November 3 – Dominica and Panama Celebrate Today

nPostednon November 3, 2013

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nDominicanis not the Dominican Republic.

nAnd Panama is not just a canal.

Dominicanis an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. It is almost the size in land area of New York City—but not even quite thatnbig. (NYC is the largest city in the U.S. by population, but only then24^th largest by land area.)

nPanamanis that skinny nation where South America meets North America. Itsnlocation and its narrow shape made it inevitable that Panama wouldnplay an important role as people explored and traded and traveled. Inn1881 France began to build a canal across the narrowest part but hadnto stop because of engineering difficulties and because the workersnwere dropping like flies from disease. In 1904 the U.S. started worknon the canal and met with the same sorts of disasters; however, in 1914 the canal was finally complete and the worldngot a lot smaller.
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nTodaynDominica celebrates its 1978 independence from the United Kingdom,nand Panama celebrates Separation Day, its 1903 declaration ofnindependence from Colombia.

nCoolnstuff…

Evennthough the nation of Dominica is so tiny, it is home to the secondnlargest hot spring. Boiling Lake is what is called a floodednfumarole. (A fumarole is an opening in the earth’s crust that emitsnsteam and gases.) The gray-blue water is always bubbling and boilingnaway, so there is always grayish steam enveloping the area. Becausenthe lake has been formed from volcanic activity, it is alwaysnchanging in size and depth. For example, in 1880 the lakendisappeared, and instead there was a geyser-like fountain of hotnwater and steam.

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You can see that, because the top part of
the map represents north and therefore east
is to the right and west is to the left, there
are parts of Panama that have the Pacific
to the east and the Atlantic (the
Caribbean) to the west.

Panamanis the only place in the world where you can see the sun rise on thenPacific and set on the Atlantic. That’s because the land bends aroundnin an S shape so that, in one spot, there is a bay of the Pacific tonthe east and a bay of the Atlantic to the west.

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Panamanhas a lot of diversity of plants and animals, with species from Northnas well as South America and more than 1,200 varieties of orchids.

Inn1838 Dominica became the first British Caribbean colony to have anlegislature controlled by an African majority. In 1999 Panama electednthe second female head of state in Central America, Mireya Moscoso.

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Panamanhas one of the stronger economies in Central America and arguably thenbest per capita. (Per capita means “for each person.” Whenntalking per capita, you’re talking percentages—it’s a way ofncomparing economies of large, populous nations with smaller, lessnpopulous nations. Panama has the second lowest population in CentralnAmerica but the second largest Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. It hasnthe highest GDP per capita.)

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Dominicanhas a slightly higher GDP per capita than Panama—but only the sixthnhighest among Caribbean nations. I know that Panama gets a lot ofntourism, especially with all the cruise ships going through thatncanal! But maybe tourists in the Caribbean stay a little longer andnspend a little more money on lodging, food, and entertainment.