The Province of Coclé Travel Guide | Towns, Beaches, Parks & Mountains to Visit

Destination content © William Friar, used from Moon Handbooks Panama, 1st edition.

The province of Coclé

Coclé is found in the center of the Isthmus. It offers the visitors jewels of our cultural historic patrimony such as the Apostle Matthew Lesser Basilica of the City of Natá de los Caballeros and el Caño Archeological Park, important legacy of the Coclesan Indian culture.

The section of Panama that stretches roughly from Altos de Campana in the east to the Fortuna Road in the west contains some of Panama's most popular beaches, its most accessible highlands from the country's capital, and some of its most important and historic provincial towns.

The Cordillera Central, Panama's central mountain range, forms the backbone of most of this long stretch of land. Its steep, saw-toothed peaks form a fortresslike wall between the Pacific and Caribbean slopes, making it especially easy to discern the Continental Divide here.

Towns and Places to Visit

The Pacific side contains some of the longest-settled parts of Panama. Significant population centers include the quaint provincial town of Penonomé, the industrial outpost of Aguadulce, and the major transportation hub of Santiago. These and most of the other sizable towns are in the lowlands right on the Interamerican Highway-also known as the Pan-American Highway or, in Spanish, the Interamericana-and most of the beaches are just a couple of kilometers south of it.

It offers a nice cool climate in the community of El Valle de Antón and beautiful spots in the warm beaches of Santa Clara, Farallón and Río Hato, located on the Pacific coast.

Basílica Menor Santiago Apóstol de Natá

Natá's past is far more impressive and interesting than its present, however. Today it's a sleepy village of onion and tomato farmers. Pretty much the only attraction left is its famous, ancient church, the Basilica Menor Santiago Apostól de Natá. Though built over several decades after the founding of the town, it lays claim to being the oldest church along the entire Pacific littoral of the Americas. While of interest to historians, it's actually a rather simple if attractive stucco church with a plain wooden ceiling and red-tile roof. Its most notable features are its elaborate carved wooden altars. It was renovated in 1998. Every July 25, a statue of Santiago Apostól, the patron saint of Natá, is paraded through the streets of the town for the faithful. The nearby chapel, Capilla de San Juan de Dios, is supposed to be renovated eventually.

If the church is closed during the week, ask for help at the alcaldía (mayor's office), on the right side of the plaza as you face the church. The church isn't really all that impressive or worth making a special trip for, but the Interamericana is less than a kilometer away from the church and village center, making it an easy place to swing by for those with their own transportation. Visitors can easily walk to the church from the highway if need be. There are a few facilities for tourists in Natá, but there are better options in Aguadulce or Penonomé.

The Beaches of Coclé

Santa Clara

Santa Clara has it all: pleasant places to stay, a few decent places to eat, a beautiful white-sand beach, and not too many people. During the week, the only signs of life you may see are a few fishing boats motoring by in the distance. The short road from the highway to the beach has lots of potholes but is drivable in a regular car if you're careful.

Farallón

The Farallón (far-ah-YONE) area, which starts about three kilometers west of the Santa Clara turnoff, didn't get much attention until the Colombian-owned Decameron hotel chain built a mammoth resort there in late 2000.

Before then, Farallón was just a quiet fishing village with a pretty beach that attracted some weekenders. Next door is a large airstrip built years ago by the U.S. military, since this is one of the driest places in Panama. In the 1980s it was the site of a Panamanian military base that housed some of Noriega's elite troops. U.S. forces wiped out the base during the 1989 "Just Cause" invasion.

Now, suddenly, it's the hot beach destination. The Decameron refers to this area as Playa Blanca, the name of one stretch of beach here, but most everyone in Panama still thinks of the area simply as Farallón. The Spanish Barceló chain opened its own resort down the beach in 2003, and new condominium buildings are sprouting up as far as the eye can see. The days of Farallón and the other sleepy beach villages around here seem numbered.

As with its neighbor, Santa Clara, the beach is lovely and it's a wonder it was neglected so long. There are a few other simpler and cheaper places to stay and eat in the village of Farallón and around the town of Río Hato, back on the Interamericana, a few kilometers farther west. Río Hato is the nearest semiurban center, but it's down at the heels and has little to offer other than a few services. The presence of the new resorts hasn't helped it much, a fact the townspeople still grumble about.

The Mountains of Coclé

The highlands are all north of the highway, though many of them are easy to get to on good roads (the sections that aren't easy to reach make up for the rough trip in their untrammeled beauty). Attractive and accessible highland spots with lush forests and cool waterfalls are within a couple hours' drive of Panama City. The most popular of these spots is El Valle de Antón. More isolated spots are not much farther away, and their beauty makes it worth the trouble to get there. All are dotted along the Cordillera Central, which means visitors at the higher elevations get to experience both Pacific and Caribbean flora and fauna.

