Panama City, Panama, Via Argentina neighborhood getting a facelift

Panama City, Panama, Via Argentina neighborhood getting a facelift

Steven Rich, MBA

Photo by Spanish Panama School

Twenty-five years ago, Via Argentina was a quiet street in the affluent El Cangrejo neighborhood of Panama City.  After the fall of ex-dictator Manuel Noriega in 1989, the wealthy migrated to other neighborhoods. Ten years ago, El Cangrejo became a tourism Mecca with numerous hotels, restaurants, car rentals, beauty salons, bars, cafés, and discotheques.

Via Argentina is now an attractive centrally located neighborhood with its own Metro subway station.  Popular for the many appetizing restaurants and flocks of little orange chinned green birds lining the large trees on the main avenue each evening at sundown and again at sunrise.  Also famous is the large white head of Einstein in a small triangular park.Its most famous resident is Roberto Durán “Manos de Piedra” ("Hands of Stone"), the World Boxing Hall of Fame boxer who held world titles in four different weight classes, who owns a popular bar just off of Via Argentina and lives nearby.

Panama City’s mayor, Jose Isabel Blandon, recently budgeted $24.2 million for a Via Argentina facelift.  Mayor Blandon declared, “The main change includes the undergrounding of cables, improving drainage and widening sidewalks”.  Already a favorite pedestrian street, the facelift will make Via Argentina even more popular for walking.  Visitors walk the avenue to explore the scores of wining and dining spots serving Cuban, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Mexican, Peruvian, Spanish, and Venezuelan cuisines.  The Panamanian food restaurants are authentic and reasonably priced.

Across from Einstein’s head are the authentic New York Bagels café with its endless cups of coffee and the La Rana Dorada pub offering homemade beers.  Both are very popular with tourists.

One place neglected for years and in the process of a facelift too is the Andrés Bello Park on the avenue.  Gone are the old rusted steel swings and broken playground toys being replaced with new shiny painted durable plastic playthings for children to crawl, swing, and slide.  The basketball court recently received a new surface along with two new backboards and nets.  The outdoor gym equipment are all being substituted with modern steel “gym fanatic” favorites.

Once the Panama City, Panama, Via Argentina neighborhood facelift is completed, Via Argentina will become one of the most popular neighborhoods in the city for locals, expats, and tourists.

Copyright © 2017 – Steven Rich, MBA