The Square or whatever. Lots of beautiful buildings, lots of crumbly buildings with trees growing out of the walls. Lots of balconies that we declined to walk under due to iffy support beams or complete lack thereof.
My brother's friend, overlooking the Bahia (tide out) from the top of an old building being restored.
An obelisk... with a rooster... I have no idea what that is supposed to represent.
Wikipedia sez: "The city was founded on August 15, 1519. Within years of its founding, the city became a launching point for the exploration and conquest of Peru and a transit point for gold and silver headed towards Spain. In 1671, the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan, with the help of a band of 1400 men, attacked and looted the city, which was subsequently destroyed by fire. The ruins of the old city still remain and are a popular tourist attraction known as Panamá la Vieja (Old Panama). It was rebuilt in 1673 in a new location approximately 5 miles (8.0 km) southwest of the orignal city. This location is now known as the Casco Viejo (Old Quarter) of the city."
Since the public school I was going to start at this week is on strike (apparently this is a common problem around here) I've had this week off, entirely to myself as pretty much everyone else in the house is off at work or their own functioning school. Yesterday I took the bus into the city on my own and met up with one of my brother's friends who happens to live in Panama, a botanist; http://anthrome.wordpress.com/ and we wandered around the old quarter of Panama City for a couple of hours, including going to the Museo del Canal Interoceanico de Panama (Panama Canal Museum). It was very hot and humid, and I think I've made up for the lack of sunlight I may have suffered from growing up in Oregon.
4 comments:
it's France's rooster... the Plaza is called Plaza de Francia and it commemorates the effort of the French to build the Canal...
The buildings by that square are pretty.
Re: The conquest of Peru -- Just as today we have the "torture memos", twisted legalese written by sycophant lawyers, the conquistadors tried to cover their butts in a similar way with something that became known as "The Requirement". It was recited by soldiers sort of the same way the Miranda Warning is today. Before the killing, raping, and looting began they had to read these words to their victims:
"If you do not accept the faith, or if you delay maliciously in doing so, I certify that with God's help I will advance powerfully against you and make war on you wherever and however I am able, and will subject you to the yoke and obedience of the church and of their majesties and take your women and children as slaves, and I will take your possessions and do all the harm and damage that I can." (cited from p.35, _One River_ by Wade Davis)
Since the people The Requirement was being recited to didn't understand a word of Spanish, the results were a foregone conclusion. Fortunately, humanity has grown past spreading religion at the point of a sword. Or have we?
Beautiful pics :-)
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