Cycling into Colon, I passed through not the most impressive gateway to the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal major city! Road is tight, the tarmac is so so, trash, and traffic heavy. The inner city is drab, in decay, and rough. But there’re a few old colonial buildings still standing, and there are signs of revitalization.
Following 20th-century fires and post-WWII city’s economic decline, most of Colon’s upper and middle-class residents left, reducing the city’s ethnic diversity. Today, most of the city’s population is of Caribbean black and mixed mestizo ancestry, along with small South Asian, Chinese, and Arab communities still found within the city’s checkerboard layout of streets.
The scenic highlight of the town is the waterfront park facing the Limon Bay and the panorama of the container ships awaiting entry into the Panama Canal.
