50 Fun Facts About Panama

Panama shares land borders with Costa Rica and which other country?

The two are joined only by roadless jungle; Panama was actually part of Colombia until 1903.

Which Spanish explorer crossed the isthmus in 1513 as the first European to see the Pacific from the Americas?

He called it the South Sea; Panama's currency is named after him, and he was executed in 1519 by the governor who had replaced him.

Panama City was founded in 1519 by which Spanish governor?

It became the launch pad for the conquest of the Inca and is the fourth-oldest of the Americas' modern capital cities.

Which Welsh privateer sacked and burned the city of Panama in 1671?

The city was then the second most important in Spanish America; it was rebuilt 8 km away two years later, and the ruins are now the Panama Viejo World Heritage Site.

A failed 1698 Panama colony drained which country's finances before its 1707 union?

The Darien scheme swallowed a large share of Scotland's capital; the debt was a factor in the Act of Union with England.

After leaving Spain in 1821, Panama joined which short-lived union led by Simón Bolívar?

When it dissolved in 1831, Panama stayed with New Granada, which became Colombia; Panamanians tried more than 80 times to secede.

Panama seceded from its larger neighbour, with tacit US backing, in which year?

Colombia's senate had just rejected the Hay-Herran canal treaty; independence was proclaimed that November.

The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty granting the US the Canal Zone was signed for Panama by a lobbyist of what nationality?

Philippe Bunau-Varilla, a shareholder in the bankrupt French canal company, signed it the night before Panama's own delegation reached Washington.

Which Frenchman, fresh from the Suez Canal, led the doomed first Panama canal attempt from 1881?

He insisted on a sea-level canal like Suez; the company went bankrupt in 1889 and 800,000 French investors lost their savings.

Roughly how many workers died during the first, European-led canal effort of 1881-1889?

Yellow fever and malaria did most of the killing; even Gustave Eiffel was prosecuted in the financial scandal that followed.

Colonel William Gorgas enabled US canal construction by attacking which two diseases?

He fumigated buildings, oiled breeding pools and screened windows after Finlay, Reed and Ross had proven the mosquito link.

Which US Army engineer directed the canal to completion in 1914, two years ahead of schedule?

He replaced Stevens in 1907; the toughest job, the Culebra Cut through the continental divide, went to Major David Gaillard.

The Panama Canal formally opened on 15 August 1914 with the passage of which cargo ship?

Ancon is the hill overlooking Panama City; the first vessel to make the whole crossing in stages was actually a floating crane.

Ships transiting the canal are lifted about 26 metres to which lake, created by damming the Chagres River?

When finished it was the largest man-made lake in the world, and Gatun Dam the largest earth dam.

The lowest toll ever paid on the Panama Canal was 36 cents, charged in 1928 to a man who did what?

Adventurer Richard Halliburton was assessed like any vessel, by tonnage; the trip took him ten days.

The 1977 Panama Canal treaties are named after Omar Torrijos and which US president?

The surrounding Canal Zone was returned in 1979, but the canal itself only passed to Panama at noon on 31 December 1999.

The 2016 canal expansion added new locks that roughly did what to the waterway's capacity?

The Neopanamax locks at Agua Clara and Cocoli let much bigger container ships through; a drought later cut daily transits.

The 1964 riots over flying Panama's flag in the Canal Zone left dozens dead and are commemorated as what?

The unrest forced the evacuation of the US embassy and pushed both sides toward renegotiating the 1903 treaty.

Panama's military strongman Omar Torrijos died in 1981 in what?

A 1972 constitution had named him Maximum Leader of the Panamanian Revolution; his son Martin later won the presidency democratically in 2004.

The December 1989 US invasion that toppled Manuel Noriega was codenamed what?

Blue Spoon was the plan's original name and Nifty Package the SEAL raid on Noriega's boat and jet; it was the largest US operation since Vietnam.

Where did Noriega take refuge before surrendering on 3 January 1990?

US troops famously blasted rock music at the nunciature; he was flown to Miami and convicted of drug trafficking.

Since abolishing its army after 1989, Panama shares what distinction with only Costa Rica in the region?

Public Forces, a border service and small air and sea units do the job; Panama also signed the UN nuclear-weapons ban in 2017.

Panama's official currency, fixed 1:1 with the US dollar since independence, is called what?

In practice the country is dollarised: US notes are the only paper money, and the sole Panamanian banknotes, printed in 1941, lasted seven days.

Panama's only ever banknotes, printed in 1941 and recalled almost at once, earned what nickname?

President Arnulfo Arias issued them; the next government burned the stock, so surviving notes are collectors' items.

What is Panama's highest point, a 3,474-metre volcano from which both oceans can be seen?

