When I arrived in Ciudad de Panama and almost immediately spotted a man in shorts wearing a Panama hat, white towelling socks and navy blue boating shoes of the fashion normally worn by men that own yachts, I thought to myself, yes, this is exactly what I thought Panama would be like.
But its not all like I imagined. Half of Panama City reminds me of Havana in Cuba, with its delapidated colonial buildings, city centre slums and poor people sitting in the streets listening to battery operated radios. The other half reminds me of New York, although that half, the sykscraper'ed half of Panama's capital is actually referred to as the 'Miami of the South.'
But whereas Cuba is a place stuck in time moving sideways, Panama is definitely a country on the up. I have seen more cranes in Panama City than I have probably seen in all the other Central American countries I have visited put together. The regeneration of Casco Viejo and the many big-chain hotels that are springing up along the sea front will generate more tourism, and the expansion of the Panama canal in a few years will generate more revenue for the country
According to the local girl Adriana that I met up with during my last day in the city, Panama made more revenue in the first two years of running the Panama Canal than it did in the previous eighty (80) years of the US running it. Now it's not got any greedy outsiders holding it back, Panama is a Central American country that is definitely on the up.
