Panama Viejo – Panama City, Panama

Panama City is truly one of the most unique, and ever changing, cities in the world.  Although there are numerous neighborhoods and districts there are 3 main ones that come to mind.  There is new Panama City complete with modern skyscrapers of such uniqueness they can only be compared to Dubai.  Old Panama City, called “Casco Viejo”, which is where the French and Spanish settled.  Then there is Panama Viejo which is considered “really old Panama City.”  This was the very first spot in Panama City to be settled and was a thriving village until it was eventually sacked by the pirate Henry Morgan.  Today Panama Viejo is a collection of beautiful old buildings surrounded by lush jungle.  A handful of the buildings are in good shape and have even been restored such as the beautiful old 3 story tower.  This tower offers incredible views of the surrounding city and is a great example of the early architecture of Central American settlements.  Lindsay and I went to the top and spent about 30 minutes just looking out of the various arched stone windows at the surrounding city, jungle and ocean.  The rest of the complex has numerous old foundations and ruins that are fascinating to explore.  We spent a couple of hours just wandering through trying to imagine what this place must have looked like before Henry Morgan got to it.  This area is also unique because the surrounding jungle is literally overtaking it.  Many of the old stone ruins have plants, trees, etc growing right out of them.  There was one section in particular that had a gorgeous, and huge, tree growing amongst all the ruins.  This was no ordinary tree and was so impressive that Lindsay and I probably took 20 pictures…it was gigantic!  If you ever find yourself in Panama City, Panama make sure you don’t miss the beautiful old ruins of Panama Viejo.