Head to Casco Viejo, the old part of Panama City, a stunning mix of Art deco, Caribbean, French and Colonial architectural styles. Hungry? Look for the Havana Club. I thought I'd walked onto a set. 'Buena Vista Social Club’ was playing on a small screen in the corner of the room. A red barbers chair guarded one of the four wooden doors. I couldn't help but stare at the wall to wall wood panelled bar. The rum stained floor and the overpowering chandelier probably rescued from the ruins of an old ship envelops the room with echo of countless tall tales. No better way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon.

Panama City is best known for its fish market, but a few blocks away on Avenue B near the Chinatown Gates lies the equally interesting Mercado Publico. The market is divided into four main sections: meat, produce, dried goods and a court full of fonda food stands. The market is a great place to get a sense of Panamanian cuisine and a cheap place to buy food. After exploring the market, I recommend cutting across Calle 15 to the bustling Avenida Central, a festive street full of cheap clothing shops, rowdy vendors and food markets.

Meandering along the streets of Casco Viejo is a walk down a physical timeline; with old Spanish ruins next to forgotten French architecture neighboring restored boutique hotels, this historical neighborhood manifests Panama City's colorful past. The diversity in buildings reflects the array of people who occupy this peninsula, from hat-totting tourists to barefoot residents to the President himself. The energy of the place is packed between the thin streets, filled with shops, cars, pedestrians, and restaurants and then shoots out over the extensive coast line of the canal. My favorite people watching activity is to capture a drama in the making, and that is exactly what I caught between this boy and his elder. It is for these moments that it pays off to constantly lug around a SLR.

Casco Viejo is a UNESCO site located in Panama City, Panama. We stayed in the quarter at Las Clementinas (www.lasclementinas.com), a really lovely and comfortable hotel with an amazing rooftop patio and view of downtown. Casco is a great mix of locals and visitors. As we enjoyed the sun on the balcony of the hotel, we could see the locals gather down below on the sidewalk to play an informal game of bingo. Casco is in the process of being revitalized but it still has the old colonial feel and is a great spot for unique restaurants and nightlife.

The anticipated Museum of Biodiversity, designed by Frank Gehry, opens this year, and the Panama Canal will soon double its capacity. To prepare, luxury hotels, such as the Trump Ocean Club and Le Méridien, are cropping up. And in the historic Casco Viejo neighborhood, Spanish colonial buildings are reopening as restaurants, boutiques, and trendy hotels such as Tántalo, home to the city’s first rooftop bar. Photo courtesy of Tántalo/Facebook. This appeared in the June/July 2013 issue.

The public buses on the streets of Panama City are recycled school buses which used to chug along suburban streets in the United States some thirty years ago. Plain yellow has been traded up for brilliantly multicolored designs of birds, flowers, sexy women, Carlos’s name…whatever… The city is phasing them out, slowly replacing the old school rattlers with sleek air conditioned coaches with sun-glazed windows. In the meantime, the city buses are shots of brightness, sometimes even trimmed with flashing disco lights at night.

Avenida Central is a lively street outside of Casco Viejo full of discount clothing stores, cafes, restaurants and food carts. Many of the businesses feature hand-painted signage that add to the festive atmosphere of the street.

You can still see lots of buildings in various stages of either destruction or renovation. The 16th & 17th century Spanish and French Colonial architectures are breathtaking. They have attracted many tourists from all over the world, and Casco Viejo is a one-stop place filled with history, art and culture.

Panama! Panama City has everything modern urban spaces have but with a touch of its own unique Latino flair: the Trump sky scraper rising above palm trees and flying seagulls, the man-made waterfront behind the Spanish old town, the hand painted buses driving on the super highway winding over tin roofs. When I hiked up Cerro Ancón on the far side of the city, I could see all of the crazy mixture that is Ciudad Panama right before my eyes. There is sign at the summit triumphantly proclaiming the spiritual satisfaction of the discovery of this magical city of two worlds: "Cuantos años de incógnitos pesares mi espíritu buscaba mas allá a mi hermosa sultana de los mares, la reina de dos mundos, Panamá!"

Where to stay in Panama City? Casco Viejo, the old district, is the edgy, cool area where the creative restaurants, historic squares and native markets convene. Tattered neglect is rapidly giving way to tasteful renovations and vibrant renewal. Think of photos of Havana, Cuba’s crumbling colonial manses of faded glory. Picture heavy stone buildings with missing roofs and woody weeds rising to the sky. In Casco Viejo, trash-strewn shells are being revived with polished wood and buffed ironwork, with sparkling lights, sophisticated foods, music and goods. We stayed in Casa del Horno, a boutique hotel in a refurbished bakery. An Italian designer couple exposed the brick walls, created apartment suites with balconies and iPod speaker-decked sitting rooms. Breakfast is delivered on a beautiful tray by a smiling gracious concierge. It’s a lovely little place just steps away from historic churches, squares and the Presidential Palace. (And yes, I should have straightened the bed).

