Page 113 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

Around Colón The Panama Canal and CenTral isThmus 111
the former fort, where you may need to show ID. The road park office after a couple of kilometres, where there may be
to San Lorenzo bends off to the left, continuing for another someone to relieve you of your park fee.
10km along a tarred road to the fort. You’ll come across the

Costa Abajo
The area to the west of the Canal is known as the COSTA ABAJO, which includes a
number of inland communities sandwiched between Lago Gatún and the Caribbean
coast as well as a handful of coastal villages. A hinterland in tourist terms, the area will 2
really only appeal to avid birdwatchers and those who want to get off the beaten track.
Two villages here earn a trickle of visitors. Escobal, attractively situated on Lago
Gatún, is a pleasant spot to engage in a little kayaking, fishing or horseriding while
Achiote, further inland, is a prime location for birdwatching. The other settlements
strung out along the wild, windswept coastline rarely see tourists.

Escobal
The road to the sprawling lakeside fishing village of ESCOBAL (and Cuipo beyond)
periodically offers glimpses of sparkling Lago Gatún and its many wooded islands
through the trees and prolific elephant grass. After about 10km the road divides: to the
right it heads back up towards the coast via Achiote; ahead it continues to ethnically
diverse Escobal, primarily populated by descendants of Canal labourers and communities
displaced by the damming of the Río Chagres. It’s an attractive spot to relax; you can
engage a boatman to explore the tiny islands and secret inlets on the vast reservoir, or go
horseriding or hiking in the forest.
arriVal and deParTure esCOBal
By bus Buses from Colón marked “Costa Abajo Cuipo” pass noon & hourly until 7pm; 45min–1hr).
through Escobal (6.30am & 8am, then every 40min until
aCCOmmOdaTiOn and eaTinG
Restaurante Doña Nelly Main road by main bus stop tent, head for this lovely camping spot down by the
T434 6029. Simple local restaurant with outside seating lakeside, where you can enquire about a boatman to take
dishing up decent fried chicken or fish with rice or you out on the lake. Facilities are limited – a rancho under
patacones and beans. Daily 7am–8pm. which to pitch your tent and use of the owner’s cold
Sra Raquel de Tuñon’s Down the last road on the left shower. Per tent $13
when leaving the village T6638 4912. If you have a
Achiote
Located in a flat-bottomed valley just outside the Área Protegida San Lorenzo – its five
hundred inhabitants primarily survive on livestock rearing and subsistence agriculture,
with coffee the main crop – the hamlet of ACHIOTE provides a good base for exploring the
area. Strung along the main road, backing onto a flower-filled and forested hillside and
surrounded by bucolic countryside, it is also home to a community-based ecotourism
project in the Centro El Tucán, which focuses on birdwatching and hiking as well as
offering a tour of a local coffee farm and a boat trip on Río Lagarto.
Some 435 recorded bird species are spread across the Área Protegida San Lorenzo,
which encompasses tracts of mangrove, cativo and palm swamps and vast swathes of
other secondary forest types, including some deciduous growth.
Sendero El Trogón
$5 combined entry to trails and the Área Protegida San Lorenzo
The main birdwatching trail is the Sendero El Trogón, which lies 4km before Achiote,
within the park boundary, and was so named on account of the three types of trogon
that frequent the area. Although it’s a pleasant walk, the birding is often easier (and

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