Secrets of Central America

Coiba Island is part of Panama, off the country’s Pacific Coast, in the Gulf of Chiriquí. Once a penal colony, it’s now part of Coiba National Park, which is known for its diverse marine life and jungle animals including white-faced monkeys. Dive sites on Bahia Damas Reef are home to manta rays, whales and hammerhead sharks.

The San Blas Islands of Panama is an archipelago comprising approximately 365 islands and cays, of which 49 are inhabited. They lie off the north coast of the Isthmus of Panama, east of the Panama Canal. A part of the comarca Guna Yala along the Caribbean coast of Panama is home to the Kuna people.

Colón is the second largest city in Panama, at the Caribbean entrance of the Panama Canal. Colón is today an important port, and the free trade zone created in 1953 contributed greatly to the development of the city. Colón was founded in 1850 by Americans working on the Panama railroad connecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts through the isthmus of Panama; the city rapidly overshadowed the older Caribbean ports of Panama when the canal opened.