Panama

Discover Panama

Panama City was founded in 1519 as the oldest European city on the Pacific coast of the entire Americas. It was also burned to the ground 152 years later by a Welsh pirate named Henry Morgan.

Panama was Spain's secret shortcut. In 1513, an explorer named Vasco Núñez de Balboa hiked across the jungle and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish loaded silver from Peru onto mule trains and hauled it across the country to ships headed for Spain.

By the 1600s, Panama City was the richest city in the entire New World. That kind of wealth attracted pirates like Morgan, who torched the old city in 1671. The Spanish rebuilt it a few miles away.

Panama declared independence from Spain in 1821 and joined a larger country called Gran Colombia, which also included Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. When Gran Colombia broke apart, Panama stayed connected to Colombia for more than 70 more years. In 1903, Panama broke free with help from US President Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to build a canal.

The French had tried first, starting in 1881, but more than 20,000 workers died from disease and accidents before they gave up. The US took over in 1904 and finished the canal in 1914. More than 5,000 workers died in that phase too, most of them from diseases spread by mosquitoes in the jungle.

Panama had a rough stretch in the 1980s when a military leader named Manuel Noriega ran the country while secretly working with drug traffickers. The United States invaded in 1989 to remove him. In 1999, the US handed full control of the canal back to Panama.

At the Miraflores Locks visitor center, you can watch enormous cargo ships get lifted or lowered through giant water-filled chambers to cross the country. Casco Viejo is Panama City's old neighborhood, packed with colorful buildings and churches built by Spanish settlers in the 1600s. 

Try sancocho, a thick chicken soup with yuca and corn that Panamanians eat for any meal of the day. Grab patacones, twice-fried crispy green plantain slices, as a snack. Head to the Mercado de Mariscos for fresh ceviche, fish marinated in lime juice and served cold.