This week’s travel dream: Panama for beginners

Panama has been billed as an “up-and-coming Costa Rica,” said Susan Carpenter in the Los Angeles Times. Like that tourist magnet to its northwest, Panama is a tropical land rife with dense rain forests, cool mountain refuges, and exotic flora and fauna. The southernmost country of North America also boasts two coasts—one on the Atlantic and one on the Pacific—lined with pristine beaches, as well as more than 1,600 islands just offshore. Other draws include Panama’s “dollar-stretching economics” and its relatively undeveloped tourist culture. In Costa Rica, you’d have to compete with 20 other onlookers to catch a glimpse of a howler monkey; in Panama, it’s often just you and the jungle.

Shortly after arriving in Panama City, I flew west to David, the country’s second-most-populous city, then drove along the Pan-American Highway to Boquete. Tucked away in the Chiriqui Highlands, this mountain village acts as the gateway to the Quetzal Trail, one of the most gorgeous paths in all of Central America. I hiked past the “corrugated metal lean-tos” that house the workers who harvest the onions, strawberries, corn, and coffee beans grown in this lush terrain. I admired the brilliant colors of birds of paradise and bougainvillea and saw howler monkeys hanging from trees. Finally I stopped to rest in front of a giant waterfall, where flocks of the “gorgeous, green-tailed birds” called quetzals are known to hover.

The next day, I traveled farther west, into the Talamanca Mountains, a forested range on the border of Panama and Costa Rica. I wanted to go white-water rafting on the “churning Chiriqui Viejo.” Since I’d never been rafting before, I signed up for the “sissy version”—Class 2 rapids—only to discover that recent rains had elevated our waters to Class 3. I got in anyway, holding on for dear life as we “plowed through the serpentine, foaming waters.” As our guide steered past trees swarming with squirrel monkeys and rocks covered with “preening birds,” I felt fine—until we almost capsized. Ejected from the raft, I was flung nearly 50 feet downstream. My “unplanned, boat-free ride down the river was terrifying,” but it was just the kind of adventure I had come to Panama for.

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Contact: Panamainfo.com