Always new things to learn in Panama.  One is the airstrip which the Panamerican highway tunnels under about 1-2 hours west of Panama City.  I have been driven under the runway on six occasions and have never seen a plane nor really much in the way of any activity at all. Local Lions club members told me it was just an expensive affair on the government’s part to attract tourists to an underdeveloped area of the coast.  This is true regarding the last decade or so of the airstrip’s life but does not explain the rest of the history of the site.