MI BELLA GUATEMALA/ Marimba CHAPINLANDIA (German Alcantara)

Just another taste of the Marimba and "Mi Bella Guatemala" (My Beautiful Guatemala).

NOCHE DE LUNA ENTRE RUINAS MARIMBA CHAPINLANDIA

This is the famous Guatemalan Walz, Noche de Luna Entre Ruinas (roughly "Full Moon among the Ruins") by Mariano Valverde.  It was written in remembrance of the terrible earthquake of April 18, 1902 in Quetzaltenango, Valverde´s hometown and the so-called "Capital of the Mayans" (although some say it was for the December 1917 earthquakes that rocked Guatemala City and Antigua).

Here it is performed in its traditional method on the Marimba, the beautiful national instrument of Guatemala.  One of the things I love most about Guatemala is listening to the beautiful music of the Marimba, it is uplifting.  There is a traditional Guatemalan walz performed to this piece.

Cosmopolitan Panama

Last weekend we accompanied two other missionary couples in a weekend visit to Panama City.  We stayed in the Wyndham Hotel in the Albrook Mall, the largest mall in Central America and the biggest one I have ever seen.  On Saturday we took a tour of Panama City that was very interesting. We visited the Panama Canal and watched some ships go through the Mira Flores locks.  We learned a little of the history of this incredible engineering feat.  The French first attempted to build the canal in the late 19th Century, but the effort was unsuccessful in part due to disease.  Their plan called for building a flat Suez Canal type canal over the isthmus, which would have required the excavation of an incredible amount of rock.  Over 20,000 workers died in the first five years of their efforts, and more than 10,000 are buried in a hill in the city. Thankfully the company went bankrupt and the dieing stopped.  The United States then took up the effort of building the Canal, but they didn´t want to deal with the Colombian government at the time, so the independent country of Panama was born (without U.S. involvement, of course).  I think it was five days later that the U.S. signed the agreement under which the Canal was built.  The U.S. plan involved the excavation of a man made lake in the middle of the isthmus with an ingenious lock system to use fresh water from the lake to lift ships up from the the level of the ocean on one side and lower them down to the level of the ocean on the other.  The United States military constructed most of the infrastructure that has become Panama City, and it is very nice from Central American standards--a good road system, drinkable water, and beautiful buildings and housing.  When I came through Panama in 1973 the Canal Zone was still in the hands of the U.S. military, but now it all belongs to Panama, and it has helped make the country stable and profitable.

We visited Casco Viejo or Casco Antiguo, the old walled city of Panama where most of the gold from the new world passed on its way to Spain.  It had fortifications to protect it from pirates, but in about 1671 it was burned to the ground during an attack by the pirate, Captain Morgan.  The history books say that Morgan burned the city, but our guide said that the truth is the mayor burned it by accident, as he had ordered that fires be set on the walls as a defensive effort, but the fire burned out of control and burned the entire city.  Anyway the city was rebuilt and at the current time is in a period of renovation and restoration that is making it a great place to visit and taste a bit of history.

Since the Canal was transferred to Panamanian control, Panama City has undergone a surge in high-rise construction in the city center, making Panama City the Dubai of Central America.  It is financial center with an impressive sky line.  The people of Panama are a mix of people from all over the world who came here to build the canal and of the indigenous people.  This background gives the place a cosmopolitan feel, and there are goods for sale from all over the world as well.  Panama has become a popular expatriate retirement place for North Americans and Europeans because of favorable tax and residence laws and other benefits.

The Panama City Temple is a beautiful and peaceful refuge on a prominent hill in the area once occupied by the U.S. military.  Sunday meetings in the chapel next to the Temple were conducted in a mix of English and Spanish, each person speaking in the language with which they were most comfortable and translation services back and forth between the two language being provided.  We enjoyed our visit to Panama very much.