Casco Viejo, Panama

Panama City has been for 7 years in the top 5 places for retirement in the world according to International Living Magazine.

Casco Viejo is the oldest city on the Pacific Coast of the Americas, and lies at the foot of the Panama Canal on one side and Panama City on the other. Nowadays, Casco Viejo is acknowledged as the city's most recognizable suburb, located in the district of San Felipe. While this historic community has lost it's economic importance with the expansion of Panama City, Casco Viejo continues to appear in songs, poems, videos, television commercials, and other elements of the city's daily life. Moreover, the area now serves as one of the country's most popular tourist attractions, frequented by tourist guides and photographers alike.

The architecture is a combination of ruins from the days of Spanish Explorers and Pirates, and French Colonial from the first attempt made on the Panama Canal by the French. To walk through Casco Viejo is definitely to walk through history. Buildings sitting side by side can be over three hundred years apart in age. Balconies are filled with flowers such as geraniums and bougainvillea wrapped around sculpted wrought iron crafted in another century, The streets are brick, and no matter which way they run, they run to the sea, because Casco Viejo is surrounded by sea.