About 26 years ago, my parents participated in a two year volunteer program called Peace Corps in Panama. It was kind of coincidence they both ended up there, as they both randomized their language and location preferences on their applications. About five years ago, I decided we HAD to visit Panama in person; my parents hadn’t gone back since they lived there, and traveling to Latin America was #1 on my bucket list. So, I used my Google Flights trick (and also searched for flights on Kayak, which has a similar “explore” option to Google Flights). I think we ended up getting tickets on Spirit Airlines for $250-$300 dollars…but that was 5 years ago, so I think it would even be possible to find tickets even cheaper now.

My family visited Panama during the rainy season. The winds were very calm, but it did rain at least once a day, which is both a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. We appreciated the rain while hiking in the rainforest because it felt like we were really in the RAINforest. We also heard from the snorkel excursion companies that the visibility was a lot better during the rainy season (the reasoning behind this is very similar to what I explained in my Florida Keys post). However, there were several times, like when we were going to hike in a higher elevation Cloud forest or we were going to go on a snorkel excursion, that we almost couldn’t because of the thunderstorms. Honestly speaking, there are downsides to visiting anywhere during every season, so my advice would be to visit Panama whenever there are cheapest flights (which tends to be during our summer months, or their rainy season).

Before I begin talking about all the places I visited in Panama, I would like to first talk about one of the places I didn’t get to visit. The San Blas Islands are a tropical archipelago located off the eastern coast of Panama, right in the Caribbean. They are Panama’s main tourist attraction, as the water is probably bluer than the waters in any other Caribbean island, and the archipelago is inhabited by Panama’s native population, the Kuna Indians (or the Guana people). As you can see in the pictures, visiting the San Blas would have been an amazing experience, but unfortunately, it was too expensive at the time. My parents visited when they lived in Panama before traveling there became part of Panama’s tourism industry, and they said it was absolutely incredible. I hope to go someday!

Also, quick disclaimer: I didn’t take very many pictures when I visited Panama (phone issues), so some of my photos are taken from the internet. I tried to pick photos that best represented what I saw with my own eyes.

1. Visiting Panama City, Panama

Panama City is Panama’s capital. The city itself is very interesting culturally and is filled with lots of street venders, fresh fruit markets, and great food. There is a lot of negotiating that has to be done with street venders, as many of them take advantage of the fact that you are a tourist. Just make sure you don’t buy a mango for $6…(oh yeah, Panama’s official currency is the US dollar!)

The city also features a gorgeous park called Parque Natural Metropolitano (Metropolitan Park). This park is right in the center of a very tropical rainforest filled with all kinds of wildlife. We saw an entire army of leaf cutter ants, several sloths, and a toucan during one of the hikes through the rainforest! The park also features a nice view of Panama City on top of a hill.

I feel like I would be committing some sort of crime if fail to mention visiting the Panama canal, so here we go. To be honest, I thought the canal was kind of boring to visit. I had fun reading up on the history of the canal and how it actually works (filling up the vaults to allow ships to pass), but in terms of actually seeing it in person, it wasn’t all that exciting. Others will definitely tell you differently, so I think it is still worth the stop if you’re in town.

2. Chicá

Next, we hit the road and visited Chicá, the small mountain town where my dad lived for two years. Even though we visited Chicá to see some of my dad’s old friends and host families, I would definitely recommend spending a day in Chicá to go on some hikes through the Cloud forest. A Cloud forest is basically a higher altitude rainforest. They are extremely fascinating ecologically, as everywhere you look, you see a whole new bunch of exotic tree species. It would be hard to study forest dendrology here!

The hike we did was called Cerro de la Cruz in Altos de Campana National Park. This hike was pretty moderate until the rocky top, which included ropes to help hikers summit the mountain. At the top of this mountain and many others in Panama and other countries in Latin America, there is a cross. I loved this hike because it took us through the heart of a gorgeous cloud forest and featured several stunning views of the National Park.

3. Isla Iguana

After visiting my dad’s site, we visited Portobellio, which was where my mom lived for two years. My mom’s old site is a small farming community that faces a lot of environmental challenges, one being overgrazing. In fact, there is a national park called Sarigua National Park that looks like a small chunk of desert. The locals have turned it into a National Park because desert is not normally found in Central America, but it is important to note that this desert formed due to over grazing cattle and not practicing healthy farming techniques.

That night, we stayed in Chichre in an Airbnb. It was one of our more wholesome experiences because we had a very wonderful breakfast with the host. My favorite food was probably a pasty mix of corn and onions wrapped in cornhusk leaves (they are boiled). In Chile, they call them humitas and in Panama, they call them pamonhas. I believe the dish is native to Brazil.

Just south of Portobellio and the larger city, Chitre, lies a very undiscovered gem. Isla Iguana has not yet joined Panama’s official tourism industry, so my dad had to use his Spanish and ask some of the local people for rides on their fishing boats to get to the island. Isla Iguana is a nature reserve, as it is home to a diverse handful of bird and aquatic species. On one side of the island, there are very interesting volcanic rock formations and on the other, there are white, sandy beaches filled with colorful corals right off the coast. We brought our snorkel gear and snorkeled right off the island.

4. Santa Catalina

My family decided to live one night of luxury and stay in a cabana with a pool at Hotel Santa Catalina. The pool looked like those pools you see in movies where the water rises all the way to the top of the pool, and the pool itself overlooks a gorgeous ocean. Access to surf boards came for free with our stay, so my dad and I went right to the ocean and tried to teach ourselves how to surf. We failed miserably, but it was still a lot of fun.

The hotel also gave us a free breakfast every morning that came with all kinds of fresh fruits and juices. You aren’t technically allowed to drink out of the tap in Panama, but my dad and I decided it was worth getting sick if we got to drink the fresh fruit (my mom and sister did not drink the juice).

5. Isla Coiba

This island was where Panama used to keep all of their most dangerous prisoners and mentally insane people. After the late 1900s, they moved the facility to somewhere on the mainland, and Isla Coiba became a place both history and nature geeks would visit. I think Isla Coiba is even lesser known to the tourist industry than Isla Iguana, so we definitely got a very special experience when we visited. We saw so many crocodiles and lots of marine life, including sea turtles, puffer fish, sharks, and corals during our snorkel excursions! I would definitely recommend.

6. Boquete

Boquete was one of my favorite places because it was a nice little town right in the mountains! My favorite hike in Boquete was the Lost Waterfalls trail…it featured a roped wooden bridge across a river, cloud forests with lots of giant tree ferns, and three gorgeous waterfalls with clear pools perfect for swimming.

I really wanted to hike Volcan Baru, the tallest volcano in Panama, but unfortunately, there was no time left. We had to get back to Panama City the next day for our flight home.