When you think about vacation destinations, Panama does not immediately come to mind for many folks. But it really, really should. The only people I know travel to Panama mainly because they originally came from the country, have family there, or have some military connection from the days of U.S. management of the Canal. But currently, the country is experiencing a boom. A big boom. From my hotel pool deck, I counted ten cranes on buildings jutting up towards the sky and more in the distance. Donald Trump is building here also. This Spanish speaking country is poised to become the next new hot spot for tourism.
For our quick Labor Day trip, we stayed in the heart of Panama City at Le Meridian, a five star hotel boasting a great location to wonderful restaurants and a vibrant nightlife. During one of our days, we took a quick and affordable private tour of the city which landed us at the historic Panama Canal. This thing is a true engineering marvel. We watched as a humongous ship carrying several trailers filled with consumer goods was lifted onto the canal to pass through a series of “locks” that connect the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. The museum adjacent to the canal details the history of the creation of the great structure. The Canal now belongs to the Panamanians and they are currently in the process of building another canal “locks” system to accommodate even bigger ships.
After being awe-struck by the Canal, we then swung by my future husband’s old high school. There have been many changes to Panama since he was a young boy more than 20 years ago. His high school, which housed about 3,000 kids – many of whom were children of service men and women – is now a government building; the former train station directly across the street…now a huge Mickey D’s with drive thru capabilities.
Along with the urban development and growth, Panama still has a large population of indigenous people such as the metizos and those populations that came over to help build the Canal such as the Chinese. We enjoyed lunch in an older part of the country inside a building that was previously a fort housing gold to be protected from the pirates that would ravage the shores. There is heavy activity around restoration of older buidlings and neighborhoods from the 16th and 17th centuries overseen by the government and the United Nations.
My takeaways from this brief excursion to Panama is this growing hot spot is a beautiful country with a rich history and much to see. And only a three hour flight from Atlanta, an easy and quick destination for U.S. travelers. The country also uses the dollar so no loss of currency there. Another notable facts is lots of properties are being bought by retirees looking to settle down in an affordable spot in Central America
We only had three days there so I know I only scratched the surface on what Panama has to offer.
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