By Freda Moon – THE NEW YORK TIMES

Panama City, the perpetually flowering capital of Panama — the small tropical country that bridges North and South America — has been fought over since its founding. The city and commercial hub, famous for the engineering marvel that is its canal, is among the unsung cosmopolitan capitals of the Americas. Flashy highrises and an eclectic culinary landscape — which includes neighborhood canteens, dim sum palaces, French bistros and kosher supermarkets — reflect the city’s international character. Panama City is also where you can feel history under your feet. The Museo Canal, celebrating its 25th anniversary, has a new permanent exhibition on the country’s route to sovereignty, including the United States’s handover of the Panama Canal in 1999, that provides visitors with much-needed context for this place that manages to be very much itself, while also a bit of everywhere else.

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