The Lost Paradise of Panamá

The land-water province of Bocas del Toro sits in the northwest corner of Panamá, nestled with the border of Costa Rica. On the Caribbean coast near El Silencio, the Rio Changuinola snakes its way toward the Rio Teribe, and the Wekso Eco Center on the outskirts of La Amistad International Park. The jungle is thick and pristine. It’s also Teribe Indian territory. If you’ve never been in the jungle, the real jungle, not just a nature path, it can be quite intimidating. It’s no coincidence that the former PDF, Panama Defense Force, maintained a hard-core jungle warfare/survival school in this area known as PanaJungla. In this natural classroom you came to terms with the harsh, unforgiving jungle, where slapping a mosquito while patroling along a riverbank was frowned upon. If you didn’t learn to accept the environment as your friend, it would break you. Not many travellers tend to venture this way.

Off the coast is an Archipiélago that is the main tourist attraction. Bocas was relatively unknown until recent years, unless you were in the banana business. But for some reason, it’s now a well-known tourist haunt with a Bohemian lifestyle.

There are many large and small islands that make up this artistic chain, and there are just as many foreigners that come to let their hair down and have a good time. But if you step off the beaten path for a moment and hire a local small boat guide, you’ll discover amazing beauty.

As Panama’s Independence Day and Flag Day draw near, November third and fourth, I thought about freedom, true freedom, and what it means to people everywhere. Here’s a picture of an Iraqi dinar that the world will never see in use again. Ever. I received it from a soldier who served in Iraq. Someone I have never met. He had read one or more of my books, which in part, takes place in Panamá. My name is written in English, and Arabic across the front of the retired note.

Dictators are a dying breed, but there are still too many in the world. But not in some places. Not in Iraq. And not in Panamá.