Why Panama?

UPDATE Panama Magazine

IMEX Fair, Frankfurt, Germany

May 20, 2014

Why Panama?

Jaime E. Figueroa

At the welcome reception for an international conference at the University of Massachusetts where I was summoned to speak about Balboa´s 1513 Pacific Ocean discovery, an Australian anthropologist inquired my roots.  “I hail from paradise” was the reply.  “Where would paradise be?” she curiously probed.  “Paradise is the Republic of Panama!” I swiftly snapped.

World-renowned architect Frank Gehry selected Panama as the site for his latest icon, the multi-colored roof BioMuseum at the Pacific entry to the canal. The isthmus rose from the oceans, the exhibit chronicle states, bonding the continental landmasses, separating the oceans and establishing different salinities that conceived a tropical belt around the globe giving birth to Homo sapiens.  

Home to more bird species, selected the #1 sports fishing resort in the world by the Robb Report, its lush greenery and abundant life characterize the uniqueness of this gleaming ribbon that also claims the global #1 coffee.

Columbus and Balboa were among its first visitors.  Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in 1534, almost 100 years before the Jamestown settlement, originated a movement to build a passageway, initiated by Frenchman Ferdinand De Lesseps in 1880 and finalized by Teddy Roosevelt in 1914.   Currently undergoing an unprecedented expansion to allow for the passage of megaships in 2016, the Panama Canal becomes an ever-more important transit point for global commerce.    

The country hosts the second largest free trade zone after Hong Kong.  The U.S. Dollar is the local currency attracting investments that embellish a robust economy that has bullishly grown non-stop at double digit rates since the beginning of the century and a booming capital city, home to the largest banking center in Latin America and its tallest residential tower, the impressive sail-shaped 70-story Trump Ocean Club, as well as the most modern metro in the globe.

Corriere della Sera, Italy´s largest news daily, describes Panama City as a combination of Manhattan and Venice due to the presence of two cities, ancient and modern, in one, while the New York Times adds that the country is “an embarrassment of natural beauty.”   Many find similarities with Miami, with the only difference that more English is spoken here. 

Thirty minutes from Panama City is all it takes to enter nature´s wonderland where native Indians live as their predecessors and the jungle symphony replaces beeping cell phones.  I met a Swedish engineer from Malmo in one of the 365 Caribbean islands of the San Blas archipelago and asked the reason behind his family´s annual pilgrimage there.  He replied that his wife and 4 kids needed to get away from the concrete jungle of the 21^st century world and get back in touch with nature.  

North Americans and Europeans are flocking in retirement and opening shop to take advantage of this new opportunity in a country that may very well soon become the new global #1 destination.  Come soon, before it´s too late!