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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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe www.arcoproperties.com The oldest inside joke in Casco Viejo is that it isn´t a colonial city at all. As a matter of fact, all the examples of colonial buildings burnt during one of the three big fires back in the XVIII century. All but one: Casa Gongora. The only true colonial house of Casco Viejo. This is what I call an extreme makeover: before and after restoration. Casa Gongora serves now as a museum, a concert hall, an art gallery. Located in Avenida Central and Fourth Street, right in front of my favorite ice cream [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, Plaza Herrera www.arcoproperties.com For the last two years, La Casona de las Brujas has been the center of the Panamanian bohemian scene. The space located at the old Maria Imaculada School near Plaza Herrera served as art gallery, concert hall, disco, art school for local children and just the favorite afterhours neighborhood hang out. A little bit like gypsies, La Casona model is based on "opening" spaces in unrestored buildings until they are up for restoration, giving the building life and sometimes breaking into areas that aren´t well known. [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe Back in my university days, I did a paper on Panama’s National Theatre. Although looking back it was pretty much incomplete, naïve and badly written, I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed researching for it. For me, the National Theatre is like a second home, a place that saw me grow up while dancing. It’s history has always been from glory to disaster, and then to glory again. One of the things that made me laugh at the top of my lungs was the first “Gaceta Oficial” ( the newspaper where the government [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Antiguo Casco Viejo, San Felipe We received a flash note from Quintessentially announcing their next "Silent Auction" of Fundacion San Felipe. This year, the 17th one, it will be held at the Marriott hotel, and all proceeds will go to their various programs ranging from art to photography for kids. This is usually a good place to get mostly Latinamerican Art. There isn´t much in the internet about the Foundation, however, they´ve been in the area for quite a while, working with children and taking care of the restoration of the San Felipe Neri church, which was their fl [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe From Today´s La Prensa: Panama will have a Renaissance Hotel (by Marriott) by 2011. This announcement was made by Edward Fuller, president and executive director for Marriott International in the region, who mentioned this would be an investment of about 40 million dollars. "Panama´s economics are strong and the hotel industry is in constant growth". Renaissance Panama Hotel is expected to have 300 rooms and will be part of a mixed project which will include both residential and commercial real estate. The current Marriott hotel seems to be [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, San Felipe Have you seen those TV shows where they take a one level house and turn it into a mansion or where they promise you to look at least ten years younger by changing your makeup, style or even surgery? I have seen some incredible human makeovers in a show that is all about plastic surgery. Well, how about a 100 years younger? Restorations at Casco Viejo have the same incredible effects. As a real estate broker focused only in Casco Antiguo, I have dealt with both unrestored and restored properties. For me, restored apartments [View Full Entry]

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Panama, Casco Viejo Casco Antiguo, Plaza Francia Yesterday, with noisy and entretaining fireworks and a very nice party the French Embassy celebrated their Bastille Day at Plaza de Francia in Casco Viejo, also known as Las Bovedas. Since I know very little about French history, I checked out Wikipedia and found this: "Quatorze Juillet" (Fourteenth of July in French) is Bastille Day, the French national holiday celebrating the Fête de la Fédération in 1790 during the French Revolution. I know I should learn more about history, but I think in a way it was difficult to know exactly wh [View Full Entry]

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