In this Huff Post article, Mark Chesnut writes an interesting article about another “un tour” tour group.
Jafet Glissant was 14 years old when he joined Ciudad de Dios, a gang named after Cidade de Deus, the Brazilian film about street gangs in Rio de Janeiro. Today, he’s a tour guide with Fortaleza Tours, a Panama tour operator that offers excursions into the real-life, dangerous side of Panama City history. It’s run by members of the Esperanza Social Venture Club, an organization that’s symbolic of the changes taking place in Central America’s fastest-growing city.
This is not your typical Panama City tour.
Glissant met up with our group of two foreign visitors (one of them was me, wandering the city looking for new things to write about for my travel blog, LatinFlyer.com) on a sunny, warm day in the lobby of the American Trade hotel, one of the city’s most stylish new accommodation options in the Casco Antiguo, a historic neighborhood that’s become Panama City’s trendiest place to hang out (the hotel is actually the result of a partnership between the creative team behind U.S.-based Ace Hotels and other investors).