2/7/2011: Panama City, Panama

Downtown seen from Casco Viejo

Bridge of the Americas

Cerro Ancon (the big hill in the middle of town)

Revolution Tower - the floors spin!

Nickle Tour: Panama City is a bustling capital and a world city.  It’s a diverse city of contrasts complete with Chinese bankers, Afro-Antillean immigrants come Panamanians, sky-scapers, slums and of course, the Canal.  However, we found the City (and surrounding region) to have a relatively un-developed infrastructure for tourism, which can be both good and bad.

Travel Tip: If you’re on a long journey and need “it” or simply missing the States, visit any of the City’s malls and you’ll find anything from movie theaters (including an Alamo-esque dine-in cinema), Cartier, 4-star restaurants (and KFC-food courts), Payless shoes and outdoor stores.

See:  Below is a suggested itinerary for 24 hours in the City.  If you have more time and/or are interested in a couple of day-trips from Panama City, check out this post

At the Miraflores Visitor's Center overlooking the locks

Morning: The Miraflores Locks and Visitor’s Center is a must see.  *Hot tip* The best time to see ships pass through these locks is from 9-11am or 3-5pm.  The museum offers a great overview of the Canal: its history, the layout and construction.  The movie, however, views like propaganda  . . .  You can view ships, tour the museum and have lunch at the restaurant ($20 pp for a buffet that’s ample but not extraordinary – just do it anyway) in about 3 hours.  *Hot tip* While you can get a taxi to take you to the Locks and then another to take you back, often a taxi will wait for you to complete your visit.  This should cost you about $20 (from Amador). 

Panal Canal Administration Building

 In regard to the Panal Canal Administration Building, unless you’re an art/history freak or have the time, you might want to skip it.  The murals and the view is cool, yes, but I wouldn’t consider it a “must-see” on your bucket list.  More interesting to me is the fact that they paid the artist $30K in commission – not bad for the early 20^th – or the architecture of the surrounding gov buildings which look exactly the same as all of the Texa A&I buildings my Dad taught at in Kingsville, TX, because they were built by the same military funds.


Afternoon: You can easily wander around Casco Viejo in a couple of hours.  Stay towards the southeast portion of the peninsula as the area is surrounded by slums.  Highlights include meandering around neighborhood to view the restored, semi-restored and crumbling buildings, the beautiful little square of Plaza de la Independencia, which houses the Panama Canal Museum,  and Parque Bolivar which houses the President’s Palace, and the Embajada de Francia Park at the tip of the Peninsula with views of downtown and the Causeway.  Hungry?  Drop by the Fish Market for cheap seafood that you pick out downstairs and they prepare upstairs.   Need a drink?  Try out the classy Havana Bar.

Typical Casco Viejo building

Other things to do include getting a panoramic view of the City by hiking to the top of Cerro Ancon, the big hill in the Canal Zone, and biking along the man-made, 3-mile long Amador Causeway. 

Gehry Museum, at left; Cerro Ancon, at right

Along the Causeway, you’ll pass the Frank Gehry-designed museum (under construction) and a branch of The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (pet starfish anyone?).  At the end of the Causeway there are a couple of restaurants.  I’d recommend stopping at Barko for their name-sake ceviche (ceviche made with coconut milk and jalapenos, yum).

Sleep:

While we stayed the first night in a hotel reminiscent of the Shining (Hotel Casco Antigua), we promptly moved out of the noisy and dangerous section of Casco Viejo to the Balboa district and into the Hostal Amador.  We were very pleased with The Hostal Amador which is more like a hotel than a typical hostal.  It’s $35 per night, has AC, is safe, is in a quiet neighborhood, includes breakfast, is  close to the Albrook Airport, the causeway, a $15 cab ride to Miraflores Locks, a $3-5 cab ride to Casco Viejo and $5 cab ride downtown – what more could you ask for?

Eats:

• Downtown:  Eurasia is a quaint, up-scale place that serves up delicious fusion meals. 10 Bistro is another up-scale eatery with two locations downtown (1 in the Multiplaza mall, where we ate before a movie.
• As previously mentioned, the ceviche at Barko at the end of the Causeway is worth the bike ride
• If you want to rub elbows with “the locals” try the Fish Market and Café Coca-Cola in Casco Viejo.  They both serve up good dishes in an authentic atmosphere.

More: 

Thoughts on the Canal: I’m completely blown away by the Canal.  It’s clearly an engineering marvel – sure, let’s survey an impassable jungle, invent new equipment for the project and dig the equivalent of through the Earth and then some.  But, from my public-policy-perspective, it’s a whole ‘nother miracle.  Consider that in order to build the Canal, the Americans had to build an ENTIRE CITY to support it – complete with a new-fangled socialized public health and roadway system (Don’t want malaria?  Pave ALL the streets and give everyone window screens!).  And, don’t forget the comforts American workers want at home: Rotary Clubs, the Boy Scouts, etc. Import, import, import, funds, funds, funds.  Again, as a public policy sucker who has witnessed tons of (awesome) government-funded projects go by the wayside (or not), it’s absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G to me to think of the grant requests to fund a bowling alley for officers, approved (or maybe not).