I was sitting here in my Panama Room at home on this fine Easter Sunday and was looking at my bottle collection on the walls.  I thought back of to those great days digging these beautiful glass gems from when the Canal was being dug.  I thought of my old digging buddy Eddie Stern.  He was one heck of bottle digger!!  No pit was to deep or too hard to dig for Eddie. Eddie worked for the Canal Zone Postal Service.  I recently found this photo of Eddie digging one of his pits near the old town of Bas Obispo on the bank of the Mandinga River. We dug some great bottles out of this old dump. Because of it's size, this must have been the city dump for Bas Obispo and surrounding areas. We dug here off and on for many years.  

I watched Dredging Division shoot (dynamite) this whole area one day not long before I left Panama.  I guess it was around 1995. I was on my way home and when I got to the Gamboa Bridge, there was all kinds of fan fare and spectators looking over towards the west bank.  I pulled over and got out to see what was going on.  I asked and I was told that they were doing an experimental shoot with a new type of explosive and method.  I hung out to watch and could not believe my eyes when they shot the load!  This ground at the mouth of the Mandinga River went up in the air many feet and came back down.  The ground shook like a earthquake.  Then there was a large surge wave that came across the channel towards us.  It was incredible!!  This blast was the end of any bottles we missed and was the beginning of the "New Generation Canal Widening Project"! (Click to see cut widening photos)

Eddie is no longer with us today, he passed away while in his prime from leukemia.  Although Eddie couldn't dig in his later days, he went with us out in the jungle to still be part of the dig.  He would sit there and tell us about all the bottles that were still there just waiting for us to find.  And Eddie was right, there are still lots of bottles out there to be found.  Dedicated to Eddie Stern.