Panama, Primed

The area's revival is also being fostered by residents like Blades, who owns a stylish second-story flat overlooking the Teatro Nacional and the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, with a panoramic view of the modern skyline beyond. But this has been home to Blades since his boyhood. The characters he met here later inspired his classic narrative songs, parables of everyday life for everyday people.

I saw how those songs can touch hearts on my last night in Panama. I went to dinner at a restaurant along the Amador Causeway, which links a chain of small islands near the canal entrance where ships line up like ducks for the passage. From a cafe with an open-air patio, I heard someone singing "Amor y Control," a song Blades wrote after his mother died of cancer in 1991. It meant a lot to me after my mother died two years later.

The song is about the strength and love families need to overcome hard times. The man singing it was not an artist, but a customer with a karaoke mike. He was off-key but passionate, singing to a small boy he held tightly in his lap while his large family watched from a table nearby.

The man and his family were from the tough neighborhood of Rio Abajo, I learned after I approached him. I softly suggested that he must have overcome his own problems to sing that song with so much feeling.

He just nodded, then handed me something he wanted me to keep.

It was a small religious card with a prayer and a picture of the Cristo Negro de Portobelo.

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Tropical zone

GETTING THERE:

From LAX, Copa offers nonstop service and Copa, American, Delta and Mexicana offer connecting service (change of planes). Restricted round-trip fares begin at $530.

TELEPHONES:

To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code), 507 (country code for Panama) and the local number.

WHERE TO STAY:

Hotel El Panama, 111 Via Espana, Panama City; 215-9000, fax 269-3309, www.elpanama.com. Historic, tropical-style hotel where salsa singer Ruben Blades gave his first professional performance, centrally located in the banking district. Doubles begin at $125, including continental breakfast.

Gamboa Rainforest Resort, P.O. Box 7338, Zone 5, Panama City, 314-9000, www.gamboaresort.com. This full-service resort, just 30 minutes from downtown Panama City on the banks of the Chagres River within Soberania National Park, offers a spectacular natural getaway featuring an aerial tram over the jungle canopy. Doubles from $175.