The best of the Casco Viejo and the French Expats gathered yesterday to celebrate France´s most important holiday. The party was at Plaza Francia (of course!). Check out photos of the celebration, along with historic photos as far as 1923 of other celebrations, including the inauguration itself of Plaza de Francia.

Ah! La Bella Roma! From the cradle of Western civilization to a huge melting pot, for those who have visited or lived in Rome it blows your mind away and steals a piece of your heart. But if you actually want to own a piece of Rome, you’d better be prepared to give also your kidney away (the good one), an eye and seriously consider adding up one of your lungs to sweeten the deal. Wao. The incredible thing isn’t that prices are astronomically high; it is that at over $20,000 US dollars per mt2 or $2,000 per ft2 people are still buying.

From time to time, I like refreshing some information that has been useful to my readers as where to stay and what to do in Casco Viejo is constantly changing:

Someone once told me that if he wanted to know who was going to win the elections he would ask a taxi driver. To know how a country is doing on the investment side, my taxi driver is called hotel occupation. Who is showing up and how frequently will tell you a lot about the current state and the future of a place. Check out the latest Panama news!

It isn´t summer, but somehow Casco Viejo hasn´t slowed down too much regarding cultural events. August 8th will have a special presentation of a German Jazz Duet where all profits will go to social work in Darien. July still gets a Contemporary Dance Encounter and an Art Auction from the Museum of Contemporary Art at Casa Cor. Learn when and who to contact here!

This is not "body painting", claims the artist Ramon Almanza. Throughout my work I always ended up representing the female form and at some point I thought, it would be great to transfer my vision directly to a female body! Today, at Casa Gongora, his art show will feature...

Flash news! new music festival. This one blending art and fashion. Also, don´t forget to visit the Central America Photo Bienale at Las Bovedas.

Ok. So Panama is about 20 years behind on releasing its E Commerce legislation, but ... hey! ... at least it is out there now! know more about it, download the law.

Passionate, skillful and thoughful. Samantha, our Casco Viejo female surf champion fired up in Cambutal last weekend at Cambutal and took home a very good prize. She has become a national pride and a local roll model.

Often your best memories of places where you have been are actually from people you have met. In Casco Antiguo we are lucky to still have with us "antique" residents that are very much part of the different textures of this neighborhood. Miss Daisy is one of them...

I had a literature teacher that used to say: taking out the obvious great masters, at the end of the day, the line between art and non art these days is very fine. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There used to be a clear difference between folk, handcraft and art. Today, it is all fusion, pieces dancing from one concept to the other, depending on the latest critic review. However, she said, don´t be ashamed if you feel confused. Think about this: if YOU enjoy it, it is art to you. And if the artist brings love to its work, then it is in it´s purest form.