. So we had to fill out all the forms again. Then one last look and we were told that his signature, the second time around, does not look exactly like the passport signature and he needs to sign again IN A NEW SET OF FORMS. I have to admit I was about ready to give up on this entire process. They took advantage of this opportunity to remind us that even though we might get older and our hand just does not cooperate with us as when we were younger, we must sign the signature identical to what it looks like on the passport and there will be no exceptions to that rule.

On the way out the loan officer caught our attention and asked us if we could stop and wait for her to provide us with copies of all the official bank papers, i.e., a copy of the deed and a copy of a letter that informs us the amounts of the construction payments for the next six months. We are only required to pay interest only but the amount changes monthly. The she proceeded to explain to us all the different ways we could consider paying: cash in person directly with her, by automatic withdrawal if we prefer. Then she suggested that perhaps we should pay monthly but could pay every two months but monthly would definitely be so much better. After she printed the letter she informed us that she had decided to make the payments every two months. I hope you are just as confused reading this as we were trying to figure out what she was doing. Was she trying to make it easier on us by paying monthly? Your take is as good as ours.

Just about three hours later what I thought would be a quick stop seemed like an eternity. I have learned through this experience that nothing in the bank takes less than 15 minutes, but I surely thought this would not take three hours.

From there we went next door to the Municipality to pay for our contruction permit. Turned in our paper indicating the amount of our payment and were told that we needed to go upstairs to the "treasury" window, pay and bring back a receipt in return for the permit. Off we went upstairs in what seemed to us a pretty run down building, in bad need of repair, paint or maybe a complete overhaul. For the amount of money they charge for permits they could at least give the building a paint job! When we walked into the "treasury" it was an area with enought room for maybe three people to stand in front of glass windows where payments would be made. Could not see the person on the other side of the smoked glass but we did see a hand waving under the little opening above the counter. As she is giving us a receipt I glanced at a sign that says "No shorts allowed in this office" and hoped that nobody would realize that Ronnie was wearing shorts. I had forgotten that we had run into this situation in La Chorrera when we had gone to leave plans to process the first part of the construction permit. Ronnie had been chastised at the time but because he was with a very well known and respected architect from that same town they had "overlooked it" that time.

Once back home we made the call to our builder and informed him we had the "goods" and he needed to get going as soon as possible. Just as I was getting ready to get in the car to go and meet him he drove up our driveway. We were able to sit down and discuss some preliminary issues and he promises to start immediately. We will wait with excitement for work to start in our lot.

The Cinta Costera

The last trips we took to Panama before our final move allowed us to experience the traffic jams, one way roads that were blocked off, and all the detours and delays that this construction caused. I did read that the previous administration had been pressing hard to get this project finalized. Even though most Latinamerican countries are characterized by "manana" that administration wanted it completed before they left office. This was a huge undertaking, next to the expansion of the Panama Canal and was very complicated. This was the expansion of Avenida Balboa!

Now it has basically been completed and although it does not take care of solving all the traffic problems it has been a tremendous help in crossing from one end of the city to the other in a faster and easier manner.

On the left side of this photo you can see six lanes of the existing Avenida Balboa and everything to the right was water. What looks like a road near the water is a bike path and walkway with a pedestrian walkway shown in the middle. That has been completed since we arrived in Panama and traffic seems to move smoothly and easily.

The middle section houses several plazas, benches, basketball courts, soccer fields, public parking which make it even more enjoyable and friendly. They are now working just as hard to complete the portion that will take the Cinta Costera into Casto Viejo. They project this to be completed and open to the public in the next two months - time will tell, but this will also help alleviate the traffic heading into Casco Viejo on a daily basis.

Getting our Panama Driver's License

It did not take long before we needed to get our Panamian driver's license after we arrived. We used our Georgia license and knew the law required us to get a local one before 90 days were up. First stop was the US Embassy so they could put a fancy seal on a form that said that our copy of the Georgia Driver's license was a valid license. That took us about 30 minutes and cost us $50. Next stop was the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, where they seal and affix some stamps to the document we got from the Embassy and certifies those documents to be acceptable to the country of Panama. Our lawyer thank God, helped us with that part (government offices rarely accept money, but they send you to a bank then you come back with a deposit slip) and then you receive the authenticated documents and move on to the next stage. Total cost was $8.

Next stop was a blood test. We planned to be at the Lab just a block away from Sertracen (Driver License Office) as early as we could not knowing how long the wait might be - the requirements were for a blood test that verified our blood type. This information is printed on all Panamanian driver licenses. It cost us $5 each and in 15 minutes we were done and on our way down the street.

We arrived at Sertracen. We found lots of confusion and what we should do was definitely not clear to us. Obviously we had to take a number and wait our turn. I knew that "jubilados" (or retirees) get priority so I approached a clerk on the other side of the counter and mentioned that my husband was a jubilado and also "handicapped" and asked if there was a special line for us to use. This inquiry definitely raised several eyebrows not only in the clerks working there but in other folks waiting for their number to be called. However, in just a few minutes Ronnie was jumped to the front of the line and we were sitting down in front of a girl that would check his documents and make copies. It was then that I was told that HE had that privilege and that I would have to keep my number and wait my turn. I can only assume that meant that he was not only retired but also handicapped.

