Scottish mission to Panama

How should we characterize the presentation of Colonel John Blashford-Snell, OBE to September’s monthly gathering of the Panama Historical Society?

Was it a swashbuckling tale of hardcore criminals, one of them also an Ecuadoran temptress, escaping through the jungle? Or was it a drinking story, featuring a wild Irishman into whose hands no right-thinking Briton would place a gun, a military strongman slugging down the scotch in the morning hours, and cases of alcohol being exchanged for necessary government permits and favors? Or was it a chronicle of the car ad from Hell?

Actually, it was all of these things and more. Blashford-Snell first came to Panama back in the early 1970s, when the British Ministry of Defense was curious about the possibility of extending the Pan- American Highway through the Darien Gap and the UK auto industry was eager to show that one of its brand-new products, the first model of the Range Rover, could make it through that jungle divide. So off went Colonel Blashford-Snell, along with a hardcore Gurkha infantryman, an assortment of military engineers and scientists, and of course film crews and the driving teams that had brought these two Range Rovers down the road from Alaska and intended to get through the jungle and drive all the way to Tierra del Fuego.

It’s a long story, wonderfully told to the larger than usual crowd that flocked to the Panama Historical Society’s usual first Wednesday of the month at 7:30 meeting in the upstairs room at the Balboa Niko’s. Yes, the cars did get through (albeit after it was found that the differential gear really needed to be redesigned for future models) and the colonel lived to talk about it.

Now, thanks in large part to some funding by the renowned Scottish actor Sean Connery, Blashford-Snell will be coming back to Panama for another jungle mission, From late December through late January, a Scottish mission will be in Kuna Yala and the Darien to uncover and explore the ruins of the ill-fated late 17th century Scottish settlement at Caledonia Bay, as well as the nearby early 16th century Spanish settlement of Acla, which was itself built on a pre-Columbian indigenous site who traces the archaeologists would like to discover and study.

Some of the old Scottish settlement, and some of the ruins of Acla, are already known. There is still a lot more for the archaeologists to uncover, survey and examine. At the Scottish colony, they want to extend existing surveys of Fort St. Andrews and the village of New Edinburgh and especially want to find the settlement’s graveyard, which has so far eluded researchers.

Vasco Núñez de Balboa’s town of Acla, traces of which have recently been identified, is one of those archaeological sites that has the potential to bring in tourists and generate income for the impoverished comarca of Kuna Yala, and a part of the mission will be to discover artifacts to be housed in a new museum that the Kunas plan to build.

Marine archaeologists plan to revisit the wreck of The Olive Branch, a ship that burned and sank in the bay while on a mission to supply the doomed colony, where more than 2,000 men, women and children succumbed to mosquito-borne pestilence and other hardships. (And what of the survivors? Did you ever wonder where Darien, Connecticut got its name? Those settlers who left Caledonia Bay alive made their way to North America, hence the name of that New England town where they settled.)

Then there will be the biological surveys, both of the flora and fauna on the land and of the marine environment of Caledonia Bay’s coral reefs.

Even with a famous actor and various official agencies lending their support, this mission has unmet financial needs and its participants are paying their own expenses. If you or a company or institution of which you are a part might be interested in co- sponsoring the 2003-2004 Caledonia Bay Expedition, contact Andrew Coates by email at andrewcoates@pa.inter.net .

Also in this section:
The Theatre Guild of Ancon wants YOU
Journalist, US Embassy, foundations get wheelchairs for Darien residents
Briton tells of jungle adventures past and future

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The colonel speaks of his Panama adventure, and of another one to come