Traveling: Impressions From Panama City

 

Drivebycuriosity) - My Wife and I were traveling again. After visiting Miami & Cartagena (Colombia) we came to Panama City, where we stayed 5 days. The capital of Panama is relatively small (urban population 430,000/1,5 million metropolitan area) but has a skyline like Manhattan.

 

The place was founded in the year 1519, just 2 decades after Christoph Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, the so called discovery of America. It is interesting that the Panama Canal, finished in 1914, is just 10 miles (16 km) away.  It seems that the city´s founders & the constructors of the canal where both inspired by the isthmus, the shortest distance between Atlantic and Pacific Ocean on the American continent. But how could the early 16th century Spaniards know the American geography? Anyway, the founders seemed to own an impressive foresight.

The canal certainly influenced the city`s history & economy and created wealth for her citizens which we could see there. The ubiquitous bank towers also show that Panama City is a thriving global financial center. 

 

We enjoyed the stay very much. As any harbor town Panama City has a lot of water fronts which invite for pleasant walks and contributes to the beauty of this place.  

 

Apparently we arrived at the end of the rainy season. So the sky was often covered with massive clouds but - with the exception of a short downpour ( fortunately we found shelter) - we didn´t experience much rain.  Sometimes the thunder storm clouds combined with the skyline to dramatic pictures. Temperatures didn´t`t change much and stayed all day long in the low 80s F (high 20s C) and it was very humid.

 

Panama city has many faces. The center has a collection of fancy skyscrapers but the streets between the buildings are full of holes and sparsely lit in the night, typical for third world countries. 

 

Anyway I was impressed by the futuristic buildings.

 

and I enjoyed the beauty of the architecture.

 

Panama was once a province of Colombia and seceded in 1903, inspired by the Americans who needed a friendly partner for constructing & controlling the Panama Canal. We could still notice  strong Colombian influences and parts of the city reminded me of Medellin, which we have visited in February  (driveby). Like in  Colombia many people understand only Spanish, the traffic is fast & aggressive &  the modern & classy center is surrounded by slums.

 

But even the very poor parts of the city are very colorful  - as usual for tropical cities -, good motives for amateur photographers like me. 

 

Some parts of the city show influences from the nearby Caribbean and remind me of movies from old Havana.

 

Like comparable places Panama City has a touristy old town - called Casco Viejo - which mingles with a very poor area, the slum. There we spotted some nice churches and government buildings.

 

The old town has some ruins from historical buildings. Their walls looked sometimes like pieces of art.

 

We also spotted some murals & graffiti in the older parts of the city. Street art is global.

 

 

The streets are often clocked because the city`s traffic grew faster than her infrastructure and the taxi ride to the Tocumen International Airport through the sprawl was torturous slow. But fortunately we could take the modern subway inside the city. There is just one line, but the trains are fast and helped us to bridge large distances. There are also a lot buses, but everything is in Spanish and difficult to navigate for non-Spanish speakers. Fortunately shops, bars & restaurants accept US Dollars, even though Panama has a currency of her own.

 

The wet tropical climate creates a lush vegetation which we could observe allover the city. We enjoyed a hike in the Parque Natural Metropolitano, an area with a tropical rainforest within the city limits. The hike cost a lot of sweat but rewarded us with an amazing nature (here my report parque).

 

We also visited the nearby Mirafore locks of the Panama Canal of course (here my report  canal).

Being gourmets we were lucky to find 2 excellent restaurants: The Segundo Muelle serves delicious Peruvian food and their balcony offers an amazing view onto the waterfront and the gorgeous skyline   (Av Balboa  segundomuelle). We got surprised at the Laboratorio Madrigal in the Old Town (  frommers   madrigalpty ).  We had there 2 remarkable dinners. Their cevishe (or cebiche) with mango sorbet and a tropical fruit sauce will linger in my memory for a while.

Th

 

Visiting Panama City was a lot of fun and a remarkable experience.