View of Panamá City from Casco Viejo
After just one month in Panamá I’m off to Bogotá to do a little traveling through Colombia. I unfortunately had only a little time to get to know Panamá because of work so I spent most of time in the city. When I come back I definitely would like to check out the beaches and get to know the country better.
I found Panamá City to be much more cosmopolitan than San Jose. I get the impression that San Jose tends to cater more towards the single male retiree whereas here I met quite a few young professionals from various parts of the world. Panamá also has a great variety of restaurants. I actually found a good Thai restaurant which is not common at all in most of Latin America. I also fell in love with their multitude of Lebanese restaurants.
Just outside the center of Panamá there is a very beautiful albeit a bit run down neighborhood called Casco Viejo. The neighborhood is full of old Spanish colonial buildings and also has the Presidential Palace. I took a little walk around the neighborhood a few weeks back and got the impression that it would be a great area to find a property to renovate. The neighborhood is much calmer and doesn’t have a big city feel at all.
I did manage to make it out of the city twice. Once I went to a beach about an hour outside of the Panamá city called Santa Clara and another time to the second biggest city Colón which is known for its duty free zone. Santa Clara has a nice clean beach with a few bars. We went just for a day and it unfortunately happened to rain. It’s nice to live in a city and have a decent beach so close. Colón was very run down and for the few hours I was there I can’t find any reason to recommend going there. The duty free zone also caters almost explicitly to wholesalers so it’s not worth a visit at least as a tourist.
Overall I had a great time in Panamá. I’m probably very biased though because I had some wonderful roommates. I definitely would like to come back some day and I definitely could consider living here.
Iglesia San Jose in Casco Viejo
The Presidential Palace
Fred, Maggy, Olga, and I in Santa Clara
One last party on the balcony before heading off to Colombia