Panama (city) - Panama (città)

Disambiguation - For toponyms of identical name, see Panama (disambiguation).

Panama (or Panama City, Panama, full name: Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Panamá) is the capital of Panama.

To know

Panama City is currently (year 2011) the 7th financial center in the world. Since the opening of the channel, many shipowners of nationality Greek mostly, they elected it as their official residence and the headquarters of their shipping companies, attracted by the tax exemption system granted by the state. Obviously they live elsewhere and their companies' shares are listed on the New York Stock Exchange and in the major financial markets on the planet. Panama City is also the refuge of several international villains persecuted in their country. For them, in fact, the law denies extradition.

The city is opulent as evidenced by the forest of skyscrapers that thickens from year to year becoming higher and higher. The luxury of the ultra-modern neighborhoods is offset by the poverty of the old barrios that surround the historic center and the squalor of the sleeping quarters of the San Francisco district.

Despite its facade, Panama City is, like many Latin American capitals, sloppy and chaotic. There is no postcode system and the distribution of letters is so random that residents have solved the problem by renting a post office box.

When to go

January, February and March are months in which the sun shines and therefore suitable for a visit to the city. In April, rainfall becomes more frequent and from the following month until the end of November it appears on a daily basis. They begin to thin out, slowly, from early December.

Background

The city was founded on August 15, 1519 by Pedro Arias Dávila, with the name of Our Lady of the Assumption of Panama. It was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Ocean coast of the New World. Two years later, on September 15, 1521, he obtained the title of city and a coat of arms from Charles V of Habsburg. Shortly thereafter it became the basis for the conquest of the Inca empire by Francesco Pizarro is Diego de Almagro. Panama experienced rapid development thanks to the gold and silver trade from Peru to Europe.

It was partly destroyed by fires, in 1539 and 1563, but it was rebuilt and in 1610 it had 5,000 inhabitants, several churches and convents and a hospital. In the early 17th century, it suffered repeated sieges by pirates and privateers, as well as by the natives of Darien, but these attacks were always thwarted. On 2 May 1621 an earthquake caused extensive damage and numerous victims and on 21 February 1644 a disastrous fire destroyed the cathedral, among other buildings. Despite these calamities, by 1670 the population had risen to 15,000.

On January 28 of the following year, the British pirate Henry Morgan, under the command of a band of 1,400 men, he besieged the city defended by Captain Juan Pérez de Guzmán. He ordered the gunpowder deposits to be blown up, in a last-ditch attempt to allow the besieged inhabitants to escape. His purpose was not crowned with success: the pirates chased the fleeing inhabitants and managed to catch them by depriving them of the gold they were carrying. The city was completely destroyed and today its ruins are a popular tourist attraction known as Panamá la Vieja.

The city was rebuilt in 1673 by Antonio Fernández de Córdoba, 8 km southwest of the first settlement. A century later the population was 7,000. The gold rush of the California 1848 brought about an increase in travelers crossing the isthmus to the west coast of North America. The year before the discovery of gold, the Panamanian railway company was founded, but the railway only started operating in 1855, when the city had a population of 12,000. By 1869, the year the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States, nearly 375,000 people had crossed the isthmus to California. Traffic greatly increased prosperity, as evidenced by the increase in population, which in 1885 rose to 25,000 inhabitants.

The opening of the Canal was of great benefit to the city. During the Second World War, Panama was a major US military base. After the war it established itself as a banking center of considerable importance, although it should be noted that several credit institutions were active in laundering dirty money. In 1989 George Bush ordered the invasion of the country with the aim of ousting the Panamanian leader, General Manuel Antonio Noriega. The action - call Operación Causa Justa - involved a series of aerial bombardments that destroyed a part of the El Chorrillo neighborhood, consisting of old wooden buildings from the early 20th century. After the war ended, Panama City continued to expand at an even faster rate, establishing itself as one of the most important banking centers in the world. Maritime trade also marked further expansion in the port of Balboa, managed by the Hutchison Whampoa company based in Hong Kong.

How to orient yourself

After passing the Panama Canal on the Puente de Las Americas, the pan-American carretera enters the city by splitting into two bypass avenues with a fast-flowing function that enclose the various central districts. The one said Corredor Sur flows along the ocean, the other said Corredor Norte instead it crosses the hills of the hinterland. After a journey of almost 30 km, both ring roads rejoin at the level of Tocumen International Airport.

