Panama

Located on Panama’s Pacific coast and right beside the Panama Canal is Panama’s eponymous capital city. Today the primary cultural, financial, and travel mecca of Central America, Panama City was founded by Spanish settlers in the 1500s and used as a trading post and jump-off point for the annihilation of the Inca Empire. In the aftermath of the conquest, Panama became an important conduit in the Spanish gold trade.
Both its early and later years, however, were marked by turmoil. In the 1670s, a British privateer and his men attacked Panama City and set fire to it, destroying it almost completely. Later, the settlement was reestablished nearby, but the ruins of the original city remain as Old Panama, which is now a historic site open for tours and exploration by visitors. In fact, Old Panama was even featured in reality shows The Amazing Race and Survivor, probably for its romantically fatal history and ancient-looking, distinctively Central American surroundings.

More than three centuries later, Panama City was the target of another foreign raid – the American invasion that ousted the corrupt, drug-connected leader Manuel Noriega. U.S. interest in the country was rooted in the Panama Canal, though tensions revolved around Noriega’s aggressively anti-U.S. stance, shadowy flirting with American intelligence agencies, connections to the international drug trade, and money laundering schemes centered in Panama City.

The first time Panama probably entered the American consciousness was during the Panama Canal project, which took place under U.S. auspices from 1904 to 1914. From this point on, the Canal Zone was American territory, which at times caused early tensions between Americans and Panamanians living in Panama City. This area was finally turned over to Panama in 1999 in accordance with an agreement signed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

These situations mean Panama City bears many marks of American influence, and that Panamanians are intimately familiar with American visitors and tourists. In many ways, the city’s development as Central America’s major center of banking and finance is probably owed in some part to the impression left by the U.S. presence, and certainly its current stability and lack of corruption is due to the unmistakable message sent by the invasion that removed the corrupt Noriega.

Luckily, thanks to the Canal’s return to Panamanian hands and the time elapsed since the last hostilities, these tensions have receded and Panama City is one of the most popular, friendly, and luxurious tropical destinations in the world. It has been repeatedly recognized in recent times for its cultural distinctions, and the more time passes since the invasion and collapse of dictatorship, the more prosperity works its magic in this brisk and sunny city. The weighty history, stretching back to Spanish colonization and development, only adds depth, both in the Casco Viejo, the colonial district, and Old Panama, the original Spanish settlement torched by British pirates.After days spent touring the canal, exploring historical sites, and taking in the artistic vibrancy, sophisticated bars and clubs offer a chance to get loose.