Hotels. The Tivoli, $5.50 and up a day, American plan; the Central, $3.00 a day, American plan; the International, Metropole, and several others, smaller and less expensive, but some of them neat and respectable.
Carriage Fare, 10 cents, U. S. currency, for one person, 20 cents for two, etc., in Panama City, or 20 cents and 40 cents silver, Panama money. Panama to Balboa docks, 50 cents U. S. currency.
Automobile Tariff, first hour, for cars seating five, six, or seven persons, $5.00, $6.00, or $7.00; second hour $1.00 less. Local fares about the city, 50 cents for each person. To Balboa Docks and return, $3.50, five-seat car; $5.00, seven-seat car. To Old Panama and return, $5.00, or $7.00, if within one hour; if more, on hourly basis.
Electric Cars, fare five cents, run every ten minutes from Hotel Tivoli past the railway station down Avenue Central to the National Palace near the sea wall; also beyond the Tivoli to the Catholic Chapel on the Ancon Hospital road. Of two other lines, one runs from Santa Ana Park by C, 16th, and B streets, and so on to Balboa; another branching from Central avenue at 13th street and following North avenue goes out the Sabanas road.
The Republic of Panama, proclaimed Nov. 3, 1903, by treaty of Feb. 26, 1904, came under the protection of the United States, receiving $10,000,000 cash for the sovereignty of the Canal Zone and after 1913 a yearly rental of $250,000. The form of government of the Republic is similar to that of the United States. The country is 340 miles long from east to west, from the Atrato River on the Colombia side to Costa Rica on the west. From north to south its widest point is 120 miles in the province of Veraguas, and the narrowest less than 40 in Darien. There are mountains 7000 feet high in Darien and 11,000 feet in Chiriqui; the lowest pass, 312 feet, is that used by the Canal and Railroad. The population, outside the Zone about 340,000, includes 36,000 Indians, and a very large proportion of negroes and mixed races. The country has excellent possibilities for agriculture and cattle raising, with smaller ones for minerals.
Panama. The new city of Panama, founded January 21, 1673, was soon protected by a sea wall, still standing, and on the single land side by a wall, and a deep moat crossed by a drawbridge. To make it proof against further raids two forts were erected on the land side and one by the sea. The residences built of wood suffered from various fires so that few old buildings remain, yet the masonry structures have the appearance of age. One hundred and twenty years ago the city had 7857 inhabitants, double that in 1870, and in 1911, 37,505.
Hotel Tivoli. Arriving at Panama, almost every one who can afford it will go to the Hotel Tivoli, near the station, delightfully situated at the foot of Ancon Hill, on the farther side of a small park called the Plaza de Lesseps. It is intended some day to erect in the center of the plaza a statue to the hero of the Suez Canal, initiator of the great work at Panama. On a knoll, overlooking the city and part of the bay, the hotel has many rooms opening on the broad verandas which afford charming prospects. The nights are comfortably cool, and the table affords good American fare. The hotel was erected by the Government especially to accommodate Canal employees on their arrival, and persons whose business with the administration caused them to come to the Isthmus. Also it was designed to afford recreation to employees on the line desirous of an occasional trip to the city. With this end in view a large dance hall was provided about 80x40 feet, where the Tivoli Club, organized among the employees, has given dances two Saturday evenings each month. The hotel, opened Jan. 1, 1907, has 220 guest rooms, and a dining-room seating 700. The building, 314 feet long with wings 156 feet deep, has a court in front 91 feet in depth with a carriage road and garden. Of late on account of increased travel the hotel has been enlarged and is much used by tourists. The prices, $5.50 a day and up, will seem reasonable enough to patrons of the large New York hotels.
The Hotel Central may be preferred by some on account of the lower prices, $3.00 and up, or because it is in the center of things on the principal plaza of Panama (now called the Independencia), opposite the cathedral; its location and its clientele afford an opportunity to see more of Spanish American life. The building is four stories high, in Spanish style around a central court or patio. Built in 1880 it has recently been renewed, and the rooms are large and airy. The table formerly left something to be desired, but has very likely improved with the competition. Once it was the only place where anybody could go.
The International Hotel is most convenient to the railway station on the Railway Plaza; a large fireproof building in Spanish Mission style, completed in 1912, and affording all modern conveniences. The smaller hotels on the Avenida Central may be patronized by those to whom the saving of a few dollars is important. The Hotel Metropole is pleasantly situated on the Santa Ana Plaza.
A new and modern hotel, accommodating 500 persons, built by British capital on Chiriqui Point overlooking the bay, is expected to be ready for guests in November, 1914.