Page 154 - The Rough Guide to Panama (Travel Guide)

152 The Azuero PeninsulA
The Azuero Peninsula

Mention the Azuero Peninsula, the box-shaped land mass that protrudes into
the Pacific, and clichéd images abound of smiling women dancing in polleras,
cowboys lassoing cattle and quaint village squares with whitewashed colonial
churches. And the peninsula often delivers on such images: peasant farmers
stride off to the fields at the crack of dawn, sombrero on head and machete
slung across shoulder; some hamlets still contain tile-topped adobe houses,
adorned with bougainvillea; and small villages celebrate their saint’s day with
bands of accordionists and fiddlers playing foot-tapping folk melodies. That
said, the pace of development is increasing: trucks rattle along tarred rather
than dirt roads; unprepossessing cement-block mini-supers with zinc roofs
dot the townscapes; and vast tracts of land are being gobbled up by
mushrooming real-estate agents and mining companies, looking to force
rapid and irrevocable social change. For the moment, though, cattle farming
and agriculture still prevail in the interior while coastal communities continue
4 to derive their livelihood from fishing.

The peninsula, which covers a substantial 7616 square kilometres, is sometimes referred
to as Eastern and Western Azuero; there is no connecting road across the dividing
mountainous spine that runs down the western flank. The former comprises the vast
bulk of the terrain and the small provinces of Herrera and Los Santos, clustered around
their respective provincial capitals of Chitré and Las Tablas, which make good bases for
exploring the region. The Western Azuero, on the other hand, is an oft-forgotten sliver of
Veraguas province that trickles down the western seaboard. Dotted with small ranching
and fishing communities – with a few developments sprouting up – it ends in one of
Panama’s least explored wilderness areas, Parque Nacional Cerro Hoya, with its sparkling
waterfalls and several endemic species of animals and plants. That and the little-visited
Reserva Forestal El Montuoso contrast acutely with the rest of the peninsula, which more
than anywhere else in the country has been stripped of forest due to excessive logging and
slash-and-burn agriculture. The desert-like Parque Nacional Sarigua, at the heart of the
Arco Seco (Dry Arc) – Panama’s driest, hottest region, which curves around the eastern
shore of the Azuero – is a compelling reminder of the consequences of such practices. For
a visitor, this means choosing your time to visit carefully; when fed by the rains (roughly
May to mid-Dec), the verdant rolling pastures punctuated by villages ablaze with flowers
and fruit trees create a picturesque landscape, but when the clouds dry up, they lose
much of their natural beauty, becoming parched and dusty as temperatures soar.
Panama’s Spanish colonial heritage is also at its most visible and vibrant in the Azuero,
from the cattle ranching, bullfighting and Baroque churches to the elaborate costumes –
the best examples of which are crafted on the peninsula – and distinctive music that

Festivals in the Azuero p.155 Carnaval and other Las Tablas festivals
Mask-makers p.159 p.167
Ocú’s festivals p.161 Turtle watching at Isla de Cañas p.173
La Villa’s Festival de Corpus Christi p.163 Turtle conservation in the Western
Festival de la Mejorana p.165 Azuero p.176

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