A Man, a Plan, a Canal - Panama! Quiz

Answer: Rodrigo de Bastidas

Perhaps a more obscure explorer, Rodrigo de Bastidas explored Panama and mapped much of the northern coast of South America. Whilst he was able to claim the upper part of Panama on his Caribbean travels, he was quickly forced to return to Santo Domingo as his ships were in poor shape from shipworm.

Just one year later, Christopher Columbus came along and arrived in Almirante Bay in October of that year. Before leaving for the Far East on his fourth and final voyage, he traded with the natives for several precious items. This voyage was almost a massive failure - he was stranded in Jamaica for a year in 1503 and had to pull a party trick of correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for them to keep feeding his crew. He also had to put down a mutiny. In November of 1504, he was finally able to return home to Spain, only to die two years later in 1506.

Answer: Gamboa

Tropical rainforests such as the Gamboa are warm all year round and maintain a high humidity between around 77-88%. Visitors to Panama can visit the Gamboa rainforest on the Gulf of Panama, just half an hour from the capital, Panama City. They can enjoy kayaking tours of the Chagres River, the intriguing man-made Gatun Lake and the nearby Soberania National Park, home to some of Panama's huge variety of birds. Gamboa is highly biodiverse - other than the toucans, jaguars and sloths there's also a butterfly farm, frog pond and orchid nursery to experience at the Gamboa Wildlife Center.

Panama's national bird, the harpy eagle, can also be found in these rainforests; it is a large and powerful raptor, albeit an infrequently seen one.

Answer: Colón

Colón is situated at the mouth of the Panama Canal on the Caribbean coast and was named in honour of Christopher Columbus; it was established in 1850. The Panama Railroad was completed in 1855 and served as an engine during the Californian Gold Rush which significantly increased passenger and freight traffic to the region.

The city has had many devastating fires - the Burning of Colón in the 1885 Civil War, a massive fire in 1915 and The Great Colón Fire in 1940 all set the city back a long way. However, it outlived these fires, since in 1953 it was made a free trade zone and eventually became one of the most significant duty-free ports.

Answer: 74,340 km2

Panama is about 50% larger in terms of land area, but is still fairly small. To get a sense of perspective, the UK has an area of 242,495 km2, with the UAE having a comparable 83,600 km2. Even though Panama is a narrow and thin country, it might be surprising to learn that its narrowest point between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is around just thirty miles.

In ascending order, the incorrect options correspond to Belize (22,965 km2), Colombia (1.142 million km2) and Brazil (8.516 million km2).

Answer: Isthmus of Panama

As we've established, Panama is a fairly small country, and the Isthmus of Panama is the landmass containing the country. Geologically, scientists believe the Isthmus of Panama had an important role in forcing the Atlantic currents north-ward to form what we know as the Gulf Stream. These waters warmed north-western Europe and without the Gulf Stream the winter temperatures could be up to 10C cooler - in that respect as a Brit I quite appreciate the existence of the Isthmus of Panama!

A strait is a narrow passage of water between two larger areas of water, an atoll is a ring-shaped reef or chain of coral islands, and a peninsula is a body of land almost entirely surrounded by water.

Answer: Chiriquí

Volcán Barú is the twelfth tallest peak in Central America and is 3,475m tall. The Chiriquí Province houses David, the third largest city in Panama. It is a potentially active stratovolcano just 35 kilometers from the border of Costa Rica and is associated with a cloud forest due to low-level cloud cover.

Linconia was a controversial proposed colony to relocate African-American slaves to a tropical region - Chiriquí Province - with the consent of the neighbouring countries and the slaves themselves. This western province was considered to have excellent natural resources and some of the finest harbours in the world, and was an attempt to replicate what Lincoln had seen as a successful relocation in Liberia which was established in 1816. The delegation and the neighbouring countries kicked up more and more of a fuss when a trial group was sent to the region, forcing Lincoln to ultimately abandon this plan, and in January of 1863 he issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing American slaves without relocation.

Answer: Coffee

In 2018, the Geisha coffee was one of the most expensive in the world outside of those created by civet cats and elephants, and could sell for $68 for just one cup in Dubai. The Hacienda La Esmeralda in the Boquete valley in western Panama was the most significant creator of this award-winning specialty coffee and could secure over $500 per kilo of this difficult to grow commodity.

Panama isn't strongly associated with its coffee and its economy historically has been more built on service than exports. However, the coffee arabica requires a lot of water and shade and most climates don't support the Geisha variety as well as in Panama, hence the niche degree of success with this specialty coffee.

Answer: false

The hurricane belt in the Atlantic primarily affects the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico and doesn't really reach Panama - Hurricane Martha in 1969 has been the only known hurricane to make landfall in Panama. However, whilst we've established that hurricanes are not particularly common, Panama does experience a variety of seasonal weather events.

For example, in the wet season between May and December, the country can be beset upon by almost daily thunderstorms. The dry season between January and April can be extremely dry, with Panama City data between 1971 and 2000 documenting an average rainfall of just 10.1mm in February.

Answer: Nicaragua

The United States wanted a canal linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and were willing to spend to make that happen. In 1888, French engineer Philippe-Jean Bunau-Varilla found himself stranded in Panama after the Panama Canal Country went bankrupt. He went home and purchased stock in the New Panama Canal Country and worked hard to successfully convince the U.S. Senate and Theodore Roosevelt to invest $40 million dollars in the New Panama Canal Company over the popular alternative, Nicaragua, which had been favoured due to having been a less politically charged region.

When a deal was secured in 1902, Colombia - who owned Panama at the time - refused to ratify an agreement allowing the U.S to create the canal. However, with support from Bunau-Varilla and Roosevelt, the Panamanians revolted and secured their independence in 1903, allowing the construction to really get started. In 1914, the project was finally completed, although not without cost - over 12,000 had died in its construction.

In a sense, tying it back in with the title, Bunau-Varilla was the man with the plan to create the canal in Panama, not Nicaragua. How different could things have been if Nicaragua had won the bid instead?

Answer: Pearl Islands

The Pearl Islands contain Isla del Rey, the second largest Panamanian island after Coiba, and Vasco Nunez de Balboa who found the islands in 1513 named them after their many pearls. The Contadora Island used to be a haven for the Spanish conquistadors who used the island to take stock - the name 'Contadora' derives from 'counter' - and has become a resort island for the wealthy. The other major inhabited island, Saboga, used to have a high-end expensive resort until its owner died in 2011 with the resort's ruins having been left standing.

Three of the "Survivor" competitive reality series famed for the battle between two tribes have been filmed in the Pearl Islands -- "Survivor: Pearl Islands", "Survivor: All-Stars" and "Survivor: Panama". They were considered a largely unexplored paradise before these shows made them, relatively speaking, much more of a tourist trap.