Panama City actually has two historic districts - we started the day at the older one - Panama Viejo. Here there are the falling-down ruins of a number of Spanish churches, monasteries and a convent. The city was apparently a constant target of pirates and after being totally burned to the down a second time - this time by Captain Henry Morgan, the city of Panama was moved to a more defensible area.
Convent recently restored with help from HSBC Bank
The second town site is called Casco Viejo - which is a charming area of functioning churches (we walked in on a funeral in one), the president's palace, and restaurants. The area is, however, bordered by one of the city's dodgier areas and at one point a man in a park told us not to walk any further in that direction. In front of the French Embassy we ate raspados (snow cones - 2 for a dollar) - they didn't just include "snow" (made by scraping a 3-foot cube of solid ice) and fruit-flavored syrup - but also sweetened condensed milk. We declined adding honey.
Mysterious eye-patch graffiti in (the nice part of) Casco Viejo
Convent recently restored with help from HSBC Bank
The second town site is called Casco Viejo - which is a charming area of functioning churches (we walked in on a funeral in one), the president's palace, and restaurants. The area is, however, bordered by one of the city's dodgier areas and at one point a man in a park told us not to walk any further in that direction. In front of the French Embassy we ate raspados (snow cones - 2 for a dollar) - they didn't just include "snow" (made by scraping a 3-foot cube of solid ice) and fruit-flavored syrup - but also sweetened condensed milk. We declined adding honey.
Mysterious eye-patch graffiti in (the nice part of) Casco Viejo
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