"Wow, it's the Manhattan of Central America," my husband Marc said as we circled around Panama City preparing to land.
The city has no less than 50 skyscrapers, with about 10-15 of them still having cranes on top of them, all in various stages of construction. Even Donald Trump is getting in on the action. He has two building currently being built and he has an island in the main bay of the city where he's going to build a third skyscraper.
One of the Donald's buildings is a twisting building. The lower foundation of maybe five floors is standard and the next 10ish floors are twisted like a DNA helix.
As we drove around the city at night we noticed that only about 25% of the high rises had lights on signifying occupancy. We asked our taxi driver, "Where are the people who are going to live here? Where are they going to come from?" He shrugged his shoulders and said he did not know.
The country is growing and prospering, thanks to the funds from the Panama Canal operations being shared with the people. But, there's no one to buy the homes being built. Retirees? Expatriats? It will be interesting to watch and see what happens.
A highlight of Panama City is to go out to the Canal and watch ships transit. There is a beautiful 4-story viewing area complete with an open air restaurant to nosh while you watch. Seeing a huge cargo ship transit the canal with 6 or so inches on either side of the ship and the canal is an awesome experience.
Here is a time-lapse video of transiting the canal. It is so cool! Notice the silver carlike vehicles to the side of the ship. These cars hook to the ship and guide it through the canals. Surprisingly the filling and unfilling of the water in each lock is fast.
Robin Dohrn-SimpsonFreelance Writerwww.robindohrnsimpson.com
The city has no less than 50 skyscrapers, with about 10-15 of them still having cranes on top of them, all in various stages of construction. Even Donald Trump is getting in on the action. He has two building currently being built and he has an island in the main bay of the city where he's going to build a third skyscraper.
One of the Donald's buildings is a twisting building. The lower foundation of maybe five floors is standard and the next 10ish floors are twisted like a DNA helix.
As we drove around the city at night we noticed that only about 25% of the high rises had lights on signifying occupancy. We asked our taxi driver, "Where are the people who are going to live here? Where are they going to come from?" He shrugged his shoulders and said he did not know.
The country is growing and prospering, thanks to the funds from the Panama Canal operations being shared with the people. But, there's no one to buy the homes being built. Retirees? Expatriats? It will be interesting to watch and see what happens.
A highlight of Panama City is to go out to the Canal and watch ships transit. There is a beautiful 4-story viewing area complete with an open air restaurant to nosh while you watch. Seeing a huge cargo ship transit the canal with 6 or so inches on either side of the ship and the canal is an awesome experience.
Here is a time-lapse video of transiting the canal. It is so cool! Notice the silver carlike vehicles to the side of the ship. These cars hook to the ship and guide it through the canals. Surprisingly the filling and unfilling of the water in each lock is fast.
Robin Dohrn-SimpsonFreelance Writerwww.robindohrnsimpson.com
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