It rises over the coffee town of Boquete in Chiriqui; the Los Quetzales trail wraps around its flank.

The Darien Gap on Panama's southeastern border is the only break in which road system?

Otherwise the road runs from Alaska to Patagonia; the highway stops at Yaviza in Panama and resumes at Turbo across the border.

In 2023 more than half a million people crossed the Darien Gap on foot, mostly heading where?

Crossings jumped from 24,000 in 2019 to 250,000 in 2022; Haitians and Venezuelans made up most of the migrants.

Panama's Isthmus formed about three million years ago and had what global effect?

The Great American Interchange sent armadillos north and horses and cats south; it also rerouted ocean currents.

Panama is one of only three countries described as carbon-negative. Which two are the others?

About 40 percent of Panama is still forested, though tree cover has halved since the 1940s.

Which UNESCO-listed Panamanian reserve is the largest of its kind in Central America?

Soberania, near the canal, is the birdwatchers' favourite with more than 525 species; Coiba is the largest island.

The Guna people of the San Blas islands are famous for which brightly coloured textile panels?

Made by reverse applique, they form the front and back of a Guna woman's blouse; the word means 'clothing' in Guna.

What is Panama's traditional full white women's gown, worn with gold jewellery, called?

It came from 16th-century Spain, was first worn by servants and wet nurses, and men pair it with the montuno.

Panama's tamborito folk dance blends Spanish steps with rhythms from where?

Hybrid forms are the norm: reggae en espanol and reggaeton also thrive alongside salsa and jazz.

Despite the name, the Panama hat actually originates in which country?

Woven from toquilla straw, the hats were shipped via the isthmus and picked up its name; Theodore Roosevelt wearing one at the canal in 1906 sealed the confusion.

Which sport did nearly half of Panamanians name as their favourite in a 2024 survey?

More than 140 Panamanians have played pro ball in the US, more than any other Central American country; football came second at 30 percent.

Mariano Rivera spent 19 seasons closing games for which team?

He was nearly traded to Seattle before 1996 and became the first player ever elected unanimously to the Hall of Fame.

Boxer Roberto Duran, 'Hands of Stone', won world titles in how many weight classes?

Lightweight, welterweight, light middleweight and middleweight; his 'No mas' rematch with Sugar Ray Leonard is boxing legend.

Panama's men reached their first World Cup in 2018, drawn against England, Tunisia and which other side?

They lost all three games; the women's team debuted in 2023 and Marta Cox scored the country's first World Cup goal.

Who was the first Latin American boxer to win a world championship, later inducted into the Hall of Fame?

All four are Panamanians in the International Boxing Hall of Fame; Brown held the bantamweight title in the 1930s.

The Colon Free Trade Zone at the canal's Caribbean end holds what rank among free-trade zones?

It moved goods worth about $24.7 billion in 2024; the ports at either canal end are Latin America's second and third busiest.

Which airline, based at Tocumen International Airport, is Panama's flag carrier?

Tocumen is Central America's largest airport, and Panama City is the hub linking North and South America.

The 2016 Panama Papers leak came from which Panamanian law firm?

Some 11.5 million documents reached the Suddeutsche Zeitung; Panama's government objected to the leak carrying its name.

Panama's brightly painted, privately run buses, converted from old US school buses, were nicknamed what?

The 'red devils' have mostly given way to the MiBus system and the two-line Panama Metro in the capital.

Panama's flag was originally sewn in secret at independence by whom?

Maria de la Ossa de Amador made it in secret from the Colombian army; the colours stand for the Liberal and Conservative parties, white for peace between them.

What was Panama's leading export by value in 2022, worth about $3 billion?

Coffee gets the headlines thanks to Boquete's prized Geisha beans, but the Cobre Panama copper mine dwarfed it until its court-ordered closure in 2023.

Panama's territory is divided into ten provinces plus how many indigenous comarcas?

Seven Indigenous peoples live there, including the Ngabe, Guna and Embera; the Guna Yala comarca alone has 49 island communities.

Chinese Panamanians make up roughly what share of the population?

Indian workers came for the same reason; Afro-Caribbean labourers were nine-tenths of the French workforce in 1888.

Which of these was formally re-founded in 1673 on a peninsula 8 km from its burnt-out predecessor?

The relocated core is today's Casco Viejo; the original ruins survive as Panama Viejo.

Which Panamanian city is the capital of Chiriqui province, near the Costa Rican border?

It is the largest Panamanian city outside the capital's metro area and is named after the biblical king.

Nearly what fraction of Panama's four-million-plus people live in the Panama City metropolitan area?

Over 75 percent of Panamanians live in cities, the highest urban share in Central America.