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This is the longest theatre season for a play in Panama’s history with 69 presentations. “Gentlemen Prefer Them Naughty ” will be in scene until November 30th in the Aba Theatre, located in Transistmica almost next to TVN. Functions are Monday through Friday at 8pm, and Saturday and Sunday at 4, 6, and 8pm. Don’t miss this play! Well, El Pavo Real has turned out to be my favorite spot in Panama City, Panama. Its ambiance, the music, the food, the drinks, but most of all the staff really makes me love this trendy English bar. (Find more about El Pavo Real on my last week’s article). I went back for the second time with some friends and few of my co-workers. We loved it that night! All the staff: Marli, Alex and Fernando remembered me right away! Marli and Alex were smiling and taking care of us the whole night. We started off pretty wild by drinking vodka. We sat there to talk and everyone was just so friendly, we couldn’t help but to talk about it. Later on another friend arrived and she wanted to play pool. The pool tables were busy but the people playing were so nice to let her play. OMG! I drank until I felt a little tipsy; luckily my friends and the staff took care of meJ. My friend wasn’t really good at playing pool but we sure had a blast! I met another waiter that night. His name is Ricky. He’s very nice and talks to everyone. Every time I go back Ricky, Marli and Alex are very pleasant and friendly. Every single person that works there is extremely nice, unfortunately because I’m really bad with names and don’t really remember everyone’s name but I can guarantee that anyone that helps you will truly take care of you. Anyways, writing about it I realized that this is not much of a wild party itself. You’ll have to go to El Pavo Real in order for you to understand what I mean when I say that this is the best place to hang out with your friends and have a great time! If you love rock music, this is the place to go! If you want the best customer service in a bar in Panama City, Panama, this is the place to go! If you want the best food and drinks in Panama City, Panama, this is the best place to go! If you want to be surrounded by beautiful, sexy young Panamanian and latin girls, this is the place to go! El Pavo Real is definitely the best bar to have the best fiesta in Panama City, Panama. It really has nothing to envy from the wild party in strip clubs. The only thing you will NOT find there is a striptease show or lap dance; Nevertheless, it’s a party you will not want to miss. I never do! It truly gives you the best value for your buck in their drinks and food. It gives you free live music every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and, once again, the best service ever! I keep going back almost every week because I know that Stefan, Fernando, Ricky, Marli, Alex and everyone else there will always greet me as their friend and help me relax. It’s always nice to have someone to talk to when you are having a stressful day and to enjoy a cold beer on tap to relax. You can find all of these and more in El Pavo Real. Come and enjoy the best Panamanian-English party only at El Pavo Real. If you’re bold enough you might even meet a lot of wild girls or guys right there! Keep your hopes up! And, I’ll see you at El Pavo Real! The “Peacock” or El Pavo Real for its name in Spanish is an English pub that plays mostly rock music, which just recently moved to Via Argentina in Panama City, Panama. It was first located in Calle 50 since it first opened in the 80s. El Pavo Real has a lot of story and even though is not really a dance club, you can have a lot of fun playing pool, watching TV or just by delighting your sight with the sexy panamanian wild girls that go there. I went there the other day and had the pleasure to meet Stefan who’s a manager in El Pavo Real. He told me few anecdotes from the place and why it had to move from its original location, which is because of some leasing problems. He was very nice and polite as is the rest of the staff from El Pavo Real. He started telling me the story of the success of El Pavo Real. Stefan explained to me that yes, it was true that John Le Carré, the English writer who wrote “The Tailor of Panama”, did used to go there to write his novels and eat their signature dishes accompanied by his favorite drinks. Nevertheless, El Pavo Real did not become famous because of him; El Pavo Real was famous way before John Le Carré first stepped into that place. It was very well known since it starts because of its strategic location in Area Bancaria (Banking Area) in Panama City, Panama, it’s excellent customer service, delicious food specially its fish n’ chips and their delicious onion soup (truly, still THE BEST onion soup in Panama City) and great variety of imported and local beers. All the business people used to go there to close very important business deals and have business meetings. One very interesting anecdote was that their famous “fish n’ chips” was not served on a plate like is done now a days, no, it was served on the financial section of the New York Times. Yes, you read it right! It was served on a newspaper. Truly, truly amazing! Unfortunately, this can’t be done anymore because of health department requirements. The other dish, the onion soup is the best of its kind. No other onion soup can be compare to theirs, guarantee! Anyways, too much story already so let me tell you how I found out about this quite but crazy and wild place where I go to party a lot. My best friend and I were driving around one day and wanted to stop by for a drink. We found El Pavo Real right on a corner in Via Argentina where the club Korcho’s used to be located at. We hadn’t even walked in when the administrator and the owners greeted us very politely and courteously. I still remember what Fernando (that’s the name of the administrator) told me: “welcome, this is your