travel

A cannon at a luxury hotel?

photos by Gaenor Speed

See, this is not just any luxury hotel, but the Melia Panama Canal at the former Fort Gulick, now part of the municipal district of Colon. The hotel, run by a Barcelona-based chain, used to be the controversial US Army School of the Americas, whose graduates have served as dictators in most Latin American countries at one time or another.

Before it was a school for Latin American military officers, the main building was a hospital for the casualties of World War II.

But now it's the best hotel in Colon, with probably the best swimming pool in Panama and a scenic setting by the jungle on Gatun Lake.