Panama City is an exciting and cosmopolitan capital located at the Pacific terminal of the Panama Canal. Soaring skyscrapers, sparkling banks and smart offices overshadow reminders of an earlier Panama City of Spanish convents and sumptuous French-style mansions. At Miraflores and Pedro Miguel Locks, visitors can watch the ships moving through the 'Eighth Engineering Wonder of the World', the Panama Canal. Built by the USA in the early 1900s and at a cost of 20,000 lives, this essential link between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean is surprisingly beautiful and well worth a visit.