Panama, Casco Viejo, Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com I was at my office, trying to start my Monday as usual, when a huge crowd of kids came running and screaming... "Saladino! Saladino! Canguro! Canguro!". The crowd jumped away, singing and screaming Irving´s Saladino´s name. I suddenly realized, our Panamanian Kangaroo was supposed to jump this morning. I open the internet, and there it is!! he just won gold with an 8.34mt2 jump. For most countries used to sending people to these competitions it is a good thing, but most of their habitants don´t think too much abou [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Antiguo Casco Viejo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com Calle 4ta is getting artsy! Galería Vida opened at Casa Mendez, next to Entre Pulgas. They have a lovely mix of latin american high end handcrafts, especially from Mexico and Guatemala. Laurie, the owner and Casco Viejo neighbor has years of experience in working with indigenous communities and helping them develop high quality product to help support their communities. Her good eye, style and sense of humor are all around Galeria Vida (which means Life Gallery). Congratulations! [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe Yesterday I read an article about Panama and foreigners living and doing business here. As usual, the posts below showed a wide range of comments, but there was one that got my attention: a disappointed person remarked that Panama was not paradise and it had a list of all things he didn´t like. In my job as a real estate agent there is one and only one thing I am absolutely certain: expectations play a huge roll in the level of satisfaction of the client. This can certainly be applied to all aspects of [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com Reading today´s La Prensa, I thought of sharing this wonderful news: COPA, the main Panamanian international airline, inaugurated its first plane simulator. Aparently it is the first equipment of this sort in Latin America and it simulates the brazilian Embraer 190 airplane. It is also located in City of Knowledge. This simulator has been designed to run at least 7000 flight hours and will be a valuable trainning resource, especially for local pilots which had to travel to Canada to get proper trainning. By installing [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo www.arcoproperties.com Last Saturday a nice article came out about Casco Viejo (which in Panama is known as San Felipe, Catedral, la Ciudad... so many names!). I looked for it in the electronic version of La Prensa, but couldn´t find it. So here is my translation and the original piece scanned at the bottom. It talks about speculation, restoration, patrimony (human and architectural) and what has been done in the past 10 years. La Prensa, August 9th, 2008 10 Years as Human Patrimony San Felipe, more than historic buildings Casco Viejo is acquiring a n [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Antiguo Casco Viejo, Plaza Herrera www.arcoproperties.com La Casona has new headquarters! at the former Citi Bank building, the wonderful Art Deco building at the opposite corner of the former Casona site in Plaza Herrera. With its huge ceilings and loft style it is a different feeling and makes for an interesting space to show art and do events. You won´t get wet under the rain! a fantastic party spot with a bigger and more comfortable bar. Go check it out! my pictures aren´t that good, you have to visit... [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com While everybody is excited today about Beijing´s dramatic opening for the Olimpics (which, by the way, where simply amazing! wao), another bright sun shined this morning over the newspaper as they announced the bay cleaning project has been completed so far in 21%, with an investment of 35 million dollars so far. According to the note at La Prensa, they are currently working at the collectors at the main city rivers (Juan Díaz, Matías Hernandez, Rio Abajo, Monte Oscuro, Espavé and others). And the most exciting part is [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com A new business has opened in Casco Antiguo! It is called "Indigo", an oriental-mediterranean fusion restaurant between 2nd and 3rd street in Central Avenue. Just by the side of the Tourism Police and next to the restaurant Manolo Caracol. They are still on their soft opening week, but Clara and I had the best passion fruit ceviche and some fantastic Greek empanadas with goat cheese and a sundried tomato sweet sauce. The ambiance is mostly Indian mixed with Moroccan, the decoration has lounge spaces to relax, and a bar [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com So few times we get to meet the faces behind the places. Daniel, Dan and David are the "3 amigos" from Luna´s Castle, Casco Viejo´s new youth hostal at the entrance of San Felipe. The hostal is located at the former Casa Ehrman at 9th Street. It has wonderful views to Panama´s Bay and the modern city skyline, but also the house, as it was never abandoned, is almost in its original form, giving a great sense of charm and history. The house has a great patio surrounded by stone walls. An original [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com I swear I had this great-very-serious article about the gas refinery projects that are coming to Panama, but someone just sent me this amazing picture and I just couldn´t help it. Check it out and you´ll see what I mean. Yes, again... it is my tomato fixation. Someone suggested I needed to seek professional help. I´ve been searching in the web for help groups, but seem not to find any, so I´ll guess I´ll have to create a group by myself. I´m struggling here to find the right name... But take a look [View Full Entry]

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