More about Panama
The Balboa Inn
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About Balboa & Panama - some history
Balboa
is a part of Panama City, located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. It includes Balboa Harbor – the city's main port – and is the location of the Canal Administration Building.
Balboa is named after Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish conquistador who discovered the Pacific Ocean (1513) and founded Panama, the first settlement of the Spanish at the Pacific Ocean.
Until 1979 , when the Zone ceased to exist, it was the administrative center of the Panama Canal Zone , meaning that the U.S. had full control over it. Considered a city in its own right by the Americans, it is now governed by the mayor of Panama City and forms part of the capital.
Demographics of Panama
The culture, customs, and language of the Panamanians are predominantly Caribbean Spanish. Ethnically, the majority of the population is mestizo or mixed Spanish, Indian, Chinese, and African descent. Spanish is the official and dominant language; English is a common second language spoken by the West Indians and by many in business and the professions. More than half the population lives in the Panama City – Colón metropolitan corridor.
The majority of Panamanians are Roman Catholic , accounting for almost 80% of the population. Although the Constitution recognises Catholicism as the religion of the majority, Panama has no official religion. Evangelical Christians are now estimated to be around 10% of the population. Other Protestant churches make up about 4% of the population. Other major religions in Panama are Islam (4.4%), the Bahá'í Faith (1.2%), Buddhism (at least 1%), Judaism (0.4%), and Hinduism (0.3%). The Jewish community, with over 10,000 members, is by far the biggest community in the region (including Central America, Colombia and the Caribbean). Jewish immigration began in the late 19th Century, and at present there are three 
synagogues in Panama City, as well as two Jewish schools. Within Latin America, Panama has one of the largest Jewish communities in proportion to its population, surpassed by Uruguay and Argentina, as well as among the largest Muslim, East Asian, and South Asian.
Also in regards to the Bahá'í Faith , Panama hosts one of only seven Bahá'í Houses of Worship in the world. Completed in 1972 in Panama City, it is perched on a high cliff overlooking the canal, and is constructed of local stone laid in a pattern reminiscent of Native American fabric designs.
Panama, because of its historical reliance on commerce, is above all a melting pot. This is shown, for instance, by its considerable population of Chinese origin , who number around 150,000, or about 5% of the population. ( See main article at Chinatowns in Latin America—Panama ). Many Chinese immigrated to Panama to help build the Panama Railroad. A term for "corner store " in Panamanian Spanish is el chino , reflecting the fact that many corner stores are owned and run by Chinese immigrants. (Other countries have similar social patterns, for instance, the "Arab" corner store of France.)
The country is also the smallest in Spanish-speaking Latin America in terms of population, with Uruguay as the second-smallest (by almost 400,000). However, since Panama has a faster birth rate, it is likely that in the coming years its population will surpass Uruguay's.
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last update: January 20, 2010