Before the advent of satellite navigators and smartphones, finding your way around Panama City was a difficult task as its streets were and are anonymous or have more than one name. The gates of buildings and condominiums rarely bear an indication of the house number.

Neighborhoods

Panama City is made up of 26 corregimientos (municipal districts) each of which groups more barrios (neighborhoods) and from a district, that of San Miguelito which has no tourist relevance, indeed it is to be avoided. Below is a review of the corregimientos most interesting starting from the south to continue further north following the urban expansion of the city over the centuries:

• Ancón - The first town you meet after crossing the bridge of the Americas on the canal. Ancón extends along the eastern bank of the Panama Canal. At the terminus of the Albrook metro line are the airport, the long distance bus station and the Albrook Mall, the largest shopping center in the country.

One of its tourist points is 8.92575-79.540551 Calzada de Amador, a pier built in 1913 by the Americans to connect the mainland with the four islets of Naos, Perico, Culebra and Flamenco where their military bases were located to guard the mouth of the canal. Barracks and forts have long since been dismantled and local (mostly bars and restaurants) which have contributed to making the Calzada de Amador a recreational area much appreciated by residents looking for relaxation but also by tourists who want to take home souvenir photos with the profile of the city or of the Puente de las Américas that crosses the entrance of the nearby canal. The pier is open to car traffic but a large sidewalk has been added to it which also serves as a cycle path.

• San Felipe - The most interesting neighborhood of the San Felipe corregimiento is Viejo helmet, the place chosen for the re-founding of the city after its destruction during the siege perpetrated by the pirate Henry Morgan. All around are the barrios of Chinatown, El Chorrillo and Santa Ana, bordered behind by Cerro Ancón, a green hill on top of which the national flag flies. They are all slum neighborhoods with serious social problems and dominated by criminal gangs (pandillas). Venturing on foot through their streets of El Chorrillo translates into a gamble whose stakes are represented by one's life.

• Calydonia - Extended north of San Felipe, Calydonia began to take shape at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Today it is considered the city center even if the heart of the city beats a little further north, in the Bellavista district described below. Calidonia includes the neighborhood of the same name and that of La Exposición, both with a forest of skyscrapers. Its most famous avenue is avenida Balboa, the downtown waterfront, completely refurbished in 2009 and today the "showcase" of Panama City. Calidonia hosts a couple of museums of not exceptional interest.

• Nice view - Bella Vista is the name of the corregimiento north of Calydonia which marks the further northward expansion of the city starting from the 1950s. It is part of it El Cangrejo, the university district. Throughout the second half of the last century, El Cangrejo remained the most exclusive barrio in the city. From the year 2000 onwards, many of its wealthy residents preferred to move to brand new oceanfront neighborhoods. The apartment buildings they left empty were transformed into hotels or occupied by university students. Still El Cangrejo is a pleasant and lively neighborhood with many green spaces and nightclubs frequented by students. The Bella Vista district also includes the oceanfront neighborhoods of Marbella, Punta Paitilla is Punta Pacífica, all residential and with luxury condominiums made up of steel and glass skyscrapers. One of the most famous boulevards in the district is the via España a very long straight that after the intersection with Calle Elvira Mendez changes its name to Avenida Central España (called by the residents simply Avenida Central), crossing the so-called "Banking Area" where many shipping companies and credit institutions are based.

• Parque Lefevre - Includes the archaeological site of Panama Viejo with the ruins of the first colonial settlement of 1519 that had no luck. On the seafront immediately to the south is the district of Costa del Este, where buildings of considerable height have been built as per an ambitious urban project presented to the public in 1995. Costa del Este is an upper middle-class residential area, second for prestige only to the Bellavista neighborhoods located around Avenida Balboa.

How to get

By plane

Panama City has the two airports listed below:

• 9.071389-79.3836112 Tocumen International Airport (IATA: PTY) (25 km north of downtown). - As of 2020, flights from European airports were operated by the following airlines:

• Air Europa - (from / to Madrid).
• Air France - (from / to Paris-Charles de Gaulle).
• Iberia - (from / to Madrid).
• KLM - (from / to Amsterdam).
• Lufthansa - (from / to Frankfurt).
• Turkish Airlines - (from / to Istanbul).