A short while later my number was called and I found myself right behind my husband in the processing line. By this time it was around 2pm and the office closed at 4pm so I was not sure if either of us would walk out with a driver license that day. We were each called with minimum waiting time in between for the vision and hearing tests. Then we paid the fee for the two tests and the driver license - a total of $45 - and it was just before 4pm that we both walked out of that office with our driver's licenses.

We were so thankful that we were able to do this in one day. We have heard that other expats have had to return on the second day to complete the process.

Since we got our driver's license we have had to renew it once as well. Now we can drive 30 minutes to Chorrera, the closest town to us that has a Sertracen office and all we have to do is show up, take the same tests again, pay the $45 fee for each of us and we walk out with our renewed license in about an hour's time. We no longer need to produce paperwork or drive all the way into the city and because we are jubilados we still get preferential treatment - much easier and faster!

New Link added

Please note that at the top right of the home page there is a link to my other blog about living in Panama. That blog includes all subjects including the construction of our house. I hope you visit that blog and find it interesting as well.

The Kuna Indians

Kuna, also known as the Tule, Native South American group of the Chibchan language family and of Panama. In former times Kuna occupied the greater part of the Isthmus of Panama. Cases of hereditary albinism among the Kuna have given rise to the legend of white Native Americans.

The Kuna Indians number approximately 35,000 with the majority living in the San Blas Islands and on the mainland in the Madugandi Reservation while a very small percentage live in Panama City.

They speak their own language called "tule." Many speak Spanish and some English, but in the Madugandi reservation there is little proficiency for Spanish. They live in thatched roof huts made from materials found in the jungle.

The Kuna women wear wrap around skirts and hand-made blouses known as "molas." The Mola is an intricately sewn picture made from layers of cloth in a reverse applique technique. Kuna women paint their faces with a homemade rouge made from achiote seeds. They usually wear a nose ring and paint a line down their nose.

The Kuna have the most advance political system of any tribal group in Latin America, and possibly the world. They have three village chiefs who manage village politics and a series of meetings called congresos; they conduct electrions through the village and nationally as well.

They are animists: they believe in a creator God who is far away from them and that the poni, groups of malevolent spirits roam the earth entering people's bodies causing sickness and disease. They use the nuchus, small dolls made out of balsa wood, to protect them from the poni. The saila, or Kuna chief, speaks for God much like a prophet telling the people what they need to do so God will be pleased with them. They believe they must work to please God sohe does not send an earthquake or other terrible thing against them. The vast majority of the Indians in Madugandi have never heard a clear message of the Gospel message.

A Kuna woman selling some Molas in Casco Viejo. It is very common to find them selling their Molas on plazas or on sidewalks. They can be very expensive as it is an incredible detailed work all done by hand. Many Molas are now incorporated into T-shirts, cloth purses, kitchen towels and other decorative pieces for the home. Normally there are several layers in each piece and the more layers the more expensive the piece is! You can try to bargain but they do not always budge, and you can tell from the detail that it is very time consuming. Many times as you walk down the streets in Casco Viejo you can see them sewing the pieces.

Ferry to Isla Taboga

The Capypso Queen will provide views of the Pacific Ocean leaving for Isla Taboga from the Amador Causeway pier daily.

The island of flowers, or Isla Taboga, is located in the Gulf of Panama, 12 miles south of Panama City, and it takes less than an hour by ferry ride.

There are three ferries going to Taboga daily in the mornings and three ferries returning from Taboga daily.

Isla Taboga

Although I frequently drive down the Amador Causeway and get a very clear view of that island I really did not know anything about it other than people being able to take the ferry out there daily; that many of the Carnaval customs came out of there and they hold some ofthe biggest celebrations; that the population there is very low. I was amazed at some of the historical facts I found out about it and thought I would share it with you. A lot of it I find quite interesting and hope you do too.

Vasco Nunez de Balboa, 16th century Spaniard credited with the first citing of the Pacific Ocean, and the first Spaniard to set foot on the dot called Isla de San Pedro. The name Taboga was later adopted from the Indian term "aboga" meaning many fish. Nearly 450 years after its founding the island maintains the simplicity of bygone days.

Iglesia San Pedro is claimed to be the second oldest church in the Hemisphere. The early settlers came from Venezuela and Nicaragua. They were enslaved indigenous indians who were brought to serve the needs of the Spanish Conquistadors.

The village of San Pedro was founded in 1524 by Padre Hernando de Luque, dean of the Panama Cathedral, who also lived on the island. He also provided funds to Francisco Pizarro and Diego Almagro before they set off on their conquest of the flourishing Inca Empire. Ruins still remain of those days of the conquistadors and early settlers.

