DISCOVER PANAMA: THE REGIONS
Destination content © William Friar, used from Moon Handbooks Panama, 1st edition.
Maps © Avalon Publishing Group, Inc.
The Regions
The first European city on the Pacific coast of the Americas, 500-year-old Panama City is both rich in history and focused on the future. It is by far the most cosmopolitan city in Central America, a burgeoning metropolis of soaring skyscrapers, sophisticated restaurants, and international banks and businesses. At its heart is Casco Viejo, a charming and well-preserved old town that dates from the 16th century. It grew from the ashes of the original city, Panamá la Vieja, burned by pirate raids but whose ruins still stand facing the Pacific.
PANAMA CANAL AND FORMER CANAL ZONE
The building of the Panama Canal was the great engineering feat of its era, and the canal is still one of the wonders of the modern world. No one who comes to Panama should miss out on seeing and, if possible, transiting it. Miraflores Locks have the best visitor facilities and are a great introduction to how the canal was built and works. The builders literally moved mountains, and nowhere is this more vividly seen than at Gaillard Cut, a 14-kilometer-long manmade canyon through the Continental Divide. A ride on the Panama Railway is another unforgettable way to cross the isthmus from ocean to ocean. A walking tour of the old townsites of the former Canal Zone, particularly Balboa and Ancón, gives a glimpse of a unique, lost world of U.S. canal workers and their families. The Amador Causeway is a popular recreation and nightlife destination.
The ruins of Portobelo and Fuerte San Lorenzo, two of the most important forts in the Spanish empire, still stand along the coast near the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal. The conquistadors brought treasure from the looting of the Inca Empire here, only to have it looted from them by wave after wave of pirates and buccaneers. All that swashbuckling history competes for attention with some of the most impressive parts of the canal, including the mile-long Gatún Locks, the mouth of the mighty Río Chagres, and the massive, manmade Lago Gatún. Some of Panama’s most accessible Caribbean dive spots and beaches are found here, notably around Portobelo and the popular Isla Grande.
Only about 40 of the nearly 400 islands in the Kuna Yala, commonly known as the San Blas Archipelago, are inhabited. On these live the Kuna, arguably the most fascinating and intact indigenous culture in the Americas. Many of the deserted islands are palm-covered paradises of white sand and clear blue water that are straight out of Robinson Crusoe. The coral around the most remote islands, such as the Cayos Holandéses and Cayos Limónes, offers great snorkeling.
The legendary Darién jungle has attracted adventurers from around the world in the half millennium since Balboa fought his way across it and became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean. Feared for its natural and human dangers, the Darién is also beloved for its natural and human riches. Parque Nacional Darién is one of the largest and most vital tropical forests in the Western Hemisphere. The wildlife at Cana and Pirre Station is spectacular and surprisingly accessible for a place that still has no roads. The forested coast, especially around Punta Patiño and the Bahia de Piñas, offers a completely different Darién experience, including astonishingly abundant sea life just offshore. The Darién is also crisscrossed by countless rivers, along which three nations of indigenous people cling to rugged ways of life they’ve sustained for centuries.
The central provinces contain Panama’s most accessible highlands and popular beaches, some of which start within an hour’s drive of Panama City. Coronado is especially popular, but the beaches become more gorgeous and less developed the farther west one goes, especially around Santa Clara and Farallón, which are just now beginning to take off as international beach destinations. From any of the beaches it’s easy to head for the hills and escape the heat in the town of El Valle de Antón, nestled at the bottom of an extinct volcano and known for its waterfalls, square trees, golden frogs, and a popular Sunday crafts market. Those who want a more rugged mountain destination can hike and camp in the foggy forests of Parque Nacional Omar Torrijos H. (El Copé). Those who want a taste of lowland provincial life can find it in Penonomé, a modern town trying to hang on to traces of a quainter, quieter Panama. And the islands of the Archipiélago de las Perlas are just a short plane ride from Panama City.
The Azuero, Panama’s heartland, is the most culturally rich region of the country. Time has marched right by Spanish-colonial towns such as Parita and Pedasí. In the homes of the Azuero, master artisans still sew stunningly embroidered polleras, weave traditional hats, craft fearsome devil masks, and fire ceramic pottery whose designs date back more than a thousand years. The Azuero, known for its festivals, hosts the country’s most important Carnaval celebration. The peninsula also has a ribbon of barely visited beaches that offer good surfing, snorkeling, and fishing. The 13-kilometer-long Isla de Cañas, just off the peninsula’s southern tip, attracts more sea turtles than any other place along Panama’s Pacific coast.
GOLFO DE CHIRIQUÍ AND THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS
Along Panama’s western Pacific coast is a gulf so large and ecologically unique some consider it a small sea. Dominating the gulf is Parque Nacional Coiba, which conservationists have called the Galapagos of the 21st century. The jewel in the crown is gigantic Isla Coiba, the largest island in Panama and one as fabled for its Devil’s Island–style penal colony as for the superabundant marine life that surrounds it. The region also includes Playa Santa Catalina, one of the best and largest surf breaks in all of Latin America, and the important provincial city of David.
The cool highlands of western Panama are home to the country’s highest mountain, the 3,475-meter Volcán Barú. The dormant volcano’s fertile volcanic soil produces gourmet coffee, gorgeous flowers, and delicious oranges and strawberries. But what really sets the region apart are its sprawling protected areas, most notably the gigantic Parque Internacional La Amistad. Five of Central America’s six species of big cat are found here, as are 600 species of birds, including the resplendent quetzal, which ornithologists have called the most beautiful bird in the world. On the side of Barú is Boquete, one of Panama’s most charming towns.
Panama’s hottest tourist destination, the Bocas archipelago is a bohemian playground of white-sand beaches, big surf, frolicking dolphins, pristine coral reefs, and unusual creatures, including a bewildering array of tiny jewel-toned frogs. The humans are pretty fascinating, too, with new arrivals from North America and Europe adding to an already rich mix that includes indigenous and Afro-Caribbean inhabitants who’ve called Bocas home for hundreds of years. Every day seems to bring a new hotel or restaurant to Isla Colón, Carenero, and Bastimentos, but many of the beaches and forests of the archipelago are still undeveloped and barely visited.
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