Viva Panama

We read about the place in which we stayed outside Colon, Panama in the Lonely Planet. The infamous Building 400 of the School of the Americas. The School of the Americas was used by the US Government to train locals on how resist Communist insurgencies in Central and South America. Among those trained in Building 400 were some of the worst Dictators ever to come to power, including Leopoldi Galtiere who "disappeared" thousands during Argentina's "Dirty Wars", Robert D'Auboisson who led death squads in El Salvador.

Building 400 is certainly delightful now. It is a huge building with an expansive interior. It has been made over into a hotel complex by the Spanish Melia chain. The rooms have ceilings that look to be about 14 feet high and the grounds have two gigantic pools and the whole thing sits on the shores of Lake Gatun, created from the Chagres River when the Panama Canal was built.

Despite it's past, Buildng 400 served as the perfect spot from which to visit Fuerte San Lorenzo (last sacked in 1740 by British Admiral Vernon....after whom George Washington's Mt Vernon is named) as well as the massive Gatun Locks which raise and lower boats to the Caribbean.

Panama has been run over, occupied and abused ever since the Spanish explorer Rodrigo de Bastidas landed here in 1501 . It seems to be flourishing now and that is exactly why it seems fitting to end our little Panamanian Adventure with a Panamanian Band playing "Viva Panama" in the now elegant lobby of the infamous Building 400.

Viva Panama indeed!

Posted via email from Bob's posterous