Panama City, Panama – How come no one ever talks about Panama City?

It’s a shame, really, because there’s plenty in this Central American capital to keep even the most wanderlust traveler busy for a few days. My friends and I landed here on a whim after finding cheap airfare ($340 round trip from Detroit at the time) and we weren’t disappointed.

We knew two things about Panama: Manuel Noriega and the Panama Canal.

Bad boy Noriega is long gone (he’s holed up in Florida somewhere) and the canal still runs through this isthmus, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The canal, one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century, is the country’s No. 1 tourist attraction. Visiting Panama and not seeing the canal is akin to traveling to Paris and not seeing the Eiffel Tower.

Casco Viejo, the city’s oldest neighborhood, is an up-and-coming area not to be missed. It’s a blend of architectural styles, everything from Caribbean to Art Deco to French, and not yet gentrified. It’s part Havana, part French Quarter New Orleans. Small cafes and bars are tucked along its narrow streets.

Native Peruvians sell beaded jewelry, baskets and trinkets in plazas and courtyard. The neighborhood hugs the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean, offering panoramic views of Panama City’s skyline.

Outside Casco Viejo, Panama City is a city of contradictions. Its skyline is crowded with contemporary residential towers and more are rising – dozens of cranes dot the cityscape. The streets are thick with traffic, but it’s easy to maneuver on foot. Just watch out for random crevices and uncovered manholes. Spanish is the native tongue, but English is common. The currency is American; it doesn’t get much easier to travel in a foreign country.

And the beer is cheap (about $2 a bottle in most places) and the food is inexpensive, damn good and you’ll find just about any kind of fare imaginable. It’s not all burritos and quesadillas in Central America.

Sipping rum drinks at an outdoor café in Casco Viejo, we met Eric, an ex-pat from New York who has opened a bar, Mojitos Sin Mojitos, here.

“Every day someone asks me, ’why Panama?’” he said, explaining his decision to run a bar here. “During my vacations I realized the opportunity for businesses in Casco Viejo and the amazing community that was already in-place. The Casco Viejo community is the most diverse, ingenious, eclectic, and fun group of people I have ever been surrounded by. There really aren’t any places in the world like Casco.”

Or Panama City, for that matter.

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Tags: hipster, Panama, Panama City, travel