Iglesia del Carmen gives its name to the nearby metro station in Panama City.
Emerging from the Iglesia del Carmen metro station for the first time I was delighted to see across the street the church that gave the station its name. Although it looks like an old Gothic church it was actually built in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Nothing outside the historic district is very old as the city only expanded from there after the canal was completd in 1914.
Iglesia del Carmen is equally beautiful inside and outside.
Between Estación Iglesia del Carmen and Estación Via Argentina, the station nearest to where I am staying, is another exquisite church building - Sanctuario Nacional del Corazon de Maria, consecrated in 1949. It also has an arresting interior. Not far away are the highrises of the business district.
Sanctuario Nacional del Corazon de Maria.
Altar in Corazon de Maria church.
Santo Tomás, the metro station on the other side of Iglesia del Carmen, gives easy walking access to Cinta Costera, Panama City's waterfront highway and parkland. On the way from the station I saw several postsecondary institutions including Universidad del Istmo and Instituto Gastronómico de las Américas. At the cooking school students working in the kitchen are visible through a large window.
Intricate windows on Universidad del Istmo building.
You can see the students cooking at Instituto Gastronómico de las Américas.
Arriving at Avenida Balboa I crossed at a crosswalk then used a pedestrian bridge to reach the parkland. Multiple lanes of traffic move away from the business district on Avenida Balboa and toward it on parallel Cinta Costera. A landmark between the two roads is a statue of Spanish explorer Balboa (C 1475-1519) who crosssed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific Ocean in 1513.
Balboa statue on Cinta Costera.
View of business district from pedestrian bridge over the roadway.
A number of pedestrian bridges across the Cinta Costera give access to the parkland which has a pedestrian path and a cycling path along the Pacific Ocean. From the parkland are views of the sea, the city skyline, and the historic district of Casco Viejo. On my way back to the metro station I stopped to admire a children's mural along Avenida Balboa.
Charming children's mural along Avenida Balboa.