Parita

This amazingly well-preserved Spanish colonial town is 10 kilometers northwest of Chitré. As you drive up from Chitré, the turnoff is on the left at a gas station.

There’s nothing much to do here but walk around and take photos, but Parita hints at what towns in the Azuero must have been like in olden days. It’s also home to a nationally famous devil-mask maker.

Parita was founded in 1556 as Santa Elena and was later renamed. The town church, Iglesia Santo Domingo de Guzmán, was built a century later. It’s a simple but attractive church filled with ornately carved woodwork. It’s worth a quick visit. A little museum in the back that houses silver ceremonial pieces and other artifacts from the Spanish era was closed during a lengthy renovation of the church, but the town was trying to get it reopened during my last visit.

The townspeople live adjacent to each other in narrow, block-long buildings with red-tile roofs set around the plaza and church. The pride residents take in the place is evident in the spotless streets and the riot of flowering plants that cover the whole front of some buildings. It’s a supremely mellow place, and so removed from the flow of modern life that many Panamanians don’t even know it exists.