BAHIA DE PIÑAS

The Bahia de Piñas (Piñas Bay) is far down the Pacific coast of Panama, southeast of the Golfo de San Miguel and just 56 kilometers from the Colombian border. It is world-famous for deep-sea fishing, but the area is so extraordinarily beautiful that even those who don’t want to be anywhere near a fish will likely enjoy a visit. It’s also a culturally interesting area.

  Approximately 200 deep-sea fishing world records have been set in this area, more than anywhere else on the planet. More than 40 records were still held at the time of writing, mostly for black, blue, or striped marlin and Pacific sailfish.

  The best fishing is about 20–25 kilometers offshore. During the 2003–2004 season, guests at the Tropic Star Lodge, the bay’s legendary fishing lodging, caught and released 479 marlin. In June 2002, a group staying at the lodge caught an astounding 1,257 sailfish in just six days. (Billfish, the generic term for all these magnificent creatures, are caught and released.)

  What accounts for this? It has a lot to do with Zane Grey Reef, a dramatic seamount (underwater mountain) that rises from the 100-meter-deep sea bottom in three peaks, two of which top out within 45 meters of the surface. The current sweeps plankton around the reef, which feeds huge amounts of baitfish, which in turn attract large predators. The area is a giant natural aquarium filled with, among other things, sharks, rays, jacks, snappers, dorado, tuna, and, of course, billfish. The reef is particularly renowned among fisher folk for black marlin. The area is carefully protected: Panama enforces a 32-kilometer exclusion zone around the bay, into which commercial fishing vessels with their huge nets are not allowed. Panama’s marine authority keeps a small ship stationed in the area that investigates any suspected infractions; violators are fined and can lose their fishing licenses.

  The Bahia de Piñas itself is a small, narrow bay formed by two fingers of land that jut to sea. Between are the landscaped grounds of Tropic Star Lodge. Close to 6,000 hectares of the surrounding land is owned by Tropic Star, and nearly all of this has been left undeveloped and pristine. It is heart-stopping gorgeous: Emerald forests filled with massive trees spill down the hilly countryside to the very edge of the coast, which ends in sheer, rocky cliffs broken by the occasional waterfall. Dolphins like to romp around inside the bay, and humpback whales are sometimes spotted outside it. Indigenous people still pan for, and sometimes find, gold nuggets on the Río Piñas. Playa Blanca, a small but gorgeous white-sand beach just north of the bay, offers clear blue water and snorkeling near a coral reef just offshore. It’s on property owned by Tropic Star Lodge, but as with all beaches in Panama it’s open to the public. However, only guests of the lodge may hike into the forest.

  Nearby are two small coastal towns, Puerto Piñas and Jaqué, which have a mixed population of Afro-Colonial and Emberá inhabitants. Several indigenous villages are up the Río Jaqué, one of which, the Wounaan village of Biroquera, is open to day visitors.

Puerto Piñas
To the southeast of the lodge, about 10 minutes by boat, is the small fishing village of Puerto Piñas (pop. 819). It’s a dilapidated place, but the people are friendly and laid-back and it’s right on a gray sandy beach. A little more than half its residents are estimated to be Emberá and the rest Afro-Colonial. Dwellings consist of modest cinderblock houses next to traditional cane or plank thatch-roofed huts. There is also a good airstrip, a police bunker, an ultrabasic place to stay, a couple of equally basic places to eat and drink, an Aeroperlas “office,” a primary school, a tiny general store, several churches, a volleyball court, a sand soccer field, and not a whole lot else. An odd little factoid: The town and its environs have a dog population of about 400, one for every two residents. A census was taken in 2004 in advance of a visit by a team of veterinarians to try to rein in the prolific pooches, many of which are in sorry shape.

