Unesco cards from Panama

These are my 2nd and 3rd cards from Panama and both from Unesco sites missing in my list. The 1st, sent by Steffi, shows the ruins of Old Cathedral in Panama Viejo and the 2nd the Teribe Indians in Bocas del Toro, where the La Amistad International Park is located. The 2nd card was sent by Yvonne.

Distribuidora Lewis, S.A.

Founded in 1519 by the conquistador Pedrarías Dávila, Panamá Viejo is the oldest European settlement on the Pacific coast of the Americas. It was laid out on a rectilinear grid and marks the transference from Europe of the idea of a planned town. Abandoned in the mid-17th century, it was replaced by a ‘new town’ (the ‘Historic District’), which has also preserved its original street plan, its architecture and an unusual mixture of Spanish, French and early American styles. - http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/790

Distribuidora Lewis, S. A.

La Amistad National Park is located in the provinces of Chiriqui and Bocas Del Toro, and extends into Costa Rica. It covers approximately 511,000 acres of mountainous terrain in the Cordillera de Talamanca mountain range. The park is famous for its cloudforests, where the trees form a canopy that creates a cool, misty atmosphere on the forest floor.
Four different Indian tribes inhabit this property and the Teribe are one of those tribes.

Panama Canal

After Ethiopia and Tanzania, Panama is the newest country in my collection. Last monday i've received this Panama Canal card sent from Brazil by Ana Letícia. The cards shows the "SS Ancón" on August 15th, 1914, the day the Panama Canal was officially opened.

"The 48 mile-long (77 km) international waterway known as the Panama Canal allows ships to pass between the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean, saving about 8000 miles (12,875 km) from a journey around the southern tip of South America, Cape Horn.

From 1819, Panama was part of the federation and country of Colombia but when Colombia rejected United States plans to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama, the U.S. supported a revolution that led to the independence of Panama in 1903.

The new Panamanian government authorized French businessman Philippe Bunau-Varilla, to negotiate a treaty with the United States. The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty allowed the U.S. to build the Panama Canal and provided for perpetual control of a zone five-miles wide on either side of the canal.

Although the French had attempted construction of a canal in the 1880s, the Panama Canal was successfully built from 1904 to 1914. Once the canal was complete the U.S. held a swath of land running the approximately 50 miles across the isthmus of Panama.
The 1977 treaty established the canal as a neutral international waterway and even in times of war any vessel is guaranteed safe passage. After the 1999 hand-over, the U.S. and Panama jointly shared duties in defending the canal.

The canal makes the trip from the east coast to the west coast of the U.S. much shorter than the route taken around the tip of South America prior to 1914. Though traffic continues to increase through the canal, many oil supertankers and military battleships and aircraft carriers can not fit through the canal. There's even a class of ships known as "Panamax," those built to the maximum capacity of the Panama canal and its locks.

It takes approximately fifteen hours to traverse the canal through its three sets of locks (about half the time is spent waiting due to traffic). Ships passing through the canal from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean actually move from the northwest to the southeast, due to the east-west orientation of the Isthmus of Panama." - in: http://geography.about.com/od/specificplacesofinterest/a/panamacanal.htm