Panama is the only country in the world where you can see the sun rise in the Pacific Ocean and set in the Atlantic Ocean from the top of the country's highest point, the Barú Volcano. The dollar was its official currency in 1904 after its independence from Colombia and the agreement to build the Canal in the country. In the 16th century, the pearl known as La Peregrina was found in the Pearl Archipelago of Panama. This pearl was given to Don Pedro De Temez, the administrator of the Spanish Crown in Panama.
The pearl became part of the royal jewels of the Spanish and English crown, and eventually ended up in the hands of Elizabeth Taylor as a gift from her husband Richard Burton. After the death of Elizabeth Taylor, the pearl was auctioned at Christie's in New York as part of her personal collection. In the 15th century, Fernández de Enciso and Vasco Núñez de Balboa founded the city of Santa María la Antigua on the Atlantic side of the current province of Darién. This was the first city in the American continent built by Europeans and the first diocese on the continent.
On August 15, 1516, Pedro Arias Dávila founded the city of Our Lady of the Assumption in Panama, it was the first European city built on the Pacific Ocean side of the American continent. The first European princess of African descent was Angela Brown, born in Bocas del Toro, Panama. She married Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein in 2000, becoming the first woman of African descent to be part of a European royal family. Designed by the world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, the Biomuseo is his the only work in Latin America and the tropics.
The building was designed to tell the story of how the Isthmus of Panama rose from the sea, uniting two continents, separating a vast ocean in two and changing the planet's biodiversity forever. There are 986 bird species recorded in Panama, surpassing the United States, which has 914 species. This makes Panama a popular destination for birdwatchers from around the world. The Gage biplane from the NASM collection is known as Fowler-Gage, in recognition of its owner and pilot, Robert G, Fowler.
Starting in October 1912, Fowler flew numerous exhibition and passenger flights in California. He made his most famous airplane flight in 1913, flying from ocean to ocean through Panama. You can see the plane at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The harpy eagle (Harpia harpyja) is one of the largest eagles in the world.
It has a body length of between 3 and 3.5 feet, a wingspan of up to 6.5 feet, and weighs between 9 and 20 pounds. Smithsonian biologists were invited to Panama in 1910 during the construction of the Panama Canal. His studies of the flora and fauna of Panama were the first steps toward creating a first-class platform for research in the tropics. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute was founded with the purpose of increasing and sharing knowledge about the past, present and future of tropical ecosystems and their relevance for human well-being.
Panama has an area of 75,517 square kilometers (29,157 square miles), making it slightly smaller than the United States. The country is very diverse with mountains, rainforests, beautiful white sand beaches and 1,500 islands. The Darién Gap, from Panama City to Colombia, has about 12 million acres of rainforest, but few Panamanians or tourists visit the area, which can only be accessed by boat. The national flower is a white orchid called Flor del Espíritu Santo or Flor del Holy Spirit.
There are more than 1,400 species of trees, including the square tree, which has a square trunk and is found in the mountains west of Panama City.
