Panama : activités et visites

Panama City, the capital, has a skyline of glass towers on the Pacific and, at its edge, Casco Viejo, a UNESCO-listed colonial quarter of plazas, churches and balconies. The ruins of Panamá Viejo mark the original Spanish city. The Panama Canal cuts through the isthmus, and ships can be watched passing through the Miraflores Locks.

Gamboa, on the edge of Soberanía National Park, is a gateway to rainforest birdwatching and boat trips on the canal's Gatun Lake. On the Caribbean side, Colón is the canal's northern port, near the Spanish colonial forts of Portobelo. The San Blas Islands, home of the Guna people, are hundreds of small sandy islets, and Santa Catalina on the Pacific coast leads to the reefs of Coiba National Park. Boquete, in the highlands, grows coffee beneath the Barú volcano.

Sancocho, a chicken and yuca soup, is the comfort dish, and ceviche, patacones, fried plantain, and hojaldras, fried bread, fill the markets. Geisha coffee from Boquete is among the world's most prized. The dry season runs from December to April, and the green season brings afternoon showers from May to November.