Panama City, Panama
Contributed by Monique Altheim | Last Date of Travel: January 2007
Kosher Info: Most of Panama City’s kosher restaurants are situated in the upscale Jewish neighborhood of Punta Paitilla. Punta Paitilla is only a short drive from downtown Panama City, where we stayed at the Marriott for a very reasonable price. Punta Paitilla boasts a meat restaurant SHALOM KOSHER. Gabrielle and I had delicious steak and fries there. When we showed surprise at the steep price, the owner explained that they have to import meat from the U.S. The service was very friendly. Cheaper options include a dairy 
restaurant PITA PAN, as well as a gigantic kosher supermarket called SUPER KOSHER. Both of the above mentioned restaurants are located at Bal Harbor Plaza in Punta Paitilla. The supermarket is located at Calle San Sebastian in Paitilla. It is a little difficult to find, since there are no real street signs, but with a few words of Spanish and a lot of gesturing, we eventually found the place. The local population was very friendly and helpful.
Tourist Info: Panama lies between 7 and 8 degrees above the equator and the average temperature in the winter is 85 ℉. Winter is the dry season and therefore an ideal time for a short visit. Panama uses the $USD for its currency. Panama City is growing fast and high rises are popping up like mushrooms. It has been dubbed the “new Miami”. We spent four days in Panama City and found plenty to do. The concierge at the hotel was very helpful with arranging day trips with private guides, who were overall knowledgeable, reliable and relatively inexpensive.
We spend an afternoon visiting the Miraflores Locks at the world famous Panama Canal. It was fascinating to watch huge cargo ships, heading back to China, being lowered from the level of the canal to the level of the Pacific Ocean. 
The next day, we joined a nature expedition to Soberania National Park. We saw blue morpho butterflies fluttering their enormous neon blue iridescent wings, howler monkeys dangling from trees and growling loudly, leaf cutter ants, toucans and parrots, and we heard poison dart frogs.
The following day, our guide Sergio took us to an Embera village in Chagres National Park. We drove for an hour on dusty country roads until we reached the banks of the Chagres River. From there, we continued our journey in a “piragua”, a dugout canoe, navigated by Embera Indians in loin cloths. We stopped by a waterfall to take a dip in the Chagres River. We swam in the crystal clear water, surrounded by lush vegetation and the rich sounds of the rain forest and the waterfall. The air was pure, the water clean, it felt like paradise regained. After a short ride upstream, we reached the Embera village, where we were warmly received by the entire Embera Indian community. They live a very primitive life in thatched huts. They performed a rain dance for us and we got our arms tattooed with the traditional “jagua”, a natural dye that lasts for about two weeks. This excursion was definitely one of our most memorable one!
On our last day, we visited Casco Viego, Panama City’s old quarter. We saw the Plaza Bolivar and the Palacio Presidencial, where Bolivar organized the famous 1823 congress to discuss the unification of Colombia, Mexico, and Central America. The old quarter is very quaint and authentic. We bought a couple of Molas, the beautiful stitched cloth art produced by the Kuna Indians. They were $5 to $10 a piece, an unbelievable bargain.
Jewish Info: The first Jews to settle in Panama were Spanish and Portuguese Conversos who were forced to practice their Judaism in secret. At the end of Spanish colonial rule in 1821, Panama became attached to Colombia and at this time several Sephardi Jews from Jamaica and Ashkenazi Jews from Central Europe settled in the province. Due to the lack of a strong Jewish community, many of them intermarried and assimilated. In the middle of the nineteenth century, a number of immigrants of Sephardi origin from the Carribean region, and a few Askenazim from Europe, settled in Panama. The first Jewish community, Kol Shearith Israel, was founded in 1876. With time, the community bcame identified with the Reform 
movement. Click here to read more about Panama’s Jewish history.
These are both Orthodox shuls in the Panama City area:
- Sinagoga Beth El, Apertado Postal 87-3218 Zona 7
- Sociedad Israelita Shevet Ahim, Calle 44-27
- According to Chabad.org, it doesn’t seem to be that there are any Chabad centers in Panama.
(3 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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