After Morgan destroyed the old town in 1671, the Spanish chose a new site a few kilometres west, on a rocky peninsula that was easier to defend, and moved the city in 1673. That is the historic district of Panamá, today called Casco Viejo or Casco Antiguo, and it is a very different place from the ruins. Narrow streets laid out in a grid run past colonial churches, balconied houses and small plazas, with the Pacific on three sides and the glass towers of the modern city across the bay.
Walk around and you can read the layers. The golden altar of San José, the arches of Las Bóvedas along the sea wall, the grand lines of the Teatro Nacional, the pale presidential palace known as the Palace of the Herons for the birds that live in its courtyard: all of them come from different centuries, and the French influence of the canal years in the late nineteenth century shows in the iron balconies and the Plaza de Francia, which honours the failed French canal effort. Some buildings are beautifully restored, some are ruins, and many are somewhere in between. Rooftop bars and restaurants have multiplied, and the streets in the evening are lively.
Riding here is more a matter of parking than of corners. The streets are narrow, mostly one-way, often cobbled or brick, and slippery when wet, and the peninsula can jam at weekends and during events. Go slowly, watch for pedestrians and taxi doors, and leave the bike somewhere secure rather than on the kerb. Panama City's wet season, from May to December, brings sudden downpours; the dry months from January to April bring the best weather.
Fuel is not available on the peninsula itself, but plenty of stations lie a few minutes away in the main part of town. Coffee here is excellent, since Panama grows some of the world's most expensive beans, and a cup in a café on a shaded plaza is a good reason to linger.
The best time is early evening, when the heat drops and the sea wall fills with people.