Places to visit in 2012 – Panama City
The Central American country of Panama is well known for its eponymous canal, but most people aren’t aware of the fact that they country wasn’t actually the owner of the canal, however that changed twelve years ago, and ever since Panama regained control of the canal, the country’s economy has been on the up and up.
The country’s capital, Panama City, is bustling with new real estate developments and immigrants from all around the globe come into the country on a daily basis. Some come in search of job opportunities while some come to invest or retire in the country.
If you’ve ever wanted to visit the Panama Canal then this year might be the last time when you can see it in its original design, as a multi billion-dollar expansion project for the Canal is in the early stages. The plan is set to double the canal’s cargo capacity and it is expected to complete in 2014, the 100-year anniversary of this great engineering project.
The first-time traveler to Panama should probably focus his or her attention on Panama City, this is where the country’s past intersects with its present and they both lead into the future. The main attraction of the city is the Casco Viejo, the old city, which is the old colonial district, home to the presidential palace, the entire place is set to become something of a South Beach-style nexus of hotels, cafes and nightclubs, thanks to governmental measures such as the creation of a special tourist force as well as the fact that the area was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1997, thus stopping the spread of modern developments into it.
There are also quite a few other high-profile projects under way besides the canal expansion, there’s the construction of The Panamera – which will be the first Waldorf Astoria hotel in Latin America – which is set to open in June of 2010, then there’s the Trump Ocean Club which opened last summer and is the region’s tallest building and then there’s Frank Gehry’s first Latin American Design, the BioMuseo, which is scheduled to open at the beginning of 2013. All three of these buildings, it should be noted, are firsts of their kind.
This has been just a quick look at what Panama has to offer in 2012, and it seems like it can only get better going forward.
