Avenida Central landscape changes

A rainy day on a radically changed stretch of Avenida Central

Panama City's changing downtown landscape

There actually were more or less permanent buildings, housing jewelers, textile retailers, restaurants, a Caja de Ahorros branch and so on, along this stretch of Avenida Central. But between those and the curb there was a living expression of small-time capitalism in the form of little stands where you could find a baseball hat with the logo of almost any Major League Baseball team (but most of all, the Yankees), or a new belt, or a backpack, or children's toys, or a new battery for your cell phone, or....

In the background, just around the corner but formerly blocked from view by the kioscos and stores, was the place from whence the SACA buses --- those orange and white things that the bus drivers' cooperative serving the canal area run --- departed. Now the SACA buses operate out of the National Transportation Terminal in Albrook.

So what's going up on this stretch of Avenida Central? Nothing in particular at the moment, so it seems.

Photos by Eric Jackson

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