(Martes Financiero) The first thunder was heard and felt a slight tremor. The land was gradually falling, shifting the perimeter wall and the three small structures that were hosting the quarterfinals of the soldiers of Fort Santiago de la Gloria in Portobelo.
“You could hear when the earth shook. People ran, “says Preciado Catui, who live 50 yards away.
And Schultz, a youth group saw the guns fell to the ground and the mud was coming to the parade ground where gunpowder was stored, prepared the bullets and was set all the weapons that are used to protect the area from pirates that roamed the area.
It is estimated that in this structure, which already had a decline in the domes of the checkpoints and the wall facing the sea, came about a thousand 300 cubic meters of sludge alone in the courtyard, which has already withdrawn 50 %, calculated in charge of the Board of Portobelo and San Lorenzo.
At that site, before December 8, 2010, when the structure collapsed by the avalanche of mud, were already doing the work of restoration of port and the sea wall, said Anya Lopez, executive director of the board.
According to this dependence, since the September 15, 2010 had begun to invest about $ 650,000 to make all the improvements.
Furthermore, the accumulation of mud in the strong, costs have increased and “have taken the basic funds were already earmarked for its restoration. Now, to remove debris from the site, has had to spend more than $ 30 000 “details.
Rodolfo Suñe is the architect of the field, and says that all this mud fell on them as “cold water” because it had already advanced the work of restoration by the recommendation made by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational and Science).
Last year, this international organization had recommended to Panama servicing the infrastructure, as there was a deteriorating infrastructure, poor maintenance and lack of environmental conservation.
“They hired two crews (10 men each) to take out additional stones and mud that came to the fort, but also are working on restoration teams in the domes, the battery, the input and a fracture is next to the wall that faces the sea, “he explains.
There in the fort itself is a group of three Italian students, who made her senior thesis on the structure of Portobelo.
The students of the University of the Arts in Florence, Italy, admit that the structure is very wasteful, especially the booths, which are damaged.
The structure is pretty good, you should only restore the damaged parts and servicing, recommended.
Other work
But in Columbus these are not the only work being performed. In Portobelo, five minutes from Santiago de la Gloria is the other stronger, St. Jerome.
Although it did not sit mud, the patronage is working on the consolidation of the domes that is what else is concerned, in addition to cleaning the walls of debris, to remove all the sediments there have been over the years.
In addition to these works, there are still other pending: the of Fort San Lorenzo.
For this year there is a budget of $ 800,000 for improvements to the monuments of Colon (Portobelo and San Lorenzo), says Sandra Cerrud, National Director of Historical Heritage of National Culture Institute (INAC).
But it takes $ 2 million minimum for “the restoration is stronger.”
Jobs in San Lorenzo are also moving. There are cleaning because the condition is “much better” than that of Portobelo.
“Cleanliness is not so deep, you just have to build some walls up and sometimes fall off and clean the flora that grows. In Portobelo the situation is different because it is more exposed to the road, but now is running the budget, because before we were dead, “says Cerrud, meaning that before that was done was little or nothing.
The conditions surrounding the monumental complex of San Lorenzo has improved considerably, according to Raul Mariot, head of protective forest and protected landscape of San Lorenzo.
Prior to this entity supported by patronage, however, the work was not so specialized now does a contractor.
“Every 15 days a concessionary contract with the patronage does the cleaning,” says Mariot. Among the plans also includes the construction of a visitor center, in order to receive tourists.
This would cost $ 300 000, but do not know when they will start work.
In turn, the Panama Tourism Authority (PTA) is scheduled to make 45 000 $ 472 for the installation of information signs both in Portobelo and San Lorenzo, explains Jaime Cornejo, director of planning and tourism development of the ATP.
While all this happens, a group of foreign tourists still coming strong both in Santiago de la Gloria and the San Jeronimo to see the ruins. The same happens on the other hand, in San Lorenzo.
The ruined city
Besides the two monumental complexes in Colon, Panama Viejo, together with the Old Town of Panama City has been declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
Therefore, the first city of Panama runs a master plan that seeks to integrate the city in ruins and do a great archaeological park closed to visitors only.
The Board of Panama Viejo has projected a budget of 85 thousand to 90 thousand dollars annually for the conservation of the site. This does not include the budgets for special jobs. Additionally, is spending between 150 thousand and 175 thousand dollars for the maintenance of the urban, light poles, garbage collection and so on.