The flag carrier Copa Airlines carries out the most flights.

On the occasion of the Central American Games of 2022, the 2 (green) metro line will be extended to Tocumen airport. At the moment the shuttle between the airport and the center is carried out by modern air-conditioned metrobuses but always very crowded. The other problem is that the journey is not paid in cash but only with rechargeable cards available inside the terminal. There are two metrobus lines that follow the two different routes of the city ring roads (Corredor Sur and Corredor Norte) and both terminate at Albrook station.

The other buses are slower than the metro buses and take at least 1 hour and a half to get to the center (Via España). Some still accept cash payment.  

• 8.973333-79.5555563 Albrook "Marcos A. Gelabert" International Airport (IATA: PAC). - Despite the "international" qualification, Albrook airport is reserved for domestic flights operated by the companies Aeroperlas is Air Panama which also provide flights to / from San José of Costa Rica. The track is 1.5 km from the center.  

By bus

• 8.974134-79.5514344 Albrook long distance bus station (Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte), Avenida Roosevelt (Albrook Metro Station). If you have boarded a bus in another location in the country or in theCentral America, you will get off at Gran Terminal Nacional de Transporte. The terminus is located in the Albrook airport area and next to a large shopping mall of the same name. From the station you can use the metro or a taxi to reach your final destination.

Departures are located on the ground floor while arrivals are usually on the first floor. Among the bus lines present the largest and most reliable are Ticabus is Expreso Panama (Panaline).

Inside the terminal it is possible to buy a "RapiPass 3en1" card which can be used for metrobus, metro, for passing the turnstiles and accessing the toilets. The card costs $ 2 and can be reloaded. It is not possible to access the station by paying in cash.

There are two large spaces reserved for catering services and numerous drinking water fountains everywhere. The metro station is accessed via a covered bridge in the center of the terminal.  

How to get around

By public transport

The public transport system of Panama City was once made up of a fleet of old and battered buses which in the 1950s served as school buses in various cities in the United States and were nicknamed "diablos rojos", by way of of the bright colors of the graffiti that decorated the old metal sheets. Today they have been replaced by modern buses.

• Underground. As of 2020, the metro had two lines:

• Line 1 (red) Goes from the San Isidro neighborhood to the Albrook neighborhood where the second airport and long distance bus station is located.
• Line 2 (green) It goes from the terminus of Nuevo Tocumen, on the Panamericana to that of San Miguelito where it crosses line 1.  

By taxi

In a city that lacks adequate transport, the taxi will be your only chance to get from one point of the city to another. You will need to be generous with information with the driver about your destination considering the chaotic system of street naming and house numbering.

What see

Ancón

• 8.943056-79.5651 Bridge of the Americas.  

• 8.932345-79.5446612 Biomuseum (Museo de la Biodiversidad) (Calzada de Amador).  

• 8.911932-79.5286453 Centro de Exhibiciones Marinas de Punta Culebra (Calzada de Amador).  

San Felipe

• 8.95252-79.535214 Catedral Metropolitana de Panama, Plaza de la Independencia.  
• Iglesia de Santo Domingo. 
• Iglesia de la Merced. 
• 8.951896-79.534965 Palacio Municipal de Panamá.  

• 8.953966-79.5343646 Palacio de Las Garzas (Palacio Presidencial).  

• Palacio Bolívar, Plaza Bolívar. 

• 8.95192-79.5346977 Museum of the Interoceánico Canal, Plaza de la Independencia.  

• 8.96092-79.543048 Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC), Avenida de los Mártires, Calle San Blas, Ancón, ☎ 507 262 8012, 507 262 3380.  

Calydonia

• Afro Antillan Museum. 
• Reina Torres de Araúz Anthropological Museum.  

Panama Viejo

• 9.006762-79.4851939 Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.  

Events and parties

What to do

Shopping

Like the nearby Canal area, Panama City is brimming with duty free shops but the term is a red herring and the prices are no less than those of any shop.

Vía España is traditionally the city's shopping street but if you are looking for something sophisticated you will have to go to the boutiques of Punta Paitilla or to the large shopping centers nearby such as the Multiplaza Pacific [1] on via Israel or the Multicentro [2]. In both you risk spending a whole day there are so many distractions they offer. Another very busy shopping mall is at Albrook airport. Its clientele is mainly made up of provincial people, being at the terminus of the suburban buses.