  Electricity around the clock is coming to the village but hasn’t quite made it yet. A concrete path links everything. Past the soccer field, on the far end of the village, is an enormous open-sided thatched-roof hut used for village meetings and Emberá dances presented to tourists. About half of the adult residents of the village work at Tropic Star during the fishing season. Otherwise, they sustain themselves through fishing and subsistence agriculture, especially bananas, plantains, and rice. One encouraging development is the establishment of a Centro de Educación y Capacitación Amibental (center for environmental education and training), supported by Tropic Star, to teach villagers about their fragile ecosystem.

  The area surrounding Puerto Piñas has been turned into farmland. It and the neighboring village of Jaqué are both at the edge of swampy plains backed by hills; the flatlands have largely been deforested, but the hills are mostly intact. Reaching primary forest requires a moderate hike back from the coast. I’ve been told by several people there is a large, beautiful waterfall a two- to three-hour hike into the forest (and a much easier boat ride back), but I have not yet had time to check it out. It goes without saying that this should not be attempted without a good guide.

Jaqué
The area around the town of Jaqué (pop. 2,244) is even more deforested. They actually graze cattle here—thankfully the only place along this stretch of coast that does. They mainly fish and grow crops that include rice, plantains, yuca, and yams. It’s considerably larger and relatively more affluent-looking than Puerto Piñas, with some fairly substantial houses, but it’s still a place where people live pretty close to the bone. There’s an airstrip, a hospital, two hospedajes, a soccer field, and a handful of basic places to get a bite or a drink. A police bunker is at the edge of town near the mouth of the Río Jaqué, and there’s a camouflage netting–covered main cuartel (police station) in the center of town. In 2000, the Colombian civil war pushed hundreds of refugees from the Colombian town of Juradó over the border into Jaqué and its surroundings. Stories appeared in the Panamanian press at that time saying that some of these refugees had been placed on Colombian death lists, and there was concern the war might spill over the border into this area. This didn’t happen, and a beefed-up police presence in town and up the Río Jaqué has apparently kept things peaceful in the years since. The town is mellow and the people nonintrusively friendly to strangers.

  Those who come to Jaqué by boat must get from open sea to the mouth of the Río Jaqué, and doing so often means riding waves that can be three meters high or even bigger. Managing this requires an experienced captain with a feel for surfing, and no one should attempt it without life jackets. This wave actually can be surfed, though few have made it all the way down here with their boards.

Near Jaqué
There are four indigenous villages on the Río Jaqué within about 20 kilometers of the town of Jaqué: Biroquera, Lucas, El Coco, and El Mamey. There are police posts in each village, but the upper reaches of the Río Jaqué beyond El Mamey are not patrolled and are supposedly used as a rest spot by combatants in the Colombian civil war. All the villages are Emberá except the first one, Biroquera, which is Wounaan. It’s about 15 minutes by fast boat from Jaqué and at the time of writing was the only village Panamanian authorities allowed foreign travelers to visit. For your own safety, do not attempt to travel farther upriver. Note also that getting to the Río Jaqué by sea can be rough.

  Biroquera is a fairly tidy and spacious village built right on the edge of the river. It’s worth a quick visit. Houses are a mixture of traditional white cane–walled huts on stilts and more “modern” huts with walls made of wooden planks. A concrete path winds through the village, which is lit for a couple of hours in the evening by a small generator. The Wounaan are renowned for their crafts, particularly woven baskets, carved tagua nuts and cocobolo figurines, and it should be possible to buy directly from their makers. However, all the artists were in a meeting when I visited so I couldn’t check out the quality of the local wares. It should be possible to hire a boat from Jaqué to Biroquera for about $20 for a small group.

  About 20 kilometers southeast of Jaqué there’s a small bay, Ensenada El Guayabo, that I have not yet visited but which I’ve been told has a white sand beach even prettier than Playa Blanca. All that’s there are a handful of indigenous huts. It makes for an easy day trip from Jaqué or Piñas. Visitors can trade fishing hooks and sodas with the residents for fresh coconut milk. It’s probably not a good idea to head much farther down toward the Colombian border.