Cinta Costera 2010: The Panama Bay Green Strip

When the Cinta Costera, the green strip along Panama Bay opened last year it was attractive and clean and partially busy. That has all changed. Panama has found the Cinta Costera, families, couples, joggers, and even the environmental taxi service consisting of a modern rickshaw with a plastic cover for the rain. I revisited the Cinta Costera after six months and the place was packed on a Sunday evening. There was live music, lots and lots of food, and a guy on stilts.

I will attest to the fried chicken and my wife loved her fried fish. There were carmeled apples and cotton candy. If you half closed your eyes you might have thought you were at a mid western state fair on the midway.

A couple of months ago I read in La Prensa that someone suggested moving Carnaval to the Cinta Costera so I polled my usual subjects, the taxi drivers. The overwhelming opinion was that no one wants the green strip ruined, the grass churned up, and a lot of trash spread around. There was no beer being sold from what I could see on the Cinta Costera and easily half of the people were families with two or more children. Panamanians seem justifiably proud of their park on the bay and, from my taxi driver poll, want to keep it fit for families to stroll on Sunday evenings.