Spend any time seeing the sights around Panama City and you are going to get at least a glimpse of Casco Viejo, even if you don’t actually go there. It’s a tempting sight, partly because the traditional red -roofed outline with the domes and spires of churches is such a contrast to the shiny high-rise buildings that hug much of the Bay of Panama. Also it’s location is on a small headland, so is easy to pick out from vantage points like Ancon Hill and the Metropolitan Natural Park.
This historic area, Casco Viejo, (also known as Casco Antiguo or its original name, San Felipe) is the ‘Old City’, built after pirate, Henry Morgan, sacked and burned the even older city of Panama Viejo in 1671. The ruined city was abandoned and a new site chosen further around the bay close to where, much later, the Panama Canal was to be built.
Getting there – On advice, we took a taxi to Plaza de la Independencia which is roughly at the centre of the Casco Viejo area and as good a place as any to start. If you plan to follow one of the self-guided walking tours that some of the guide books offer they tend to start here anyway. You have to pass through a very poor area (Santa Ana) to arrive at Casco Viejo. it’s very run-down with litter strewn streets and truly awful apartment buildings strung with washing and flapping bits of loose materials that look as if they should be nailed down. There are warnings not to walk through this area or wander back too far that way once in Casco Viejo. We asked our taxi driver, ‘Santa Ana?’ as we passed through some of these slums and he told us, ‘No, El Chorillo.’ – that looked as bad.
Casco Viejo (a World heritage site) - Once you are there, you are in very different surroundings; beautiful colonial buildings and narrow cobbled streets, magnificent squares, churches and grand old buildings. Included amongst these wonderful buildings is the Canal museum ( Museo del Canal de Panama) the National theatre (Teatro Nacional) and the Presidential Palace ( Palacio Presidencial) Street cafes and restaurants are dotted about and tram lines run in places; it is apparently planned to get the system up and running again.
Some of the buidings are beautifully restored, some are in transition and some are simply shells sprouting bushes from walls and with trees growing inside. If the whole area is one day finally finished it will be a wonderful sight but, for now, its extremely interesting to see how it is coming along and just what the developers are up against to get these buildings back to their former glory.
Round and about there are sellers of local crafts including, of course, Panama Hats. Also amongst the items on display, Molas, the colourful panels made by the women of the Kuna tribe, paintings, jewelry etc. Along the very pretty Paseo Esteban Huertas there is a concentration of stalls under a cover of bougainvillea where it is great to stroll. Beneath this walkway apparently the old Spanish dungeon lies.
Safety.
We asked ourselves (and others) this question simply because we read reports online and in well know travel guides that put definite doubts in our minds. Amongst the advice was 1) not to look obviously ‘touristy’, 2) not to carry expensive cameras/ equipment, 3) not to stray away from Casco Viejo into surrounding districts.
We followed 3) carefully.
2) left the ‘big’ camera back at the hotel.
1) as for how we looked …… we hadn’t got a lot of choice but, put it this way, we tried to stay low profile and didn’t wear Hawaiian shirts and flip flops!
And what we saw there? - loads of people who looked like tourists, (carrying all manner of cameras and mobile phones) and a good and obvious prescence of the Panamanian Tourist Police. It seemed and felt no more risky than anywhere we had been in Panama. We didn’t wander around at night but then we don’t tend to do that anyway.
Resources – ‘Frommer’s Panama’ has a Walking Tour of Casco Viejo with explanations of the main attractions.
Also try the friendly folk at www.cascoviejo.com This new website lists hotel, restuarants and sights to see. You can book rooms online and there are maps on most pages so that you can see exactly where each place is located.
