tourism

Tour highlights San Miguelito´s treasures

LA PRENSA

panoramic view: The Bahá' í temple on Cerro Sonsonate offers visitors a quiet spot for prayer and a near 360-degree view.1025519

For those who have never seen San Miguelito as much of a tourist destination, Rogelio Justiniani, chairman of the district´s Comité de Desarrollo Turístico since January 2006, says to look again.

Justiniani´s 25-member committee recently put together a walking tour of the area´s little-known points of interest, inviting residents and visitors alike to partake of San Miguelito´s rich historical, cultural and religious life.

The tour begins with a visit to the ruins of the La Palangana chapel, built by Spanish settlers in1519, said Justiniani, who guided La Prensa journalists along the tourist route. The chapel´s ruins lie in the heart of the Parque Nacional Camino de Cruces, which was once used by conquistadors to transport gold and other booty from their South American colonies to ports on the Atlantic coast.

La iglesia del Cristo Redentor, built in 1963 by the Archdiocese of Chicago, in the United States, is the second stop on the tour. In addition to building the church, the Americans brought a replica of the Christ that towers above Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The third destination is undoubtedly the tour´s high point. Sitting on the peak of Cerro Sonsonate is the egg-shaped Bahá' í temple, one of only seven worldwide, and the only temple of its kind in Latin America.

According to Bahá' í literature, leaders of the faith chose to build the temple in Panama "because at this point the West and the East are united by the Panama Canal." The temple, where visitors are invited inside to pray regardless of their faith, has an impressive oval dome rising 92 feet high and 200 feet wide. "You can enjoy one of the best views of Panama from there," said Justiniani.

The Comité de Desarrollo Turístico especially wants to encourage high school and university students to take the tour. "Once a month, we put together groups of between 35 and 60 people and organize an excursion," Justiniani said. And the tour is always being updated. "We want more people to visit the Estadio Rod Carew," he said.

The United Nations has included the development of tourism in San Miguelito among the projects funded by the Concertación Nacional para el Desarrollo de Panama, which helps to redirect Canal profits into social development programs.