My paradise in Panama City, by Fernando Wong

I was born in Panama City and lived here until I left for the US when I was 26. I had a wonderful childhood. My parents were runners but I took a fancy to swimming because I imagined it would not be as hard as working up a sweat running. I learnt to swim at Piscina Patria – now the Eileen Coparropa Swimming Pool – and studied architecture at Universidad de Panamá. Then, in 2001, I visited friends in Florida and Georgia. It was never a goal to leave Panama but I found work as a landscape designer and stayed; my partner Tim Johnson and I set up Fernando Wong Outdoor Living Design in Florida four years later. Due to the visa system it was 12 years before I visited Panama City again; now we visit for a week every month. I still love it. 

We own apartments in Casco Viejo, an area of the city that dates from the 1600s and is a Unesco World Heritage site. It’s where I used to walk and draw for my architecture classes. Casco Viejo is like a village where everybody knows each other, which we don’t have in Miami Beach or Palm Beach where we live. I like to walk around early to listen to the sounds of people setting up shop and hear the birds. 

Panama has the best coffee in the world and Casco Viejo is renowned for its cafés. I go to Super Gourmet, where the owners are friends of ours, or to the American Trade Hotel. They are both great at empanadas. Whenever we run errands we walk through the city’s beautiful plazas. Plaza de la Catedral has many different architectural styles, including French and Spanish colonial, and an 18th-century cathedral, La Catedral Metropolitana. Plaza Herrera has a lot of royal poinciana trees, and I like to see people sitting there; sometimes there are nuns around. I choose a bench that has the most shade but I bring a paper to sit on because of the birds. 

I like to walk around early to listen to the birds

My upbringing here has influenced my work: my gardens are full of lush, exotic plantings – palms, banyan and kapok trees – while adhering to the classical rules of architecture. I have vivid memories of my parents taking me to the Parque Natural Metropolitano, nearly 600 acres of tropical forest in the city. Every weekend, they would force me and my two sisters to jog in the park with them. Now I take people there because it is the only city-based natural park in Latin America. It is home to the rosy trumpet tree, which mostly blooms at the start of the year with stunning pink flowers on bare branches. While I have zero desire to run when I am there, it’s an extremely nice place to relax and watch the multitude of native birds – whooping motmot and the yellow-green tyrannulet, a renowned bird of Panama – that call it home.

The best time to visit Panama City is the dry season between December and April, especially February. The average day temperature reaches 31°C but it’s very breezy because you’re close to the Pacific Ocean. From our apartment at Santa Familia we can see Panama’s islands including Taboga, where I went as a child. A ferry takes about 45 minutes. There’s a beautiful hotel there, Villa Caprichosa, where we like to have lunch and enjoy the slow pace of life. 

Casco Viejo has more than a hundred restaurants. Kaandela is my first choice because it is small and intimate; it’s in a courtyard and is very romantic. My favourite dish is the pork belly lollipops, which are cooked in a secret sauce that brings out the flavour of the meat. Afrodisíaco is another favourite. We’re friends with the owner, who is from Rome, so it’s authentic Italian food. It’s nice because, although you can hear the people on the street, you can still hear the person you’re having dinner with. We also enjoy going to The Club at the American Trade Hotel, which has singers and bands from all over the world. When we have guests we always take them to Museo de la Mola – a museum dedicated to the Guna, Panama’s indigenous people – and the Panama Canal Museum. The ownership of the canal has recently been called into question by President Trump. Having met the President and experienced first-hand the way he speaks, I am confident this is just the beginning stage of a long negotiation that will result in something that works well for both countries.

Panama is mostly Catholic and holds religious festivities throughout the year. They do incredible Easter and Christmas parades where they bear statues from the churches through all the plazas and streets, singing and carrying candles. I love to hear the bells ringing. Come to Panama City. The airport is super-close, it’s safe and reasonably priced to go out. It’s a beautifully diverse place.