Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Starting with World War II, Panama experienced a great boom of economic activity, increased infrastructure and better standards of living. By the 1960's and into the 1970's Panama began to expand postal service in the country.
It is hard to say whether these post offices are open anymore. The map of post offices provided in a map by the Correos y Telégrafos Nacionales de Panamá website seems to only give a limited number of post office locations (the second biggest city of Colon is not listed as having any post offices, which of course is not true).
Here is the link for that map:
http://www.correospanama.gob.pa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=37
Here is a map of the provinces of Panama. Those provinces with the prefix "Comarca" are areas under the administration of indigenous peoples. You might think of these as Indian Reservations in the United States, with the exception that these places are where these indigenous people historically lived. The first comarca was that of San Blas (now called Kuna Yala) officially formed in 1953 (a process that was started by declaration of war in 1923 by the native peoples). The most recently formed comarca was that of the Ngoble-Buglé which was just formed in 1997 (a concession gained by learning how to lobby the government quite successfully).
_________________________________________________________________________________
Ustupo, Kuna Yala Province (administered by the Kuna native peoples)- The town is on a small island off the northeastern coast of Panama. The current population is about 2514.
A small picture from the air.
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Progreso, Province of Chiriqui
Population (2010) 11.402
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Las Tablas, Los Santos Province
Population 27,146 (2010)
I will grant this is not a particularly small town for Panama, and Las Tablas is the capital of the province of Los Santos. It is also the cultural heart of the country (at least for that part of Panamanian culture that deals with the colonial era under Spain).
Las Tablas also has the distinction of being one of the places I have visited.
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Playon Chico (Ukupseni in the Kuna language), Kuna Yala Province
Population 3000 (approximately)
This is another of the larger towns in the Kuna Yala Native American province. As with Ustupo featured earlier, it is on an island. In this case it is but 100 meters from shore where there is a small airstrip to bring in tourists and supplies. The name Playon Chico means "little beach".
Here is a picture of the town from the air. The Kuna people have historically done three things, fish, serve as sailors on merchant ships and sew beautiful images.
Here is a group of Kuna women while in Panama City. The frontispiece of their blouses is reverse applique. It is made up primarily of layers of colored cloth sewn onto the back of whatever color cloth is going to be the frame color for the item. Then the cloth on top is cut away in a pattern, and sewn under itself to make a smooth seam, leaving the various colored cloths underneath to show through with whatever design they choose. Sometimes they also use stitchwork to further adorn it. Each rectangular frontispiece is entirely and meticulously sewn by hand.
When I was a young lad, you wouldn't find a Kuna woman without a golden nose ring (as one of the ladies in the picture does have). The practice seems to be dying out. Yet, the Kuna still hold fiercely to many traditions, and rarely if ever marry outside the tribe.
As a result, the simple nature of their economy means they leave a very small footprint on the ecology, leaving this area of Panama utterly pristine as can be seen in the picture of Playon Chico. There is a wooden walkway spanning the water between the island and the mainland.
Here is a map of it's location, again on the northwestern coast of Panama.
And lastly, here is the cover. The registered mail postal marking is being used as a cancel I believe, which is why there is no registered number. The cover was likely mailed in the late 1960's or early 1970's.
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Thank you Phil.
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Antonio,
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Regards ... Tim.
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Very informative!
I am a Costa Rica specialist, so I like seeing other items from Latin America.
Thank-you for sharing.
David
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Thank you, gentlemen. I suspect I may have a few more to add.
David, yes, of course some Panamanians are still sore about having to give up a big chunk of our original territory to Costa Rica. 
Antonio
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10:35:34am
Nice covers and very easy to read maps. It happens that while I am here in Ls Vegas I have been working with my grand daughter on geography using copies of the maps that were always at the front of the Scotts International albums. They are "Cleartype Maps" so there are no colors or names. I brought multiple copies of North and South America as well as Europe.
Over several weeks she has written in the appropriate names of nations, their capitals, rivers, lakes, bays oceans with associated seas, states and provinces. Combining that with stamps that illustrate those countries and their major exports makes it more interesting. I doubt she will ever forget the lesson about coffee beans when I sang that;
" ..... They say among Brazilians, coffee beans grow by the millions ....." and so on.
Of course, we had a good discussion of " ... A man, a plan, a yak, a yam, a canal, Panama. ..." , Teddy Roosevelt and both Walter Reed and William Goethals.
Because of the gooseneck shape of the isthmus a vessel sailing west from the Atlantic to the Pacific ends up south and somewhat further east when it enters the Pacific than it was when the transit started at the Caribbean entrance.
Since she has to fill in the information herself the knowledge is easier to absorb and the retention is greater.
So, when she gets back from an overnight, I'll show her these maps and the covers.
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I think your original map was not intended to show all the post offices. Judging from the fact that only one post office is shown for each region, those shown are the regional headquarters post offices. Just an intelligent ( or not ! ) guess.
Malcolm
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My favourite Panama stamps are the Map overprints, however they only show one city, Colon.
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And the city of Panama, I believe.
Tad
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Thanks Copy555! Silly me, I thought that was designating the country name or the canal, without looking at the map above 
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Introduction -
Starting with World War II, Panama experienced a great boom of economic activity, increased infrastructure and better standards of living. By the 1960's and into the 1970's Panama began to expand postal service in the country.
