Rock legend returns to Panama
after 31 years

He’s coming. Rock guitar legend Carlos Santana will offer a single concert in Panama City on Monday, April 4 at Figali Convention Center, in Amador.

The son of a Mariachi violinist, Carlos Santana was born in Autlán de Navarro, Mexico in 1947. As a lad, Carlos learned the violin originally, but switched to the guitar when he was eight years old. After a family move to Tijuana Santana began playing in clubs and bars; he remained in Tijuana when his family moved to San Francisco, California, but soon joined them. In 1966, he helped found the Santana Blues Band, eventually shortened to simply Santana. The band started playing at the Fillmore West, where many of the great San Francisco bands began. Santana’s recording debut occurred on The Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield.

Soon signed to Columbia Records Santana released a self-titled album, Santana, the group at this point inlcuded Carlos Santana (guitar), Gregg Rollie (keyboards and vocals), David Brown (bass guitar), Michael Shrieve (drumbs), José Areas(persussion) and Michael Carabello (persussion). On the tour to support the album, the band played at Woodstock the set was legendary and vastly increased Santana’s popularity. Santana became a huge hit, as did Abraxas (1970) and Santana III (1971). The original Santana band then disbanded.

Carlos Santana dramatically returned to popular consciousness in 1999, with the release of Supernatural which included collaborations with Erick Clapton and Lauryn Hill. Supernatural was Santana’s best-selling album ever, reaching number one on the Billboard albums chart, and won nine Grammy Awards.

Tickets to Santana’s concert in Panama cost $100.00 and $25.00 and are for sale at all Blockbuster video rental stores.

The Melia Panama Canal Hotel in the province of Colon will host TREX 2005, the seventh version of the Travel Exchange Central America tourism fair, April 13-15.

Representatives of 50 tour operators, 75 suppliers of travel services from Central America, over 100 retail travel agents and tourism journalists will participate in the fair, which will include a tour operator showcase, a travel agent seminar, and a travel exposition promoting all Central American services and destinations.

The event is organized by William H. Coleman, Inc., a worldwide event management firm with offices in Jacksonville, Toronto and London.

For more information, call 1-800-874-2324 or send an e-mail to sales

Classen wins Portobelo International Triathlon again

U.S. athlete Kerry Classen won the Portobelo International Triathlon for the third consecutive year. Panamanians Richard González and José Guitán won second and third place, respectively. The event took place on Sunday, March 13.

One of the most difficult competitions of its kind in the region, the triathlon included an 800-meter swimming leg from the coastal community of La Guayra to Isla Grande; a 35-km bicycle race around the forests of Portobelo National Park, and a 10-km foot race around 18th century Spanish colonial sites.

Portobelo is a historic town located on the Caribbean coast of the Isthmus, 100 km. northeast of Panama City.

Please, pardon our blunt discriminative attitude. This notice is simply not for Mexicans. If you have nothing to do with our Aztec friends, in terms of blood or marriage, you are invited to join our Marea Roja (the Red Tide) -the fans of Panama’s national soccer team-during the match scheduled March 30 at the Rommel Fernández stadium, located in the neighborhood of Juan Díaz.

Panama, which traditionally has been a baseball country, has experienced tremendous success with its soccer team in recent years and now hopes to win a regional slot for the 2006 World Cup. Go Red!

For more information, call TicketCenter, 279-1010.

Río Mar beach will host the third competition of Panama’s annual Summer Surf Tournament, scheduled April 16-17. Experts say the event will be a “tough duel” between the country’s top surfers, including Gary Saavedra, Ricardo Alfaro, Augusto Pérez, Rolando Castillo, Leonardo Eyserick, Samantha Alonso and Nicole Pérez.

Located approximately 95 km. west of Panama City, Río Mar is a favorite mecca among Panamanian surfers on the Pacific, along with El Palmar, Playa Teta and Playa Venao, which also host a number of competitions during the dry season (December-April).

“New Generation”, a German-Austrian flute quartet, will offer the first recital of the 2005 season of the National Concert Association on Wednesday, April 20 at Atlapa Convention Center at 8:00 p.m. Established in 1998, the group comprises Susanne Frohlich, Hanna Pape, Heide Schwarz, and Andrea Guttman. For tickets and more information, call: 214-7236, or visit the page: www.conciertospanama.org