Paseo las Bovedas is a bougainvillea-covered walkway in Panama City. It is lined with tables, their vendors all eager to sell their traditional crafts to passersby.
Because the promenade’s lush boungainvillea offers a shady refuge from the hot tropical sun, it is one of the best places to find people selling local crafts. On any given day tourists and locals will relax on benches, watching passersby and vendors and enjoying any cooling breeze that blows in from the Pacific.
This trellised promenade is one of the most beautiful parts of Casco Viejo (a.k.a. Casco Antiguo), which is Panama’s Old Town. Officially known as Paseo de Las Bóvedas, this vine- and bougainvillea-covered esplanade runs along the top of the sea wall built by the Spanish to protect the city.
From here you can lean over the walkway’s edge to see the waves crash below or look past the boats bobbing on the water to the skyscrapers of Panama City’s modern skyline. Further down the walkway you can see the Bridge of the Americas and watch ships waiting to enter the Panama Canal.
At the end of the walkway is a wide staircase that leads down to Plaza Francia, the original main square of Casco Antiguo. Flanking the Plaza are the French Embassy, the Instituto Nacional de Cultura (National Culture Institute), and the infamous Las Bóvedas.
Las Bóvedas is the old, well-used dungeon of colonial Panama, now home to a restaurant of the same name. (Las bovedas means “the vaults.”) And of course the plaza is also full of vendors with souvenirs, food and drink.
Panama’s Old Town is included in the list of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.
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