Nightlife In Panama City

Panama City After Dark

June 14, 2009
Panama City, Panama

PLUS: Panama City's Rental Market--What A Difference Two Years Makes!...Shopping For A Rental With No MLS...Life In France: La Belle Et La Bête...Your Top Health Insurance Options Overseas...Quicker, Easier, Cheaper, Safer...

AND: Top Six Retirement Havens On A Budget Of US$1,650 A Month...

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Dear Overseas Opportunity Letter Reader,

A friend visiting from the States this week has helped to reintroduce us to the other Panama City...the one that happens after we're normally asleep.

Lief and I are old married folks, in bed most nights by 10 p.m. This week, thanks to our friend, we've broken curfew on several occasions...and we've rediscovered that this town can be a whole lot of fun after the sun goes down.

Panama City boasts legitimately top-notch restaurants. Market is the best steakhouse in town. Don't believe anyone who tells you to go to Gaucho's for steak. Gaucho's is for tourists. Market is for locals. Plus, the chef at Market knows how to cook a piece of meat. The wait staff is international-standard. The wine list includes Veuve Clicquot (a personal favorite).

Best seafood in the city is at Siete Mares. Also the best escargot.

Great fine-dining establishments...plus fun, off-the-radar dives you wouldn't think to try unless someone pointed you in the direction. Panama City hides both.

Top of the list of great eateries you won't read about in any guidebook, we discovered this week, is Rincon Habanero, a tiny Cuban restaurant on Via Argentina, across from Manolo's. Manolo's is a local institution. Everyone knows where to find it. Get directions there, then cross the street to Rincon Habanero, which no one has heard of. The menu is Cuban tipico, the bar is stocked with rum Cubana, and the big-screen TV shows Cuban television. The night we visited, we were treated to a review of old black-and-white Cuban sit-coms.

Market and Siete Mares qualify as expensive. Rincon Habanero is at the other end of the scale--super affordable.

What to do in Panama City after dinner? There are the casinos, of course...and there are the gentlemen's clubs. Fortified by our dinner of rib-eyes and mojitos at Market last night, we decided to venture out to see a little more of what goes on in this town after we've normally called it a night.

Here's what I can tell you without risking censorship:

The Palace had been reported to us as Panama City's top choice for gentlemen's entertainment. The gentlemen in our party didn't agree.

They say they prefer the show at Cotton Club. Elite, probably the best-advertised club in the city, they report, is also worth a visit.

Alas, that's as far as we were able to get in our research. The serious Panama City nightlife, it seems, doesn't get going until well after Midnight...and we had to get home to relieve the babysitter.

Kathleen Peddicord

P.S. What else this week?

• "Boy, how the rental market in Panama City has changed in the past two years!" writes Editorial Assistant Rebecca Tyre.
  
  "Two years ago, I lived in a three-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment in the heart of the city. This apartment was big--about 140 square meters. I had a balcony that overlooked the tree-lined streets of El Cangrejo. For this, I paid US$450 a month in rent.
  
   "No, the building wasn't new. It was about 20 years old. An older building means less modern finishes and fewer amenities, but it also means bigger. The older apartments in Panama City are larger than the apartments being built today.
  
  "The location was ideal. I could walk to grocery stores, movie theaters, casinos, restaurants, bars, and pharmacies. The building had a security guard on duty 24/7 and featured covered parking. It was only four stories tall but had an elevator, something that is not common in older buildings.
  
  "Today the same apartment I rented for US$450 a month is being rented for nearly triple that amount..."
   
• While Rebecca shops for a new Panama City residence, we're looking for new office space...and we're being reminded how painful it can be to shop for real estate (either to buy or to rent) in a market without a multiple listing service.
  
  In the States, it'd be a simple matter of visiting a broker, presenting him with your specifications, then asking to see listing sheets for everything that matched them.
  
  Here in Panama City, trying to find office space to rent means contacting every agent, broker, building administrator, rental manager, and rental owner you can find to see what he or she has available.
  
  Here's the good news: You don't have to do the contacting yourself. Engage a broker. There's no reason not to, as you don't pay him (or her). The owner of the unit you ultimately contract to rent pays the commission...
   
• What are your options for health insurance overseas?
  
  There are many. They can be complicated, and some don't make sense at all.
  
  On the other hand, as a retiree overseas, you can arrange all the coverage you need for as little as US$100 a month...
   
• "We've been living in France for almost six months now," writes Correspondent Lucy Culpepper, "and most of the mundane, setting-up-in-a-new-country chores have been checked off the list. I'm finally able to sit back and watch the French at work, play, and rest. Here's what I've observed so far," continues Lucy in her La Belle Et La Bête review of life in France...
   
• Quickest, easiest, safest, cheapest way to renew your U.S. passport as an American abroad? Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst explains...
   
• PLUS: The World's Top Six Retirement Havens On A Budget Of US$1,650 A Month...