travel
 
Avenida Central: Panama City's
other capitalist stronghold
by Eric Jackson
The tourist guidebooks point to the banking center and its adjacent commercial areas as Panama City's world-class business district. But even though we just elected a government headed by the national affiliate of the Socialist International, we are a very capitalistic society. From the point of view of the average Panamanian, the banking district is not the place to do business --- in a country where fewer than 10 percent of the people have bank accounts and $400 a month is a solid middle class existence, blowing a week's pay for a shirt at Clubman is not a popular option.
Yes, along with the urban sprawl have come many a shopping center --- too many, if one considers the vacancy rate --- and the owners of a lot of these have had to acknowledge that the BMW set would not do sufficient business on their premises to make their investments profitable. Thus we have plebian-oriented commercial developments in most of the capital city's neighborhoods now.
Still, Avenida Central is the best established, largest, most inclusive and most popular strongholds of Panamanian capitalism for those who aren't rich.
Now if you read certain guides to living in Panama, you will be told that this is a totally dangerous area where you should never go. But quite frankly, those were written by and for people operating from very special perspectives. There are those who feel the urge to insinuate themselves into the rabiblanco elite, and thus adopt that pathetic ruling class's crass snobbery and distort reality in order to justify themselves. There are the get-rich-quick folks, whose lives are Potemkin villages of deceptive displays to impress suckers --- and those in the latter category of fools by their very nature don't want to know about or blend in with ordinary people.
Yes, if you make it your regular habit to walk the length of Avenida Central flashing expensive jewelry, carrying a camera around your neck and looking lost, sooner or later you are likely to be mugged. No, unless there's some very special reason you don't want to wander around there at night.
However, if you are one of these gringo retirees who has come down here to stretch your meager pension into a dignified lifestyle that you can't afford in the states, you most definitely do want to get acquainted with Panama's popular capitalism, and if you're living in the city you would do well to check out Avenida Central.
Central stretches from where Via España bears slightly left and changes its name in front of George Novey's hardware store, down to Plaza Cinco de Mayo, then turns into a pedistrian mall, the peatonal. The pedestrian mall counts on a heavier police presence than the stretch between Novey and Cinco de Mayo, which also usually has plenty of cops on duty. Starting with booths near the Don Bosco Church, where incense and religious trinkets are sold, Central's sidewalks are home to an amazing variety of vending stalls whose good and services often compete with and even more often complement the stores in the buildings along the street. Off of Avenida Central about a quarter-mile before it turns into the pedestrian mall ther is El Mercadito, a warrent of stalls on a side street where many sorts of things can be bought but most importantly many of the city's herbal medicine vendors are concentrated. Kitty-corner from the peatonal, just behind the anthropology museum, there is the artisans' market where tourists can get their molas and trinkets at non-ripoff prices, residents can have custom ceramic or wooden signs for their homes and this reporter buys his chacaras --- useful hand-woven bags that are far more durable and practical than a nylon knapsack or a traditonal briefcase.
But the heart of Central is the peatonal. Its absence of traffic, ample space and safe surroundings make the peatonal a popular hangout for different sorts of people, including the men who play dominoes there whenever the sun comes out.
The micro-enterprise face of a huge multinational conglomerate is one of the ordinary attractions on the peatonal.
Overweight private security guards (foreground) like jumbo hot dogs, as do cops (background) and overweight journalists (taking the picture)...
... but this woman's grapes make a healthier lunch.
Power outages are not one of the business risks for this young man, who squeezes oranges by hand and sells the fresh juice for a quarter a cup.
Feeling irie today? Whether it's a matter of advertising your hip hop sensibilities or a need to put your dreadlocks up from time to time, you may want to do business with the knitters, beaders and jewelers who make the sidewalk their workshops and stores.
Yes, a person can live in an air-conditioned bubble here, paying Panama's outrageous electric rates for the privilege. But for those foreign retirees who come here and acclimate not only to our weather but to our culture and economy as well, Central is a good place to shop for inexpensive fans and lightweight clothing that's appropriate for our latitude.
Alas, this lifelong devotee of the Detroit Tigers has to admit that Panama is a bastion of Yankees fans, as this vendor's stall suggests.
If you are hooked on sugar, a cup of fresh-squeezed sugar cane juice is a better way to get your fix than a bottle of the carbonated stuff that comes from the factory.
On Central you can get custom-etched drinking glasses, plastic lawn chairs, children's clothing, jewelry, candy or cigarettes, carriers for your cell phone --- or if you don't have your cell phone handy you can rent the use of one for a quarter a minute --- and this is just a tiny sampling of the goods on sale at one spot.
Mmmmmmm --- sweet little watermelons or sweet big pineapples for 50¢ apiece, and bananas cheaper than that.
One of the reasons for Central's continued popularity is that Plaza Cinco de Mayo is one of Panama City's principal public transportation nodes. Driving and parking around there can be a real pain, but if you come and go by bus or taxi it's a very convenient place to shop.
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