Padre Luque raised vegetables and fruits on his plantation and his pineapples could well be the progenitors of the pineapple patches that pepper the island today, and some say the Hawaiian pineapple was developed through cross pollination with the Taboga pineapple. The Taboganos still venerate the priest by referring to a crystalline pool in the folds of Picacho de Vigia, the highest point on the island, as the "Pope's Pool."

Santa Rosa de Lima was conceived in Taboga ~ the first saint of this hemisphere. According to historians, the girl lived on a house in Playa Hondo on the nothern side. The house still exists today. The family later moved to Peru where she is known as Santa Rosa de Lima de Taboga. She is known for her humility and kindness to those in need. Many came to her for comfort and to learn more about their salvation. she is very well known in South America, Mexico and the Philippines.

El Morro, the little island you can walk to. Linked to the island at low tide by a sandbar, is El Morro, a small rocky islet where at the end ofthe 17th century the Spaniards established a fort to defend Taboga. During the wars of Independence, it was the three cannons in El Morro that 10 soldiers fought the attacks of Englishman John Illingworth, the Chilean warship Rosa de los Andes, and the Peruvian Frigate Pichincha.

The Three Crosses. In a later attack by John Illingworth, the invaders took Taboga. The inhabitants fleeing to the hills. Three of the invaders were killed and buried by the villagers who marked their graves with wooden crosses. Within the passing of years, cast iron crosses embeded in a mortar base replaced the wooden markers. To this day, Taboganos in the vecinity of "Las Tres Cruces" never fail to light a candle in memory of the three that dared to disturb the peace of their little island.

Isla Taboga and the Panama Canal. The island also played an important role in the construction of the Panama Canal. In the 1880's the French constructed a 50 bed $400,000 retreat for their canal workers attempting to build a canal. This same building was taken over by the United States in 1905 and used as rest and recuperation center for the Panama Canal construction workers. It served this purpose until 1915, when it became a vacation resort for the employees and their families and was known as Hotel Aspinwall. During World War I Aspinwall became an internment camp for German prisoners. After the war it was once again the hub of Taboga social life until 1945. Aspinwall is gone but many recall its activities and the part it played in the by-gone era.

PT Boats in World War II. During World War II, the US Navy had a "mosquito base" training in El Morro. The heroic record of these boats in the Pacific theatre of war proved the efficiency of officers and sailors of El Morro. IslaTaboga was also the site of attempted Japanese espionage when spy Yoshitaro Amana, head of a Japanese spy ring, tried to set up a commercial business on the island so that the Japanese could ascertain which ships were transiting the Panama Canal. He was discovered in a sting operation and deported back to Japan. Also gun placements at strategic points on Isla Taboga and lookout points atop El Morro, made it possible to increase security in the Panama Canal.

US Presence in Isla Taboga in Panama history is a treasured past and for Taboganos. Military and civilian personnel integrated themselves with island life and provided services which included improving infrastructure and providing medical services. They brought entertainment to the island by creating an outdoor cinema, participating in sports and constructing the island pier to serve visitors. Taboganos old enough to remember recall with enthusiasm the days of US military presence on the island.

“Oh Good Heavens…What is That?”

The Bridge of Life is being built in Amador at the beginning of the Causeway of the Pacific entrance to the Canal. It is called Bridge of Life because its aim is to make one aware that Panama plays a unique role itself as the "Bridge of Life." Panama has more than 30,000 thousand species between animals and plants. Scientists also believe that the formation collected about the Isthmus of Panama is one of the most important geologic events to have happened on Earth in the last 60 million years. It is a tiny space of land which when it rose from the depths of the sea changed climates and landscapes simply by altering how water moved and flowed. The Atlantic became saltier; Europe became warmer through the creating of the Gulf Stream just to mention a few climatic and atmospheric changes. In addition to this the Isthmus created a bridge through which species migrated from North to South and vice versa creating the biodiversity we have in both American continents, in fact it was the bridge of life. It is a building site that could make you turn in your car seat to gaze at the unique shape and design of the building under construction and it is going to be amazing. This building will offer a memorable visual experience even when viewed from afar it will probably raise many questions from uninformed viewers. The roof is made from colored panels resembling handkerchiefs waving in the wind. The actual idea is that they resemble the leaves of trees which overlap and allow sinlight to filter through them.

The museum will have galleries plus the botanical garden. The galleries are: the Biodiversity Gallery, Panamarama, the Bridge Arises, the Great Exchange, the Web of Life, Oceans Divided, Panama is the Museum ~ i.e., creation the world as we know it, the continents, the ice ages, the movement of humans and animals, how the ecosystems interwine, conservation of our planets and more. it will showcase the diversity of the eco-system in this nation that spans two mighty oceans. Other exhibits include interdependent ecological systems, full scale models of extinct animals that once roamed the isthmus. Oceanographers will enjoy displays of aquatic ecosystems of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean.