Panamanian Adventures: Achiote & Punta Galeta

The Canal is of course located on the thinest strip of land of the country. In barely an hour, we made our way to the Caribbean coast. Located next to the San Lorenzo National Park, Achiote relies mainly on shade-grown coffee as a means of subsistence. Much of Panama's coffee comes from this region.

In the past 10 or so years, with the help of an NGO called CEASPA (Centro de Estudios y Accion Social Panameño) the community has taken advantage of their naturally sustainable means of growing coffee (shade-grown coffee needs tall trees and other plants around) to develop ecotourism in the area. When you arrive along the main road, a small restaurant welcomes you. They have different paths for bird watching in certain areas and paths throughout their coffee plantations. We were able to taste some of their coffee in their small coffee museum, and I must admit that though I usually do not like coffee, this one was very good! Local guides explained to us the process for growing coffee, and how many of them are now able to make a living off of being guides and environmental educators for visitors and students in the area.

The next day we went to Punta Galeta which is another research station of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. They have a particular focus on marine biology and mangroves, of which we learned a lot about.

Next up María Chiquita, a small town of fishermen outside of Colón. Contrary to Achiote, it has developed in an entirely different way. Canadian investors have built condos along the water, and have actually created an artificial beach bringing in palm trees and white sand from the Pacific coast, and grinding up the coral to have room to extend the beach even futher. The local people do not seem to be too bothered by the construction, as it does create jobs for them and has not had any consequences on the fish population on which they depend on for income.