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Virgin rainforest, fascinating tribal culture and squeaky-fine coral sands. There’s a hell of a lot more to Panama than canals and hats. We invited Paul Richardson from Conde Nast Traveller out for a tribal tour of the country with two stunning coasts. Just over a year ago it was, in his own words, “a faraway land of which I knew little”. Here are some of his best bits:
Conde Naste Traveller: Panama Panorama PDF
Your fellow passengers on Air Panama flight to Achutupu may have bare feet, rings in their noses, and legs and arms bound with brightly coloured beads. These would be members of the Kuna tribe that rules the roost along the eastern end of Panama’s Caribbean coast.
What Panama has in greatest abundance is wild nature. Like its neighbour Costa Rica, Panama possesses some of the last great tracts of virgin rainforest in the Americas, and some of the last swathes of untouched coastline.
San Blas is an archipelago of so many islands that the Kuna say there is one for every day of the year. In fact, the number is closer to 400, 47 of which are inhabited.
“The days I spent in Akwadup were an experience of almost monastic simplicity, a deep pool of silence into which small things occasionally dropped: a bright seabird tiptoeing along the sand, or a wooden kayak in the distance, paddled by a pair a Kuna fisherman. No doubt about it, this is the Caribbean in its rawest, most real state. There is little to do here except swim, snorkel and sleep.“
turtle
Kuna women in bright costume paddled along the sandy paths. An old lady came to her gate with a pineapple she wanted to sell: a dollar bought me the fruit and a shapshot of this image of traditional Kuna womanhood, complete with the line of kohl down the nose, the ring in the nostril, the dress with an applique chestpiece known as a mola, and the coloured beading all up the arms and down the legs.
At Tranquilo Bay, a boardwalk runs from the jetty through a mangrove swamp. Then you follow a winding path uphill towards the clearing in the forest where the six wooden cabanas stand…
“There was still no mobile-phone coverage, no TV, no background noise except the squawks and hoots of jungle birds echoing in the dusky green.”
lemur monkey
On Zapatillas Cays, two exquisite, deserted islands where I went for the day on the hotel’s launch, I lounged on a beach of squeaky-fine coral sand, then picked my way through an island forest that was pure David Attenborough, all rot and moisture and fertility, with orchids and bromeliads festooning the tall palms, the forest floor gulchy and swampy, criss-crossed with arching roots. Rain started to fall, pummelling the greenery. Celestino chopped off a huge banana leaf with his machete, for me to use as an umbrella.
Black Tomato can arrange bespoke trips all over Panama. An eight-night trip taking in Panama City, Kuna Yula/San Blas and Bocas del Toro costs from £1,999 per person, including all international flights, transfers and accommodation in Hotel DeVille, Akwadup Lodge and Tranquilo Bay, plus guided tours of Panama City and the Ngobe-Bugle village on Punta Valiente, and a snorkelling trip off Bocas del Toro.
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