home” Whoa!!! I couldn’t believe I was receiving such a nice service in a bar in Panama City, Panama. We sat down outside because we wanted to smoke and chat. Yes, they have a patio area where you can drink, eat and smoke if you want to. We ordered some drinks and we stayed there for a while. The bartenders/waiters were very polite and Fernando treated us like we were old friends. We had to leave but I knew I was going to go back. I went back a couple of weeks later with some friends from work. And now is when the real party really started. Find out what did my friends and I did that night at El Pavo Real on my next week’s article… meanwhile, remember to Party a lot in any of the spots I’ve talked about… Here’s a great party celebration. Why? It was my office friend’s birthday! And it’s another excuse to party in panama or like we say in Panama “arrancarnos” (start up). She wanted to try something new, something fresh. A very close friend suggested we try a new place at Via Argentina in Panama City, Panama that had just opened up. We went there and the place was packed inside and outside. How not? Mrs. Mendoza (that’s the restaurant name) is a tex-mex, Mexican restaurant with a very Panamanian and Latin soul. It has a patio and two tables just outside the restaurant where you can also smoke. The staff greeted us very fast and cordially. Their politeness and efficiency was amazing! We didn’t have to wait more than ten minutes for our table. We sat down and ordered margaritas and beers. I also ordered some nachos because I knew we were going to get a little hungry after we started drinking. (By the way, we’d already had dinner). The margaritas arrived and they were huge! The glass were they are served them are really big, fancy margarita glasses, not just regular martini glasses like some other places use. I had a sip and it was amazingly good. They use Jose Cuervo tequila for this drink and the ratio of ingredients was perfect! (This is a lot to say considering I’m not a big fan of margaritas). At the same time, the nachos arrived. They were really, really good. They were crispy and fresh. What they served us were not store bought tortillas, they were homemade tortillas chips and the pico-de-gallo that we ordered with it was also fresh and well seasoned. If just the nachos were that good, imagine the rest of their menu! Anyways, they also had live mariachi who were nice enough to sing “las mañanitas” (Mexican b-day song) to my friend. And when there’s no mariachi, they play a great selection of Latin music. It was a nice twist, something different… Most importantly, my friend loved it! And so did us. I had a blast! Mrs. Mendoza is a really nice place to hang out, eat some very good tex-mex or Mexican food and a great place to bring your love one for a unique serenade. Mrs. Mendoza has nothing to envy from any night club or bar or even those show clubs and strip clubs. You can set your own ambiance. From sexy and wild party to just a true Latin fiesta; their music, their drinks and their food are the key ingredients to have a great Latin night, Mexican night. Most importantly, their service has been the best service I’ve received in a restaurant/bar in Panama so far. The Rockin’ Gorilla (just simply called Gorilla by the people) is centrally located at Via Argentina in Panama City. Gorilla is a restaurant, a bar, night club, and a dance club so it’s ideal for any occasion. They have a huge variety of food that you can enjoy with their broad selection of imported and national beers, mixed drinks (cocktails), wine and hard liquors in a very friendly atmosphere. One night, I called my girlfriends and asked them to go out with me. I wanted to go out to relieve all the stress from the week. So, I went to pick them up and as we were driving around we saw Gorilla. I have never heard of this place before, but one of my friends did so the rest of us decided to give it a shot. As we were approaching to the place, I saw a lot of guys and girls just hanging outside. They have a patio were you can sit and enjoy the fresh air, have a cigarette if you want to, and of course drink, eat, and listen to the music that is playing from inside. We finally walked in; the place was pretty crowded but not over-crowded. We didn’t have a problem to find a table. We sat down and a waiter immediately came to take our orders. It was already 11:00pm so we were not going to eat, but we were going to drink! We didn’t know what to order so the waiter explained to us their drink special. They had “cubetazos” (buckets of beers) of national beers. My friends ordered one, but I’m not a fan of beers so I ordered myself a Mai-tai. While we were waiting for our drinks, they started a karaoke contest. Only a couple of people went up and sang, so they decided to stop it for a while. Then they started a dance contest. The host asked for four guys to volunteer to the contest. They all went up, danced and followed all the directions from the host. As always, there was one guy that stole the show. Everyone was applauding him. Then the host asked for the contestants to find a partner. Once again they started dancing and followed the host’s directions. The one guy that stole the show dancing alone did it one more time. He started doing crazy things so his partner followed. She started to dance in a very sexy way and everyone was enjoying the show. The show finally ended and of course the crazy, provocative, sexual coupled won. It was an amazing Latin night, a crazy and wild party, a real Panamanian party. But many other things happened that night, amazing things. Stay put until next week to read the end of this party. In Latin American countries the quinceañera party is a big celebration for the young woman entering womanhood. Its origins in Latin America are a mix of the Spanish culture and the indigenous people culture found in the new world. The origin of Quinceañera dates back to the Aztecs around 500 B.C.
