TheExpatJournals.com

I’m still in Casco Viejo and boy, has that been an interesting place to be during all the protests. I have an admiration for the people on this front. And I still have to say, the cops down here are nice. They’re serious and they mean business, but they’re not mean like the cops are in the US.
A couple of nights, it’s been very difficult to get out or into the neighborhood. I got lucky tonight with a tourist policemen who drives a taxi at night.

I haven’t moved. I’m not so sure I can. I may travel for extended periods of time, but this is still the most special, the coolest, the most beautiful neighborhood in Panama. I’ve looked. It would be nice to walk to everything like you could living in El Congrejo. And everytime I pass the Autopista bridge just past Chorillo, in the not-too-distant past, that would have equalled entering The Zone, the air instantly drops about 5 degrees and you can feel the difference all those trees make in how it feels and smells. What a pleasure! Paitilla is crowded and in certain parts, the smell is unbearable from where the river of sewage dumps out into the Bay. Marbella is great for restaurants and shops, but that’s also why I wouldn’t want to live there. Obarrio is nice, but lacking in a neighborhood feel. It’s more like a suburb though it’s that close to everything. Altos Del Golf is like the 90210 of Panama City. San Francisco has a lot of great attributes -cool buildings, shops and restaurants. To me, it is to Panama what Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope is to NYC.

No, Casco Viejo is still full of possibility and history and charm and a feeling of being so far away in another time and certainly a foreign land. I hope the new hostel gets business. And Blanca and Manolo and Miguel are opening Casa De Cultura proximente. And that is exciting.

Located in what would still be considered ‘fringe’, it will be a gallery, a bar, a performance venue, a book exchange/sales and an all round cool place to check out, something this neighborhood has sorely needed. It is in the building behind the hotel on Herrera Plaza and does have an open courtyard as well as a decent sized parking lot that should accomodate a dozen cars or more. Best of luck Blanca!