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Bradt Guide Panama
Ref: BRA060
Panama, famed for its legendary canal and biodiversity, is the exotic bridge between Central and South America. This fascinating guide offers a strong focus on the Bocas del Toro region, a sparkling archipelago with much to offer travellers looking for wildlife and cultural heritage. With an idyllic landscape of volcanoes, rainforest and Caribbean coasts, and a skyline ever-colourful with butterfly migrations and over 940 species of birdlife, Panama is the perfect getaway and also the ideal place for watersports and hiking.
• In-depth coverage of the eco-tourism hotspot of Bocas del Toro
• Indigenous people
• Natural history, national parks and marine conservation
• Culture, crafts and festivals
• The canal, its history and its modern role
About this Destination
Panama is the latest ecotourism hotspot, with rainforest covering a third of its area.
Author's Note, by Sarah Woods
Although once overshadowed by its high profile neighbours, today Panama’s squiggle of land is very much a country on the up. Spectacular wild, tangled jungles, riverbank Indian villages, alpine-sloped volcanoes and golden sand islands have given it a soaring international profile – and unlike any other Panama guidebook on the market, the Bradt guide provides total insight to a country that remains largely undiscovered.
More than a third of Panama’s land is protected and home to 940 bird species, 1500 islands, 480 rivers, 125 unique species of wildlife, 40 conservation areas and off-shore waters rich in marine life. The isthmus has more to offer than straw hats, dictators, cigars and the world’s most famous shortcut - the “Big Ditch” - the Panama Canal.
Visitors will discover a land of opportunity and scenic splendour that boasts rainforests, beaches, valleys and mountains dotted with waterfalls, hot springs, caves and petroglyphs. Vast expanses of wilderness support a biodiversity attributable to Panama’s crossroads location, a land bridge linking North and Central America comprising wetlands, grasslands, forests and coastal plains. More fishing records have been broken here than anywhere else on the planet, while Panama’s turtle nesting sites are some of the most important in the world.
Festivals, parades and rituals celebrate Panama’s seven indigenous peoples, Spanish heritage and mixed ethnicities with gusto. From masked parades and Congo drumming to carnival floats and puberty rites, a riot of colour, noise and pride. Puma prowl and giant Harpy eagles roost just 45 minutes from the capital’s gleaming financial district, while at just 50km wide at its narrowest point Panama’s land mass is easily traversable in a day. Dip a toe in the Caribbean Sea in the morning sun and be on the Pacific coast by lunchtime - much like a transiting vessel on the Panama Canal.
Panama is no flawless travel brochure cliché. This guide will help visitors overcome the obstacles of Panamanian bureaucracy and illustrates how Panama can be awe-inspiring, humbling and maddening - all in one day. Travel through Panama requires patience, a skill for second-guessing, and an acceptance that things will change in an instant without warning. Timetables are unpredictable. Working hours open to loose interpretation. Maps are inaccurate. Public holidays occur without notice. Places have at least three names spelt at least four ways. Roads terminate unannounced. And even some of Panama’s medium-sized towns see no need for street names – and this guide helps advise on them all. Panama is never dull and this guide captures its excitement with great accuracy – setting the scene for visitors before arrival and providing informed companionship for the journey en route.
Sarah Woods has travelled extensively worldwide and has worked as a freelance travel writer since the early 1990s, contributing to both consumer and trade travel magazines globally. She has recently spent extended periods in Panama working on articles that examined the growing popularity of the country as a tourism destination.
£13.95
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