Panama - How the other half live

By Administrator, on Sunday, 19 August 2007

Seen the canal and visited the beaches?............ Time to explore a bit of Panama city you won't find in the guidebooks.

Head down Via Espana from the Casino/Hotel area of El Cangrejo and you enter a different world, Avenida Central. Take a cab for $1.25 plus 25c per extra passenger as the area after The Iglesia del Carmen church is difficult walking, due to the volume of traffic and intersections that need to be crossed, until you reach the commercial zone.

Tell the driver 'Avenida Central, a la izquierdo, al frente de Novey'..... on the left, opposite Novey, that will give you a good place to start your walk.

Avenida Central is a crazy world of street vendors, chaotic traffic and Diablo Rojos all fighting their way through and going nowhere fast. This is an older part of Panama city, without the historic significance of Casco Viejo or Panama Viejo. A place where folks come to buy their everyday needs at local prices. A visit to Panama should include a couple of hours spent walking down here simply for the experience.

A couple of safety guidelines, don't walk down here loaded with jewellery, or expensive cameras etc. Keep your wallet in a front pocket and don't flash the cash. This is a poor neighborhood and there's no sense in being an obvious target.

The left hand side of the road going with the traffic flow is reasonably safe, the other side has a lot of tenement buildings behind and if you get mugged its easier for your assailant to disappear into that area. Dont even think of going in there after them, though the locals will probably try to stop you anyway for your own safety.

Personally I have never had any problems in the area, although I know of 2 cases where friends had a camera or a bag snatched.

For the most part, these are decent folk just trying to earn a living, in a country where 10 bucks a day can feed a family well. Both sides of the road are filled with shops, and on the sidewalk outside these places are folks with small tables selling anything and everything. The road edge of the sidewalk is filled with small tin shanties also trading in everyday needs.

Fresh fruit and veg is in abundance at half the price of the supermarkets. Herbs and spices of all kinds, the ubiquitous cellphone accessories and trinket/gift sellers, lottery ticket tables everywhere, chicha stalls for fresh fruit juice and shave ice vendors pushing their barrows. Buy a single cigarette for 5c or a pack for 60c, a fresh pineapple for 50c or fill up on barbequed chicken with patacones for $1.50.

You know you've reached the end of your walk when you come to a big intersection with traffic in all directions......... wave down a cab and head back to normality. Further down, the street is pedestrianised, but that area is cut off from the rest of Ave Central by the sheer volume of traffic, and beyond that is Santa Ana, not a particularly savoury area.

Or if you want to explore more, head back the way you came until you reach the intersection at the Machetazo store..........go on in for a contrasting experience to the street outside, a five story modern airconditioned department store in a sea of chaos..........when you've cooled off, I'll take you on a walk around the Cafes, Restaurants and Casinos tucked away in the side streets between Ave Central and the Bay........ in a future article.