If, on the other hand, you are looking for a souvenir to take home or to give to friends, you could take a trip to the Mercado Nacional de Artesania, at the entrance to Panamá Viejo. The prices are off-putting.

Shopping centers

• 8.97458-79.552331 Albrook Mall, Avenida Marginal. Mon-Sun 10: 30-20: 00. As of August 2015, it was the largest shopping mall in the Americas, fourteenth in the world.  
• 8.985413-79.5110332 Multiplaza Panama, Calle Isaac Hanono Missri, ☎ 507 302-5380. Mon-Sun 10 am-8pm. 

How to have fun

Shows

• 8.952797-79.5331711 Teatro Nacional, Avenida B, San Felipe.  
• 8.953329-79.5381012 Amador Theater, Avenida Central between Calle 11 and 13, ☎ 507 212-1567. 
• 8.950038-79.5318253 Anita Villalaz Theater, Calle 2a Oeste 85-81.  
• 9.035833-79.4694444 Estadio Rommel Fernández.  
• 9.033215-79.4710645 Roberto Durán Arena.  

Night clubs

• 8.953618-79.5375126 Ibiza Panama, Av. B, ☎ 507 6494-9400. 

Where to eat

Moderate prices

• 9.018515-79.4844791 Doraditos Rosticería Y Pizzería, Av 6 Sur, ☎ 507 224-2599. Tue-Sun 11: 00-23: 30. Very popular for spit-roasted chickens and grilled meats with chimichurri sauce. The only drawback is the waiting times, which are almost always very long due to excessive crowding. 
• 8.985045-79.5245742 Niko's cafe (Nikolandia), Via España, ☎ 507 223-0111. Mon-Sun 00: 00-24: 00. In a city frequented by wealthy Greek shipowners, restaurants suitable for their palates could not be missing, set up by compatriots who did not meet the same fortune. Today Nikolandia is a chain of 10 restaurants scattered throughout the highlights of the city. Greek dishes have disappeared from the list with the exception of tsureki (a sweet) but on the other hand you can choose from a wide variety of Panamanian homemade dishes. Their motto is, in fact, "auténtico sabor de casa" and the prices are really ridiculous. 

Average prices

• 8.991149-79.4982673 Parillada Jimmy, Av. Cincuentenario, ☎ 507 226-1870. Tue-Sun 11: 30-23: 30. Renowned Greek restaurant. You can enjoy hearty dishes such as mousaka which, to tell the truth, are not well suited to a country with a tropical climate. It also has another restaurant, the 8.983646-79.5251175 Parillada Jimmy O barrio on a side street of via Espana (Avenida 2a Sur (Avenida Samuel Lewis), corner Calle 52 Est). 

High prices

• Las Barandas. Inside the Hotel Bristol Panama, Las Barandas is considered one of the best restaurants in the capital, thanks to the inventiveness of its chef who freely interpreted typical Panamanian dishes. Prices are high but a special fixed price menu is offered every Sunday at lunchtime 
• 8.975416-79.5062634 La Vespa Sea View Restaurant, Trump Ocean Club, ☎ 507 830-5770. Mon-Sun 12: 00-23: 00. Italian restaurant. 

Where stay

Moderate prices

• 8.973849-79.5365941 Mamallena, Calle primera, perejil, house 7-62 (Calydonia), ☎ 507 6676-6163. Located in a good spot, the Mamallena is a hostel with accommodation in dormitories but also in private rooms. It prides itself on having no rules and is therefore only suitable for the very young 
• 8.969804-79.5345252 Mar Paraiso hotels, Avenida Justo Arosemena (The Exposición), ☎ 507 2276 767. A little off-center from the places of interest, the one-star hotel offers accommodation in rooms with spartan furnishings but all with private bathroom and perfectly functioning air conditioning, prerogatives that are generally exclusive to category accommodation. higher. 

