It is an international business center of more than a million people, sometimes referred to as the Hong Kong of Latin America. Founded in 1519, it is the oldest Spanish settlement on the American mainland. All the modern conveniences are here, and visitors don't have to venture far from their air-conditioned hotels to immerse themselves in the steamy greenery that characterizes the isthmus. In this nation the size of Maine, one quarter of the land has been set aside as national parks and preserves. Along with the canal, the 1977 treaties governing the transfer call for Panama to take possession of 250,000 acres, along with eight U.S. military bases, schools, golf courses, airports, houses and other installations bordering the waterway.
Tourism is a large part of the redevelopment master plan.
Argo Tours' Fantasia del Mar, a 117-foot excursion vessel, ferries tourists through the canal every Saturday. May. The sun rose swiftly as we glided under the Bridge of the Americas, a graceful span straddling continents at the Pacific entrance to the waterway. But Panama is more than a path between the seas. After a few days in the lush but oppressively torrid lowlands, I hopped a 45-minute flight west to Chiriqui Province, on the border with Costa Rica. We toured the coffee-growing region around the pretty town of Boquete, stopped at roadside stands and watched Central America's most storied bird, the resplendent quetzal, in its natural habitat.