It is hard to say whether these post offices are open anymore. The map of post offices provided in a map by the Correos y Telégrafos Nacionales de Panamá website seems to only give a limited number of post office locations (the second biggest city of Colon is not listed as having any post offices, which of course is not true).
Here is the link for that map:
http://www.correospanama.gob.pa/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=73&Itemid=37
Here is a map of the provinces of Panama. Those provinces with the prefix "Comarca" are areas under the administration of indigenous peoples. You might think of these as Indian Reservations in the United States, with the exception that these places are where these indigenous people historically lived. The first comarca was that of San Blas (now called Kuna Yala) officially formed in 1953 (a process that was started by declaration of war in 1923 by the native peoples). The most recently formed comarca was that of the Ngoble-Buglé which was just formed in 1997 (a concession gained by learning how to lobby the government quite successfully).
_________________________________________________________________________________
Ustupo, Kuna Yala Province (administered by the Kuna native peoples)- The town is on a small island off the northeastern coast of Panama. The current population is about 2514.
A small picture from the air.
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re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Progreso, Province of Chiriqui
Population (2010) 11.402
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re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Las Tablas, Los Santos Province
Population 27,146 (2010)
I will grant this is not a particularly small town for Panama, and Las Tablas is the capital of the province of Los Santos. It is also the cultural heart of the country (at least for that part of Panamanian culture that deals with the colonial era under Spain).
Las Tablas also has the distinction of being one of the places I have visited.
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re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Playon Chico (Ukupseni in the Kuna language), Kuna Yala Province
Population 3000 (approximately)
This is another of the larger towns in the Kuna Yala Native American province. As with Ustupo featured earlier, it is on an island. In this case it is but 100 meters from shore where there is a small airstrip to bring in tourists and supplies. The name Playon Chico means "little beach".
Here is a picture of the town from the air. The Kuna people have historically done three things, fish, serve as sailors on merchant ships and sew beautiful images.
Here is a group of Kuna women while in Panama City. The frontispiece of their blouses is reverse applique. It is made up primarily of layers of colored cloth sewn onto the back of whatever color cloth is going to be the frame color for the item. Then the cloth on top is cut away in a pattern, and sewn under itself to make a smooth seam, leaving the various colored cloths underneath to show through with whatever design they choose. Sometimes they also use stitchwork to further adorn it. Each rectangular frontispiece is entirely and meticulously sewn by hand.
When I was a young lad, you wouldn't find a Kuna woman without a golden nose ring (as one of the ladies in the picture does have). The practice seems to be dying out. Yet, the Kuna still hold fiercely to many traditions, and rarely if ever marry outside the tribe.
As a result, the simple nature of their economy means they leave a very small footprint on the ecology, leaving this area of Panama utterly pristine as can be seen in the picture of Playon Chico. There is a wooden walkway spanning the water between the island and the mainland.
Here is a map of it's location, again on the northwestern coast of Panama.
And lastly, here is the cover. The registered mail postal marking is being used as a cancel I believe, which is why there is no registered number. The cover was likely mailed in the late 1960's or early 1970's.
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re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Thank you Phil.
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this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Antonio,
Thanks for taking the time to share this with us. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Regards ... Tim.
Login to Like
this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Very informative!
I am a Costa Rica specialist, so I like seeing other items from Latin America.
Thank-you for sharing.
David
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this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Thank you, gentlemen. I suspect I may have a few more to add.
David, yes, of course some Panamanians are still sore about having to give up a big chunk of our original territory to Costa Rica.
Antonio
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Silence in the face of adversity is the father of complicity and collusion, the first cousins of conspiracy..
29 Jun 2014
10:35:34am
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Nice covers and very easy to read maps. It happens that while I am here in Ls Vegas I have been working with my grand daughter on geography using copies of the maps that were always at the front of the Scotts International albums. They are "Cleartype Maps" so there are no colors or names. I brought multiple copies of North and South America as well as Europe.
Over several weeks she has written in the appropriate names of nations, their capitals, rivers, lakes, bays oceans with associated seas, states and provinces. Combining that with stamps that illustrate those countries and their major exports makes it more interesting. I doubt she will ever forget the lesson about coffee beans when I sang that;
" ..... They say among Brazilians, coffee beans grow by the millions ....." and so on.
Of course, we had a good discussion of " ... A man, a plan, a yak, a yam, a canal, Panama. ..." , Teddy Roosevelt and both Walter Reed and William Goethals.
Because of the gooseneck shape of the isthmus a vessel sailing west from the Atlantic to the Pacific ends up south and somewhat further east when it enters the Pacific than it was when the transit started at the Caribbean entrance.
Since she has to fill in the information herself the knowledge is easier to absorb and the retention is greater.
So, when she gets back from an overnight, I'll show her these maps and the covers.
Login to Like
this post
12:35:29pm
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
I think your original map was not intended to show all the post offices. Judging from the fact that only one post office is shown for each region, those shown are the regional headquarters post offices. Just an intelligent ( or not ! ) guess.
Malcolm
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this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
My favourite Panama stamps are the Map overprints, however they only show one city, Colon.
Login to Like
this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
And the city of Panama, I believe.
Tad
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this post
re: Panama Small Town and Neighborhood Post Offices
Thanks Copy555! Silly me, I thought that was designating the country name or the canal, without looking at the map above
Login to Like
this post