Zona Libre

Lonely Planet review

Colón's free-trade zone is a huge fortress-like area of giant international stores selling items duty free. In fact, it's the world's second-largest duty-free port after Hong Kong. However, most of these stores only deal in bulk merchandise; they aren't set up to sell to individual tourists and the window-shopping is not very interesting.

If you do buy something, the store usually sends it to the Tocumen International Airport in Panama City, where you can retrieve your purchase before departing the country. You can enter the Zona Libre by presenting your passport at the security office.

In 1948, the Zona Libre was created on the edge of Colón in an attempt to revive the city. Today, the 482-hectare Zona Libre is the largest free-trade zone in the Americas. It links producers in North America, the Far East and Europe with the Latin American market and is home to more than 1600 companies and several dozen banks. Unfortunately, none of the US$10 billion in annual commercial turn-over seems to get beyond the compound's walls and the Zona Libre exists as an island of materialism floating in a sea of unemployment, poverty and crime.