Avenida Balboa: The City’s Postcard

Every city has the avenue that shows up in the drone shots. In Panama City it is Avenida Balboa: the curve of glass towers hugging the bay, with the Cinta Costera — the waterfront park built over the sea — running along it like a green carpet.

What it is for

• Running, cycling, skating: the Cinta is the city’s open-air gym, busiest at dawn and after 5pm when the heat forgives;
• The photo: from the palm-lined walkways, the skyline poses on one side and the Pacific on the other — with the statue of Balboa (the Spaniard who “discovered” this ocean) watching;
• Events: marathons, festivals, national parades — when Panama celebrates, it is here;
• Anchors: the Mercado de Mariscos at one end, Casco Viejo just beyond — the perfect walking sequence for a first day.

The honest part

Balboa is a postcard, not a lifestyle: the towers along it are offices, banks and apartments with a view, but street life at night is thin, and crossing eight lanes still takes faith in the pedestrian bridges. Come for the golden hour walk — the sequence Cinta → Mercado → Casco at sunset is the single best free evening in the country.

Cover photo: David Broad, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0).