Vicky Baker
The Guardian

Panama City used to be somewhere people travelled through, not to. But the transformation of a run-down neighbourhood into one of the hippest barrios in Latin America is changing that.

 

A grubby billboard stands propped up against the kerb.  "La Casona de las Brujas", it reads, which loosely translates as the House of Witches. It seems appropriate for a dark side street in Panama City's ramshackle Casco Viejo neighbourhood. I have no idea where Xili, my Panamanian friend, is taking me, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a secret penchant for black magic.

Five minutes later, it becomes clear. Some sort of magic has been worked here, but it's far from sinister. What was once a Catholic girls' school has been transformed into one of the funkiest live music venues in the city. A shabby corridor leads to an open-air courtyard decked in fairy lights: the school's old wooden desks have been brightly painted, barrels have been upturned to make seats, and there's a giant portrait of the Virgin Mary keeping watch over the dancefloor.

Panama does not spring to mind as a place to find decent alternative music, but it's fast gaining that reputation. Places such as La Casona - hosting a diverse bill of artists, national and international, signed and unsigned - are gaining huge fan bases and confounding preconceptions.

Until recently, the Panamanian capital was a place where travellers stopped only long enough to take a photo of the canal and do a bit of shopping, before moving on to the San Blas islands or the country's other famous archipelago, Bocas del Toro, near the Costa Rican border.

But more and more people are now using the capital as a base. As well as its nightlife and booming restaurant scene, you've also got a wealth of attractions within easy reach, including two coastlines and the breathtaking rainforest with toucans, hummingbirds, harpy eagles, howler monkeys, even the occasional jaguar if you're very lucky.

The place that has really got people talking is Casco Viejo (also known as Casco Antiguo). Until very recently it was a slum, but now this edgy district in the west of the city is the place to be seen. A low-rise maze of winding streets filled with colonial architecture, it is at that intriguing stage where a Wifi-enabled cafe with immaculately groomed window boxes sits next to an abandoned shell of a building with no windows.

It is also where the best nightlife is found. Bypass Calle Uruguay, a neon-lit central avenue lined with mainstream bars, restaurants and clubs, and head for La Casona de las Brujas (enlacasona.com).