In this city have been rebuilt three of the largest ruins in the area: the Society of Jesus, which had a cost of $ 250 000; the reconstruction of the main tower, at 850 thousand dollars, and the restoration of the Convento de la Concepción, that was between 400 000 and 450 thousand dollars, because there were two stages in which work was carried out.
But Juliet Arango, director of the Patronato Panama Viejo, says there are other scheduled jobs. For the month of March has provided the output of artisans from the Plaza Mayor to the new crafts center, located next to the visitor center, and keep adapting it to the site.
The investment will be $ 2 million and the project will be ready in 2013.
In this place there are plans to increase the volume of the plaza, improve the urban-so you can better understand the spaces of the old city, “and can be made interactive exhibits and learn how they were colonial houses of the time.
In this historic site are received annually from 75 thousand to 80 thousand people, and that number is growing 10% each year.
“We have a continuous and ongoing project to revitalize the site, every month you change the pieces of wood that support the more fragile structures, fumigated and the vegetation were removed,” explains.
But Arango expected soon make changes to the streets in order to close the road Cinquantenaire and that area is only for passing tourists.
“We seek a mechanism to transport them internally,” he adds.
Across the city, and Cultural Heritage Site by Unesco, is the Old Town. Those living there are very neglected site and with little interest by the Government to improve it.
Gisela Prieto, president of the Neighborhood Association of San Felipe, is very critical as to the declaration of Unesco is necessary to keep older residents of the area, which is part of the culture sector.
She details the sector has serious problems on the pavements because lorries pass for private construction and are very destroyed.
For its part, Patrizia Pinzon, of the Neighborhood Association and Friends of Casco Antiguo (QALY), says there have been some repairs such as the Arco Chato is not open to the public.
Two weeks ago, announced the company’s contract Restorations Integral SA, 560 000 $ 380, to perform the second stage of preliminary studies for the preparation of plans for restoration of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Panama.
“There will be strong intervention because there are hidden windows, floors and roof are damaged as well,” says Cerrud.
Although the place had already made some repairs and maintenance work in 1999 and 2004 in the interior and exterior walls, and painting, glass, electrical repairs and roof, Cerrud says, “the results were not optimal and is being reviewed who intervened because the materials used were not the best, “he says.
But restorations are being made in the Church of La Merced. The roof, the altar and bell towers are being restored at a cost of $ 298 000.
Ecclesiastical and former
The most emblematic monuments and Panama are oldest churches, it is therefore necessary to invest in improving and maintaining their infrastructure for their historic value.
For example, in December 2010 was delivered to St. James Church of Nata after its roof was restored at a cost of 74 thousand 970 dollars.
However, the president of the Foundation Nata de Los Caballeros Siglo XXI, Hildaura Carranza, said that there are still traces of moths on the ceiling of the image of San Juan Bosco, also one of the pillars of Mount Calvary was painted white error and the wiring of the lights was not because of the way it was before.
The projects are planned within the country are also focused on these areas.
The Church of Santo Domingo Guzman Parita-the oldest in the country, has no altar, and will invest $ 30 000 for colonial and church designs, “this is the first phase, but we do not know what it will cost the second to be held in 2012, “said Cornejo.
In Veraguas also rebuild the roof of the Church of San Francisco on the Mount, at a cost of $ 20 000.
And in La Palma, Darien, will restore the forts at a cost of $ 95 000. Site where soldiers watched the arrival of the ships, had weapons, gunpowder and a small fort.
Other monuments in the project and that is very damaged and unstable external tower of the Cathedral of San José de David, Chiriquí. A structure dating from the nineteenth century.
There, the Movement for the Restoration of Historical Heritage of Chiriqui and the Cathedral of San José de David has applied for restoration of the tower, but no budget has been granted for repairs.
Given the situation of detachment from the materials that make up the tower, asked the National Traffic Department to install signs prohibiting heavy vehicles passing through the perimeter, and that should be protected because it is one of the few monuments historic province, said Milagro Sánchez, a member of this movement.
This tower is visited by tourists who take advantage of historical value to take pictures.
But this year has not yet made its reconstruction, the ATP has it in their projects of 2012, as well as the installation of a visitor center in El Caño de Nata, at a cost of $ 500 000.
The idea of restoring all these places is that they can publish more historical sites, before they deteriorate further.
For now, it has been thought to give the degree of National Monument to the central plaza of Isla Colon in Bocas del Toro, La Mitra in La Chorrera and other sites of Aguadulce, Penonomé, Santiago and Pedasi, to give more thrust the most emblematic areas of the country.
(With information from Amada Racero, Zabdy Barria and Sandra Alicia Rivera).