Madaboutpanama

09/02/2024

01/11/2023

Some big money as the ships compete for ever-decreasing transit slots

https://www.tradewindsnews.com/gas/panama-canal-auction-smashes-vessel-transit-record-as-slot-goes-for-2-85m/2-1-1546233?fbclid=IwAR2Io7mhuZI5lRIGb6T9TlVXyoQl71fIZuXQIHR_seblMaLOT5Dz3fcQW2o

Pressure mounts at drought-hit waterway as new record transit price dwarfs normal fee

14/08/2023

We definitely need more rain!
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/panama-canal-shipping-pileup-due-to-drought-reaches-154-vessels.html?fbclid=IwAR0tjLxiXzQ0apDem8DRTCwR5QPQV1LpJXXf0thoqL9bsdyw-lZlIKvnAeE

Ongoing drought conditions and Panama Canal restrictions due to lower water levels are causing massive shipping congestion at the key trade gateway.

31/01/2023

You would bet good money that this ship would not fit through the locks!

08/01/2023

Here is the 2023 guide to almost anything in Panama

Shared with Dropbox

05/11/2022

Maybe one day Panama will make Portobelo a nicer place to visit, as the history is so important.

Con la emancipación de las colonias americanas, un comercio decadente y la ausencia de majestuosos convoyes, sus muros y fortificaciones fueron desmanteladas y rápidamente se convirtieron en ruinas

31/07/2022

http://madaboutpanama.com/the-arias-roosevelt-treaty/

31/07/2022

New tolls coming for the Canal

15/12/2021

Great to see at long last

Norwegian Cruise Line announced today that it has become the first cruise line to seasonally homeport in Panama City, Panama, offering roundtrip Panama Can...

18/11/2021

Facts of Panama
Featuring: Portobelo

Did you know? Portobelo is an authentic Pirate Port of the Caribbean
Do Life Right … DoPanama.com

For more information on Relocating to Panama, please visit our website www.DoPanama.com or email Austin directly at [email protected] / +507 6767-9710.

Portobelo was one of the largest and most important ports for which the wealth that was transported to Spain passed. At the same time, this made it one of the most besieged by pirates of that time.
Portobelo was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado and quickly replaced Nombre de Dios as a Caribbean port for Peruvian silver. Legend has it that Christopher Columbus originally named the port "Puerto Bello", meaning "Beautiful Port", in 1502. After Francis Drake died of dysentery in 1596 at sea, he was buried at sea in a lead coffin near Portobelo Bay, memorialised by the present Isla Drake ("Drake Island") at the mouth of the harbour. During the 16th to the 18th centuries it was an important silver-exporting port in New Granada on the Spanish Main and one of the two Atlantic ports on the route of the Spanish treasure fleets. The Spanish built defensive fortifications.

In 1601 by the English privateer William Parker captured Portobello from the Spanish. Welshman Henry Morgan repeated the feat in 1668, having led a fleet of privateers and 450 men and overcome its strong fortifications. His forces plundered it for 14 days before withdrawing. It was captured again in 1680 by pirate John Coxon.

In 1726 the British suffered a disaster in their Blockade of Porto Bello under Admiral Francis Hosier, an attempt to prevent the Spanish treasure fleet returning to Spain, when due to their lengthy wait and inactivity (as ordered by the British government) moored at Bastimentos 11 km (6.8 mi) to the northeast (not to be confused with another Bastimentos Island 270 miles to the west), the large part of the sailors died from tropical diseases. The disaster was vindicated 13 years later when during the War of Jenkins' Ear the port was attacked and captured on November 21, 1739, by a British fleet of six ships commanded by Admiral Edward Vernon.

… More about Portobelo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portobelo,_Col%C3%B3n

06/11/2021

Some great pictures of the Panama Canal construction

A staggering 25,000 workers lost their lives. And artificial limb makers clamored for contracts with the canal builders. In a quest to fulfill a centuries-ol