Panama Real Estate Investment Travel Information


First Impressions of Panama City

(8 votes)

Written by Matt Landau

Sunday, January 22 2006

When you arrive the capital of the country of Panama, Panama City you get this weird feeling—it's a feeling of excitement, it's a feeling of surprise and it's almost a feeling of confusion. It's this baffling feeling and your senses immediately try to make sense of it all. Where am I?

I smell the warm, misty, flowery air and think I'm in the tropics until the aromas of bubbling European cuisine sway me otherwise. I see a coastline of high reaching buildings and inventive architecture and assume I'm in a metropolis yet I feel this relaxed and laidback breath of Caribbean life—I've lost all my bearings. Am I in Spain? South America? Miami Beach?

I soon realize that wherever I am, I don't want to leave. The country of Panama--an amazingly seductive place.

It's Friday afternoon when I arrive and the streets of Panama City are dancing with energy. Men load yam-jammed duffle bags onto vegetable trucks, families gobble down afternoon snacks at open-air bistros, and taxi drivers buzz around looking for new friends. Along the coast, yachts lazily drift along the cities banking district, antsy fishermen anticipate a big day's catch, and freight ships wait anxiously to take the greatest shortcut in the world—the Panama Canal.

There's something endearing if not seductive about the way of life here. It's this perfectly balanced blend of old and new—of tradition and innovation. I've only been here for a few hours but I already love it. The fusion cuisine, the imaginative architecture, the hearty sense of culture, the hi-tech gadgets, the ocean's reflection of the city line at night. Jogging through banking districts, produce markets, and rainforest parks...I already love it all. And I haven't yet been outside city limits.

Comments (3)

john oughton: ...

I'm on my first visit in May/June to find somewhere to live in Panama.I know it has to be done, and your articles,this one in particular, increase my interest in the country.
I'll keep you in touch with my forays on the net and eventually my first visit.

March 03, 2008

sutton47: retired money broker

We changed our minds and now arrive 30th March!

March 20, 2008

Lamer: ...

I did not have the same impressions as you did. It all depends where you come from and what were your previous experiences combined with your expectations. Within a week, I learned to like it to the point that I could live in Panama city. It's lively and varied and offers breathtaking views. But..."imaginative architecture"?!Unless you're talking Casco Antiguo and the few colonial fincas left (and left crumbling) in other parts of the town, I don't think the architecture in Panama City is that imaginative. Very few interesting skyscrapes, the rest are just regular tall or low-rise apartment builidngs. The vast majority of houses are very unimaginative, if not plain ugly and surrounded by cage like barrs. But guess what? I did like the whole package in the end. It must be the vitality of its people, the mixed races and the beautiful natural environment. And the birds, ah, the birds that you can see and hear throughout the city...and the vicinity to water and tropical jungle. It's a place with great potential! I just hope the government can pull it all together...the rest depends on each of us.

January 06, 2009

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