Panama, inside the hat
Panama: the location of the latest Mandarina Duck store.
It’s the economic and business crossroads of American. It’s a magical kingdom where you can find anything. Its skyline stands against luxuriant tropical overgrowth. You can come across farmers on oxcarts passing by ultra-modern banks. Amongst its extinct volcanoes, rise 365 atolls (one per day ). Its beaches are no less than those of the Caribbean and the Maldives.
A couple of days in Panama City: a trip along the famous canal, photographed at birth by Burton Holmes. Is it better by train or by boat?
Shopping on the “Avenida Central” or in the Multiplaza Pacific Mall, which hosts our new store. My colleague Andrea advises me to wear a sweatshirt there because the air conditioning is always turned up!
Relaxation, history and nature: a walk around Casco Vejo, declared a world heritage site by UNESCO. While passing by mementoes of Spanish domination, you can find herons, the only family that now lives inside the “Palacio de Las Garzas“, or Heron’s Palace.
And at night? You can get lost amongst the many posadas while eating “caracoles” and other typical dishes in the colonial atmosphere of the old quarter of Casco Vejo. You can be swept up by the “movida” in the French embassy neighborhood, perhaps while riding in a folkloristic taxi.
Andrea suggests that I go over to the San Blas Islands. A one-hour flight brings me to the Cuna Indians, a matriarchal people who still live by their traditions. It’s not just a journey to a place but rather to a culture and lifestyle very far from our own.
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