Page 108 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

106 The Panama Canal and CenTral isThmus Colón
Parque de
la Juventud COLÓN
Christ the Redeemer
PASEO WASHINGTON
Christ Church CALLE 1
by the Sea CALLE 1 CALLE 2 CARIBBEAN
SEA
New CALLE 2
Washington
Hotel AVENIDA MELÉNDEZ PASEO DE LESSEPS N
CALLE 3 CALLE 4 CALLE ESCOBAL
2 CALLE 5 CALLE MONTE LIRIO CALLE LIMÓN CALLE PORTOBELO AV. ROOSEVELT
CALLE 6 CALLE MARGARITA
Catedral de la Inmaculada
Concepción de María CALLE 8
CALLE 6 PASEO GORGAS
CALLE 7 CALLE 9 Bahía de
Arena Teófilo AV E NI DA B AL BOA AVE NI DA H E R R ER A Manzanillo
Panama Al Brown CALLE 8
CALLE 10
CALLE 9 AVE N IDA R OO SE V E LT CALLE 11 Colón
AVE N I DA B OL Í VAR
2000
AVE NI DA D EL FRENT E
Bahía Bank CALLE 10 AVENIDA MELÉNDEZ AVENIDA SANTA ISABEL CALLE 12
AVENIDA AMADOR GUERRERO
AV E NI DA JU STO AR OSE M ENA
Limón CALLE A
CALLE 11 CALLE 13
Police
AV EN IDA CE NT R A L / PAS EO C E NT E N AR I O
CALLE 12 AVENIDA DOMINGO DÍAZ CALLE 14
CALLE 13 CALLE
ZONA LIBRE CALLE 15 D CALLE E CALLE F
CALLE 14 FREE ZONE
AVENIDA FEDERICO BOYD
Bus Terminal CALLE 16
CRISTÓBAL
PORT CALLE C
CALLE 16
Aspinwall
AV EN I DA BO LÍVAR
Monument
Train Station AVENIDA S A N TA ISABEL
CIUDAD ARCO IRIS
ACCOMMODATION RAINBOW CITY
Hotel Internacional 2
Marina Hotel 3
Panama Canal Railway
Radisson 1 AV ENIDA BOLÍVAR
EATING AVENIDA AHMAD WAKED
Arrecifes 2
The Dock 3 0 500
Nuevo Dos Mares 1 metres
(28km), (28km), Fuerte San Lorenzo (38km) & Costa Abajo Sabanitas (12km), Portobelo (47km), Costa Arriba & Panama City (80km)
Americans in charge of the railway bewilderingly insisted on establishing the Atlantic
terminal here, and in 1852 unilaterally named the place Aspinwall after one of the railway’s
owners. This upset the New Grenadan (present-day Colombia and Panama) authorities,
who insisted that it be called Colón, after Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Columbus),
leading to a long-running dispute that the Colombians finally won by ingeniously
instructing the postal services not to deliver letters from the US if addressed to Aspinwall.
The railway brought many immigrants and a degree of prosperity to the town despite
the constant threat of yellow fever, malaria and cholera. Since then, wealth – via Canal
construction, a spell as a fashionable cruise-ship destination in the 1950s and the success
of the Free Zone, founded in 1949 – has come and gone, and Panama’s main port
predominantly remains a slum city. In the face of extreme poverty and soaring
unemployment levels, it is little surprise that many have turned to crime, particularly drug
and arms trafficking, as a way to survive. It remains to be seen whether the government’s
ambitious plan to renovate the city centre that was kick-started in 2015 will turn out to be
a case of too little too late.
090-125_Panama_3_Ch2.indd 106 30/06/17 11:50 am