Panama

Panama City has the most dramatic skyline in Latin America — a Manhattan of glass towers built on petrodollar banking and canal revenue, rising directly behind Casco Viejo (the 17th-century Spanish colonial old town, UNESCO World Heritage Site). The contrast is the defining image of Panama.

💡 Casco Viejo was founded in 1673 after pirates destroyed the original Panama Viejo (now ruins 8km east). The current old town — a grid of cobblestone streets with French and Spanish colonial architecture, now being gentrified — has been on the UNESCO list since 1997.

The Miraflores Locks visitor centre — the best place to watch ships transiting the Panama Canal, with a museum explaining the engineering and history, and a viewing deck over the locks themselves — is 9km from the city. Panama Viejo (the ruins of the original colonial city, destroyed by Henry Morgan in 1671).

💡 The Panama Canal was the greatest engineering project in human history at the time of completion (1914) — a 80km cut through the Continental Divide, requiring the excavation of 232 million cubic metres of rock and earth. The Canal authority earns approximately US$4 billion annually in tolls.

A partial Canal transit by boat — from Gamboa Pier into Gatun Lake and through the Gatun Locks to the Caribbean side (or reverse) — takes 4–6 hours and gives the engineering at water level. The jungle on both sides of the Canal is entirely protected as watershed forest.

💡 Gatun Lake (created by damming the Chagres River during construction) was the largest man-made lake in the world when completed in 1913. It is the primary water source for the Canal locks and for Panama City. The lake’s islands are remnant hilltops of the flooded valley.

30-min flight from Panama City. The Pearl Islands (Archipiélago de las Perlas, 200 islands in the Pacific, named for the pearl beds that funded the Spanish Empire for 200 years) have crystal clear water, white sand beaches and excellent snorkelling. Isla Contadora is the most accessible.

💡 The Pearl Islands are the destination Herman Cortes described in 1527 as “islands of extraordinary wealth.” The most famous single pearl in history — La Peregrina, later owned by Elizabeth Taylor — was found here in the 16th century.

1h flight to Bocas del Toro. The Bocas del Toro archipelago on Panama’s Caribbean coast —9 major islands with thatched-roof buildings on stilts, sea turtles, pink dolphins, coral reefs and a laid-back culture halfway between Caribbean and Latin American — is one of Central America’s most distinctive destinations.

💡 Bocas del Toro has a species of strawberry poison dart frog (Oophaga pumilio) that varies in colour from island to island — blue on Almirante, green on Bastimentos, red on the mainland — due to isolated evolution. The “Blue Jean Frog” is the most photographed animal in the archipelago.

Bastimentos Island National Park (2km from Bocas town by water taxi): Playa Larga (a nesting beach for hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles, monitored by ANCON), Red Frog Beach (accessible only by boat, named for the strawberry dart frogs in the jungle), snorkelling at Crawl Cay (nurse sharks + coral in 2m of water).

💡 Sea turtle nesting at Playa Larga runs June–September for leatherbacks (the largest turtle species — up to 700kg) and July–October for hawksbills. Guided night watches with rangers run during nesting season at US$20–30pp.

2h flight to Panama City, then 2h drive to El Valle. El Valle de Antón sits inside an extinct volcano crater at 600m — cooler than the capital, with the Sunday market (orchids, handicrafts, square-shaped trees, the golden frog — Panama’s national symbol, critically endangered). Return to Panama City airport for departure.

💡 The Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) has been extinct in the wild since 2007 due to chytrid fungus — it now exists only in captivity at El Nispero zoo in El Valle. The species is venomous (produces bufonid toxins), bright yellow, and was regarded by indigenous Ngobe people as a good luck symbol.