The ancient Mayas and Aztecs girls once turned 15 year old of age were considered women and were given the instruction and responsibilities of womanhood. Older women used to train or teach them their future roles as young women. During the girls’ rite of passage, the community would thank the gods for the future wives and mothers, and the young women would vow to serve the community. The young girls were instructed on them tribes’ history and they would take new responsibilities that would get them ready for marriage. Music would have been the thread that held the entire party together, and everyone would have danced and sang and prayed along to it. The Spanish since the middle ages have been doing debutants ball, which is just a way to let society know that a young woman is ready for marriage. With the merge of both Spanish and indigenous culture, the age of 15 was for a young woman in the new world a time of decision for the girl who would decide whether to join the church or get married. The event became a personal agreement of faith and a pledge to become good Christian wives and mothers.
Today quinceañera parties are big religious and cultural celebrations, where the entire family gathers to commemorate this important time on a young woman’s life. And although this is a hugely significant rite of passage, it is also an enormous honor girls look forward to with pride and happiness. Quinceañera party can be a very formal ball where the birthday girl wears a beautiful and usually old fashioned gown, plus she gets to have a court, made up of several of her girlfriends and boyfriends. The “Court”, or honor escort, plus the birthday girl and her male escort dance several choreographed dances. The quinceañera wears a tiara which symbolizes that she is a princess towards the eyes of God. And is given a precious jewel, usually a ring which symbolize the unending circle of life, and she and her father have a special father-daughter dance to a sentimental song, and then he introduce the young woman to society, just like at a wedding. Many quinceañera parties today have a more modern flavor and the quinceañera do not wear the traditional ball gown, but many different alternatives. Depending on the party theme, the girls may wear a belly dance outfit, hula girl’s skirt, or even pants for a hip-hop party theme. Quinceañera Cruise party is also very popular among the young travelers. Cruises and travel agents have packages specially designed for the quinceañera to go on her first trip without her family and walking towards womanhood. Don’t you wish you were young like them? |
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If you are in need of a time out from the dance and drink scene and want to do something a bit different, you will like to know that Panama has lots of cultural life. Not only we are party, live music and dance performances, but we also have excellent actors and actresses. Last Sunday, I went to Aba Theater with a group of girl friends to watch the production “Gentlemen Prefer Them Naughty”, a very funny comedy under the direction of Baby Torrijos. 12 actors are in scene and this comedy has all the ingredients to keep you laughing the entire show: a wild girl, naughty Pepito (you are going to love this character), sexual tension, the sexy girl, drama, drama and more drama! I am not going to tell you the story line that is something you need to discover by yourself.
The sexy Panamanian actress Aurea Horta is participating in this play with a double role, and also the rename actors Juan Manuel Ferrer, Carlos Caballero, Luis Gustavo Macías, Masha Armuelles, Yiniva Cárdenas, Hugo Rodríguez, Carlos Quintana, Eladio Aguilar, Idania Ceville, Abdiel Tapia y Mónica Miguel.