Once one reaches the Continental Divide, most roads end and the only way forward is on foot through dense tropical forest. Much of the Caribbean slope is less well known and more lightly settled than some remote parts of the Darién. Exploring it requires a serious organized trek through rugged wilderness.

Sunday Market

Some visitors come to El Valle just for the public market. Here you'll find crafts from many parts of Panama, in addition to fresh fruit, vegetables, and plants. While the kind and quality of crafts vary week to week, this is usually a good place to buy Panama hats. Note that these are not the elegant, tightly woven hats that most people think of-those "Panama hats" are actually Ecuadorian, as has been mentioned elsewhere. The ones here aren't usually even the more finely woven ones made in some parts of the Azuero Peninsula. These are more coarsely woven, usually of white and black fibers, and are the most common kind worn in Panama. Prices range $8-25. You should expect to pay about $20 for a decent one. Other items to consider include carved soapstone figures, which range in price $2-15. The limiting factor isn't the price but the weight you have to lug around. Note that the market is quaint and lively but is not big. While a popular weekend destination for lots of Panama City residents and the old Canal Zone crowd, and much-trumpeted by tour outfits, it's unlikely to blow your socks off.

The public market is 1.7 kilometers down the main road as you enter El Valle. You can't miss it-it's smack in the center of town. The market operates on a limited scale during the week, but it's in full swing on Saturdays and especially Sundays. There are also a few souvenir kiosks directly across the street. If you're not in town on Sunday, there are some newer souvenir shops to the east of the market.

National Parks in Coclé

Parque Nacional Omar Torrijos

This somewhat hard-to-reach park consists of more than 25,000 hectares of forested highlands stretching down the Pacific and Caribbean sides of the Continental Divide. Its full name is Parque Nacional General de División Omar Torrijos Herrera, but most people know it simply as El Copé, and that's how it'll be referred to here.

The park was created to honor the late military dictator Omar Torrijos, who died in a mysterious plane crash in these mountains on July 31, 1981. Supposedly some charred remains of the plane are still intact on Cerro Marta, a peak you'll see to the right as you enter the park, but you'd have to be a major bushwhacking mountain-climber to prove it.

Because this park is hard to get to, it's filled with thousands of acres of primary forest you're likely to have to yourself. It's a beautiful place with sweeping vistas, as long as it's not too foggy. Even when it is, the morning mist rising off the mountains is quite dramatic.

El Copé is about as far east as the bird life of the western highlands venture, so if you're a bird nut and you're not heading west this is a place for you. If you're not an experienced bird-watcher or guided by one, however, you may not spot many species. El Copé is well known as a place to see hummingbirds, especially the snowcap and green thorntail. The rare bare-necked umbrellabird-which looks as though it's wearing a thatch roof-has been spotted here in the last few years. Its call sounds like the roar of a bull.

All the feline species of Panama are still found in the park, but chances are slim you'll bump into any. Ditto for Baird's tapirs, white-lipped peccaries, and collared peccaries.

Yes, there are venomous snakes here, but as is true throughout the tropics you're unlikely to see one and extremely unlikely to be bothered by one. That said, in the interest of full disclosure you should know that the day before my first visit, a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer nearly stepped on a deadly bushmaster while cutting a trail. The volunteer also once found an eyelash-palm pit viper coiled in the cyclone-fence wall of the shelter that served then as visitor quarters. These are cute little devils, but also venomous. And during one hike, a group of experienced hikers ahead of me thought they came across a coral snake. In other words, watch where you step and sleep. And let someone else go first.

Note: This area gets rain and fog year-round and is quite a bit cooler than the lowlands, so bring warm, waterproof clothes. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get hypothermia even in this relatively mild climate.

Trails

There are several good, wide trails that start from the entrance to the park. Facing into the park, with the visitor shelter and park sign to your right, you'll see two trails. The one to the left heads straight up to the top of a mountain with views of both oceans (about a half-hour's walk). The one to the right heads down toward the Caribbean slope (endless). The latter trail is rocky and rutted, and you'll have to cross several streams. Be prepared for ankle-deep mud. An hour into it there's a far more rugged, strenuous trail that leads you back to the shelter. The umbrellabird has been spotted here (as have venomous snakes). Do not take this trail without a guide: You will get lost. It takes about an hour to get back to the shelter. There is also a half-kilometer interpretive trail that starts behind the shelter. There's a rudimentary trail map posted on a signboard. The ranger may be available to guide you; as always, a small tip is always appreciated.

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Coclé Province Travel Guide | Towns, Mountains & Beaches