Western Panama Travel Video Guide

Western Panama Travel Itinerary

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Western Panama is divided into two by the rugged Cordillera Central , which begins not far west of the Panama Canal and runs some 400km to Costa Rica. North of the mountains, the undeveloped Atlantic coast is covered in dense rainforest and inhabited by isolated indigenous groups. South of the mountains, the drier and more fertile coastal plain is largely deforested and heavily settled. This agricultural heartland is known as el interior (its inhabitants are known as interioranos ), the homeland of ladino rural culture.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, this Pacific coastal region was home to the most sophisticated indigenous societies in the country, and it was here that the conquistadors met the fiercest resistance, especially that led by Urraca , a chieftain whose head now decorates the one cent coin. Gradually these societies were defeated and either assimilated or driven into the infertile highlands - where their descendants, the Ngobe-Bugle , still live - while the forests were cleared for agriculture and ranching.

The region's towns - Penonome, Chitre, Las Tablas, Santiago and David - are dull, provincial market centres, and the surrounding agricultural lands scarcely match the untamed wildernesses found elsewhere in the country. Even so, there are several places worth checking out as you head west towards Costa Rica or Bocas del Toro. Close to Panama City are some spectacular Pacific beaches and the cool mountain resort town of El Valle ; while slightly further west near Penonome the remnants of the pre-Columbian societies that dominated the region can be seen at Parque Arqueologico el Cano . South of the Interamericana is the Peninsula de Azuero , a fascinating agricultural region famed for its religious fiestas in which early Spanish folkloric traditions survive almost unchanged. In addition, although the peninsula is largely deforested, much of its

coastal ecology remains well preserved. Surrounded by coral reefs, Isla Iguana Wildlife Reserve is one of the best places in Panama for divers and snorkellers, while at Isla Canas Wildlife Reserve , to the south, sea turtles arrive every year in their thousands. In the far west, near the Costa Rican border, the Cordillera Central rises to its highest peaks in the Chiriqui Highlands , a beautiful region of extinct volcanoes, dense cloudforests and idyllic mountain villages.

Your Tips For Western Panama

• Western Panama Travel Videos
  Panama Travel Itinerary
  Western Panama is divided into two by the rugged Cordillera Central , which begins not far west of the Panama Canal and runs some 400km to Costa Rica. - Panama
  

• Eastern Panama Travel Videos
  Panama Travel Itinerary
  Sparsely populated by isolated indigenous communities and the descendants of escaped African slaves, the eastern third of Panama - some 19,000 square kilometres - is perhaps the last great untamed wilderness of Central America, the beginning of an immense forest that continues almost unbroken across the border into Colombia and down the Pacific coast to Ecuador. - Panama
  

• Bocas del Toro Panama Travel Videos
  Panama Travel Itinerary
  Isolated on the Costa Rican border between the Caribbean and the forested slopes of the Cordillera Talamanca, Bocas del Toro (usually abbreviated simply to "Bocas") is one of the most remote and beautiful provinces in Panama. - Panama
  

• Panama Canal and Colon Province Travel Videos
  Panama Travel Itinerary
  Running some 82km across the isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the Panama Canal , one of the greatest engineering feats of all time, is the country's biggest visitor attraction, and an easy day-trip from Panama City. - Panama
  

• Panama City Travel Videos
  Panama Travel Itinerary
  If the world had to choose a capital, the Isthmus of Panama would be the obvious place for that high destiny . - Panama