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Curb cuts will make it easier to get around town in a wheelchair
San Miguel's not one of our major tourist attractions
 

A block or so away from where tourists venture...

San Miguel is a rough, decaying Panama City neighborhood. Someone with a reasonably good throwing arm, however, could heave a small stone from here to the grounds of the legislative palace. The buses shown here headed toward the Plaza Cinco de Mayo area, just a couple of blocks away. The proximity of hardscrabble San Miguel to the business district along Avenida Central prompts some guidebooks to travel and living in Panama to warn people away from the popular business district. Such advice is a bit extreme. Yes, you can get pickpocketed or mugged down on Central, but if you take all the reasonable precautions you probably won't be. The vast majority of the people in San Miguel, you see, are not criminals, and there are cops patrolling Central to suppress those who are. You still don't want to go down there flashing expensive jewelry, carrying a huge wad of cash or looking like a tourist who's lost. Photo by Eric Jackson