Theme Week Panama – Antón

24 January 2018 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

El Valle © Smithsonian Institution - Lee Siebert

El Valle © Smithsonian Institution – Lee Siebert

Antón is a corregimiento in Antón District, Coclé Province. It is located near the north-western shore of the Gulf of Panama. It is the seat of Antón District. It has a land area of 106.3 square kilometres (41.0 sq mi) and had a population of 12,000. Most of them are mestizos, Chinese or African Americans. For Panamanian standards, the city is quite small, in the center there is a casino, three small supermarkets, run by the Chinese (“chinos”) and a market where livestock (chickens) are slaughtered and sold.   read more…

Panama City

13 July 2016 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  9 minutes

Panama City financial district © Dronepicr/cc-by-3.0

Panama City financial district © Dronepicr/cc-by-3.0

Panama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. It has a metro population of 1,5 million, and is located at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, in the province of Panama. The city is the political and administrative center of the country, as well as a hub for international banking and commerce. It is considered a “beta-” world city, one of three Central American cities listed in this category. The city of Panama was founded on August 15, 1519, by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila. The city was the starting point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire in Peru. It was a stopover point on one of the most important trade routes in the history of the American continent, leading to the fairs of Nombre de Dios and Portobelo, through which passed most of the gold and silver that Spain took from the Americas. On January 28, 1671, the original city was destroyed by a fire when privateer Henry Morgan sacked and set fire to it. The city was formally reestablished two years later on January 21, 1673, in a peninsula located 8 km (5 miles) from the original settlement. The site of the previously devastated city is still in ruins and is now a popular tourist attraction known as Panama Viejo.   read more…

Pearl Islands in the Gulf of Panama

7 October 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

Panama map © Zakuragi/cc-by-sa-3.0

Panama map © Zakuragi/cc-by-sa-3.0

The Pearl Islands (Spanish: Archipiélago de las Perlas or Islas de las Perlas) are a group of 100 or more islands (many tiny and uninhabited) lying about 30 miles (48 km) off the Pacific coast of Panama in the Gulf of Panama.   read more…

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