Average prices

• Marbella hotels, Calle D corner Eusebio A. Morales, El Cangrejo, ☎ 507 263 2220. Renowned hotel and always full due to its below average prices, which is why you must book well in advance. It has a restaurant service with somewhat high prices 
• Costa Inn Hotel, Avenida Peru intersection with Calle 3 (Bellavista neighborhood), ☎ 507 2 271 522. The hotel is located in a good spot and all its rooms have private bathroom and air conditioning. An outdoor swimming pool has been created on the terrace with views over the Panama Bay. To top it off, you will be picked up at the airport by a minivan at no extra charge. 
• Milan hotels, Calle Eusebio A. Morales 31 - El Cangrejo, ☎ 507 263 6130. Close to Marbella, Hotel Milan opened its doors in 2004. It has 53 rooms in all, plus a higher-priced suite with more attention to detail. 
• Plaza Paitilla Inn, Via Italia, Punta Paitilla. In a skyscraper with curved lines, the Plaza Paitilla Inn has 252 rooms. The best are those with an ocean view. The location is also excellent, near the Multicentro shopping center. It has a swimming pool but small in size 

High prices

• Radisson Decapolis Hotel Panama City, Avenida Balboa-Multicentro, ☎ 507 3801111, @[email protected]. 
• 8.980808-79.5250613 Bristol Panama, Avenida Aquilino de la Guardia, ☎ 507 264 0000. 
• Marriott hotel, Calle 52, corner of Ricardo Arias (Between via España and Calle 50, north of Calle Elvira - Banking area), ☎ 507 2 109 100. 

Safety

How to keep in touch

Around

Panama Canal

• 9.3587-79.89836 Colon (77 kilometers) - The excursion to Colon it is more of a pretext for observing the Panama Canal and its lock system. Colon it is in fact located on the island of Manzanillo at the other entrance to the channel on the Sea of ​​the Antilles.

How long Colon is reachable by bus it is better to use the tourist train that runs along the isthmus railway or a boat. In fact, starting from 2018 a passenger service is offered per direction from Monday to Friday. The train leaves from 8.97685-79.567717 Corazal station from Panama City at 7:15 am, and returns from Colon at 17:15. The travel time is approximately one hour. Information on the website of the Panarail

Possible stops along the way are 8.997377-79.5913288 locks of Miraflores where there is also a visitor reception center and the 9.074298-79.6598059 Soberanía national park, extended on the eastern bank of the canal. The park is home to over 100 animal species including jaguar specimens and over 500 bird species making it ideal for bird watching.

9.183333-79.88333310 Gatún lake it is an artificial reservoir created by the damming of the Chagres river in 1913; it is possible to go up its course with tourist agency boats and visit the indigenous villages along its banks. The village of 9.116667-79.711 Gamboa it is the most easily accessible since it is located at the confluence of the Chagres river with the Gatún lake. In few years Gamboa has turned into one of the major ecological tourism destinations in Panama and there have sprung up numerous hotels and ecolodges.

Details on the site visitcanal.

Islands in the Gulf of Panama

• Archipelago of Pearls (Archipiélago de las Perlas or Islas de las Perlas) - is a group of 200 and more islands and islets, many of which are uninhabited). They are located approximately 30 miles (48 km) away from the coast where Panama City is located. The largest of the group is the island of Rey, but the most interesting is the8.633333-79.03333312 Contadora Island where numerous hotel complexes have sprung up. It is called this because it was the place where the pearls collected in the sea were counted. The island was one of the places of residence of the Shah of Persia after his decision to leave the country in January 1979.

• 8.783333-79.5513 Taboga Island - Nicknamed the island of flowers, isla Taboga is the place where i Panameños to escape the convulsive rhythms of their city. Taboga does not in fact have worldly pretensions but ensures a relaxing stay to be spent on its beach or in one of the restaurants of the only village whose houses are surrounded by tropical gardens full of bougainvillea.

Isla Taboga is only 19 km from the coast. The ferry leaves from the pier of 8.91155-79.52042514 Isla Flamenco, at the end of the Calzada de Amador jetty. The crossing takes just over half an hour and is an opportunity to take photos of Panama City from the sea. Timetables are available on the website Taboga Express.

Beaches on the side of the Pacific Ocean

• 8.899864-79.58343215 Playa Bonita (Playa Kobbe) - Located just across the canal, Playa Bonita is the first of a long series of beaches stretching east to the border with the Coclé province and beyond. Playa Bonita is equipped with hotels with an exclusive character. A low promontory separates it from Veracruz beach with cheaper hotels.

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