The red devil school buses are used much like the Caribbean's mini vans and NY's dollar vans - think cheap transportation. More like the dollar vans, most lack insurance and travelers to Panama are warned not to take them as they can get overcrowded and may be unsafe. I learned years ago that I do not like being packed into a vehicle like a sardine under any circumstance and if it's only going to cost me a little more, I'll take a taxi or the perhaps less convenient public transportation run by the government. I was fascinated by the personalized artwork on the buses and wish I had spent more time taking pictures of them.

Walking the narrow, cobbled streets of Casco Viejo—Panama City’s colonial quarter—is, these days, like exploring a vibrant art gallery. The neighborhood has suffered a bad reputation as dangerous since it became inhabited by undesirables after the 1989 invasion flattened it and chased out most legitimate residents. But significant investments in restoration and security in recent years have transformed Casco into a safe, charming, and hip enclave of quiet shops and coffee houses on the historical plazas, and local artists are responding and adding to the beautification effort. With all the reconstruction underway, construction sites abound, and scaffolding and safety walls are bedecked with humorous paintings of voluptuous dancing ladies. Trashcans are all painted with bright patterns and scenes. And on Avenida A between Plaza Herrera and the Iglesia San Jose, muralist Rolo de Sedas has adorned the wooden shutters on the street-level windows with his coquettish series “Mamis, Panamá Siempre Verde,” the Mamas of an Evergreen Panama. Each window frames a face of a different color, with different features, all within the spectrum of “typical Panameñas.” These ladies were painted after the dramatic 2011 protests against copper mining in Panama, and serve to remind us that Panama’s “green heart” is an environment that we should love and care for like a mother.

In the heart of Casco Viejo, Bajareque provided a perfect location for a timely break in the day. The outdoor seating combined with a fresh cup of coffee (or wine) created a lovely afternoon.

A couple of pet egrets mill around the Presidential Palace courtyard entrance, seeming to stand guard at Panama City's equivalent to Washington's White House. The Palacio Presidencial, as it is known, is prominently poised on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The elegantly white 17th century building is just at the entrance to the Casco Viejo, the historic district, where the shoreline curves away from Panama's explosively edgy skyscrapered section. In order to see the birds (and the courtyard, for that matter), you need to smile and ask the guards to let you walk past the security barriers for a glimpse of the birds. Or, you can try for a tour, arranged in advance.

Casco Viejo (the old city) is currently undergoing a massive revitalization. Everywhere you look new construction and remodeling is underway. Already a major attraction of Panama City, this charming, colonial location will soon be able to host even more hotels, restaurants, and bars. As I strolled around Castro, I was reminded of Havana, Cuba. Indeed, the city consists of Spanish Colonial architecture, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Being that I love rooftop bars, I was more than delighted to stumble on Tantalo, a new, modern bar and restaurant with great views of Panama city. Get there early, at sunset the place is packed!

One of my favorite parts of Casco Viejo in Panama City is that it is a "wander-friendly" city. During my afternoon exploration, I followed the light at the end of a long, old street and found myself looking at a beautiful body of water in the midst of an urban setting.

The hidden gem in the neighborhood of Casco Viejo is a wonderful place to spend a relaxing evening in Panama City. Upon walking into the wine bar, I knew the owner took pride in the well-designed establishment. Although the atmosphere provides a level of sophistication, the bar shows its fun side with an assortment of board games to help break the ice among groups.

The Frank Gehry Museum of Biodiversity is finally finished. The guide on the Panama Canal called it a building from someone who has done too much partying in Panama. I guess he hadn’t been to the Walt Disney Concert Hall.(view from the Panama Canal) For more info go to http://havefunflysafe.wordpress.com/2013/01/03/things-i-have-learned-in-panama/

This was one of the most beautiful views that I witnessed in the charming country of Panama, while visiting my best friend from college that was living and working there. The dome of the temple resembles some sort of space craft and the interior isn't that striking- it's the view of the city, the Pacific Oceana and the tropical rainforest that leaves you impressed. The structure is one of only seven Baha'i Temples in the world and well worth the hike or drive, up the hill.