Panama to Celebrate Discovery of Pacific Ocean

On September 25, 2013, Vasco Nunez de Balboa’s discovery of the Southern Sea, known today as the Pacific Ocean, turns five hundred years old.

A recently passed law creates the National Committee for the Celebration of the Fifth Centennial of the Discovery of the Pacific Ocean charged with organizing all the related commemorative events which will begin in September of 2012.  The law notes that this discovery converted Panama into the crossroads it is today and set the stage for globalization.

According to historical accounts of the time, Balboa was overcome by joy upon discovering the ocean from a Darien mountaintop and, to the puzzlement of the Indians in his company, prostrated himself in fervent thanksgiving to God before orating to his troops.

“You behold before you, friends, the object of all our desires and the reward of all our labors,” he said. “Before you roll the waves of the sea which has been announced to you, and which no doubt encloses the immense riches we have heard of. You are the first who have reached these shores and these waves; yours are their treasures, yours alone the glory of reducing these immense and unknown regions to the dominion of our King and to the light of the true religion. Follow me, then, faithful as hitherto, and I promise you that the world shall not hold your equals in wealth and glory. ”

The executive committee of the national committee will include the Office of the First Lady, Panama’s Tourism Authority, the National Cultural Inatitute, the Panama Viejo Board, Panama’s Kiwanis Club and the Foundation for a Better Panama.