Increased globalization in the world has led to a new way of life; one hinged on the pins of technology, communication, and innovative foresight in the world of business, culture, and overall wellbeing. But one small town in Panama City, Panama is living proof that sometimes, turning back the clocks can do a neighborhood just as good.

The world I come from in the US is one of futuristic proportions. High-speed trams, iPods with video, and a hard lined path in which people are heading. Walk the streets of Panama City’s historic district of Casco Viejo though, and you’re transported back in time. Back to the days when report deadlines and blinking stop lights weren’t dictating the pace. People used to stop and chat back then.

Tradition is still treated with respect on the streets of Casco Viejo. Respect for elders, respect for the neighborhood, and respect for change. Walk past the quaint Café Per Due, a new Italian coffee shop on Avenida A and hear the cute owner behind the counter recommend a hot cup of cappuccino. Or wander through the recently opened Super Gourmet, a high-end deli serving sandwiches and salads to the areas patrons. It’s a dreamy ambiance, it really is. There’s the shoe shiner, the local drunk, and five small supermarkets where everybody knows your name. Shops on the ground floors with living quarters above make for picturesque gossip circles between locals and visitors alike.

Hand-made lamps at the metal-craftsman’s studio and slow walks past the Cultural Center’s painting display evoke an appreciation for the arts not found elsewhere in Panama. And it’s not a fake kind of old-fashionedness either: you won’t see any maple sugar demonstrations or actors wearing corny hats talking with cheesy accents. Nope. Casco Viejo is the real deal.

The romantic village with ornate Spanish and French architecture framing narrowly the crooked cobblestone streets is a peninsula on the Pacific Ocean, beautifully jutting out with water on nearly all sides. It’s a haven for artists, a gold mine for investors, and a soon-to-be-discovered paradise for the world’s helplessly romantic looking for a new place to settle down.

Casco has a gentle air to it: locals hanging over balconies alongside bougainvilleas, hands clasped, in a peaceful yet unsmiling manner. Cloak Casco Viejo in a light morning fog and freeze life for just a moment, and you’re on a movie set; based in some nameless European town; where neither a canal nor a booming real estate market sit a few miles away. It’s a feeling of old-world magic that appears to be quite simply fading from today’s fast-moving world: yet to residents and vacationers in Casco Viejo, the pace always stays charmingly the same.

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Filed under: Culture on March 25th, 2008