Talk:Panama/Archive

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For future reference the Project:CIA World Factbook 2002 import can be found at Talk:Panama/CIA World Factbook 2002 import.

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I think Panama is one of the greatest yet undiscovered destinations to visit. I live here and have a lot of nice pictures I wouldn't mind sharing as long as credit is given or I can leave a small mark in each picture.

Could I create some kind of mini picture gallery?

It's about time this page sees some more activity :-)

Thorwald

There's a fascinating corner of Panama's history when a rebellion occurred while de Lesseps was trying to build the French canal. I've written a book about it. Here's the link: http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=306

AP

Sights

The article mentions no sights to see in Panama - is there really nothing worth seeing for tourists? 72.255.43.9 23:54, 31 January 2008 (EST)

I just discovered this site, and live in Boquete, Panama. I am starting to add things to do and see as I have time; with links to web sites, for more information. There is a lot to do in Panama City, but actually the real adventures are out of town. If someone is coming to Panama I would recommend a couple of days in the city, then Boquete, Bocas del Toro, San Blas, etc... It is easy to travel to different locations and the mico-climates change drastically.

Things To Do....

As a former resident of Panama, and sad that I had to go, I want to add a few things to do, for people that want to have an idea... If your interest is beaches, water sports, and things like that... I recommend visiting Bocas del Toro, Contadora, the Pearl Islands (Survivor was filmed here), Isla Grande. It's in the Caribbean side of the country, beautiful beaches, nice accomodations, and great experience. If you are into resorts to go to and wake up go to the beach, swin in the pool, and lounge, then Playa Blanca, Decameron and the new resort being built Nikki Beach. For adventure... There are many rainforest, and excursions, the province of Darien, Bocas del Toro, Gamboa Rainforest. El Valle and Cerro Punta. Cultural experience. You can visit the indigeneous islands of the Kuna indians. San Blas. They have beautiful beaches, excursions, and you get to experience how the indigeneous people live. Portobelo (which is also the sitte of the religious celebration of the Black Christ in October). You can also visit an inactive volcano, in the province of Chiriqui, and the city of Boquete is also very popular. 2 good times to visit the country are Carnaval (Mardi Gras) and beginning of November during the National Holidays, there are a lot of parties all around the country. The province of Azuero is a well known spot during these holidays. Sights in the City. There are several casinos, shopping malls, and exciting night life. There is no beach near the city, even though you are looking at the sea. Cultural and historic sites like Panama Viejo (the ruins), Casco Viejo (Old Town), Amador Causeway (shops, places to eat, walk, cafes), the Panama Canal of course. Dinner at Las Tinajas and breakfast at El Trapiche are almost required for typical food, and if you're into desserts, visit Manolo's Churros, for some good, fresh, hot churros. Experience dim sum (chinese breakfast) at Palacio Lung Fung.

Some sections need change...

Hi guys, since i'm new at wikivoyage i didn't want to edit the page right away. Also, my first language is spanish (i'm from Panama/Chile) so my edits will probably need some editing too. Anyway, i believe a few sections need editing:

Talk ... Spanish dialect: i'm not sure it is necessary to stress in this way the really minor differences between the spoken spanish in latin american countries. The differences are mostly in accent and a few slangs, if you learned spanish somewhere you will be understood in every country that speaks spanish, including panama. I just don't think it's relevant: if you travel to Boston making a stop in Dallas, you don't really need advise about the different dialects of english that you will encounter.

Eat: i may be nitpicking but ... culantro tastes nothing like cilantro! at all. And you can most definitely NOT sum up panamenian cuisine in that word. Actually, i would like to rewrite this section.

Drink: Again minor: it's misleading to describe Seco as a very raw rum (which it might be, i dont know). Seco smells different and you drink it differently, too (think vodka). Right now in Panama seco with cranberries juice is a big favorite.

Stay Safe: it's important to stress that, right now, Panama city is not a safe place (it was, but not anymore). There are more dangerous countries, for sure, but you shouldnt walk around as a tourist thinking that you are in a safe environment. Please, dont go to Colon (the city) unless you know what you are doing or you go with someone who does.

Get around ... by taxi: Sadly this is no longer correct. It might change again later this year when a few highways are finished, but right now it is almost impossible to move around the city by taxi: taxis don't stop, or won't take you where you want to go ("no voy pa'lla"). Taxis are still the best way to go anywhere but they can be a hassle, and relatively expensive (but still cheap if compared to major cities). —The preceding comment was added by (WT-en) Mnp3a (talk • contribs)

Please plunge forward! Don't worry about non-native speaker errors, other editors can come along and fix those—please just focus on sharing your knowledge. Also, you can auto-sign your posts on talk pages by typing four tildes (~~~~). --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 22:29, 12 April 2009 (EDT)

Why no mention of the Panama hat? K7L (talk) 18:02, 18 October 2012 (CEST)

Regions

[[Image:Map_of_panama.png|right|300px|thumb|The 10 regions currently used]] The number of regions should be reduced. Three or four larger regions should be enough. (WT-en) ViMy 18:43, 10 October 2009 (EDT)

I agree and could do the necessary changes. We could have :

• Chiriqui and Bocas Del Toro.
• Veragua, Los Santos and Herrera.
• Coclé, Colon and Panama
• Darien
• San Blas Islands

Putting Darien and San Blas in the same region would make sense if you only looked at the map but they really are two distinct destinations and travel between the two is almost impossible so i think they should stay as two different regions. I prefer the name San Blas Island to Kuna Yala as it is more used by tourists. Suggestions for the three other regions name ?(WT-en) Rafcha 02:45, 28 October 2009 (EDT)

Sorry for the long delay, but I have been quite bussy lately. I have never been to Panama, and my knowledge of the country is rather limited. But based on the size of the country, 3-4 regions seems to be enough. (WT-en) ViMy 08:57, 19 December 2009 (EST)

Given the current number of Panamian city articles on Wikivoyage, I think the country is best divided into 3 regions, which is a fair number for a country of this size I think. The main focus seems to be around the Panama Canal, so here is how many cities and ODs regions get if the country divided into a Canal Zone (not sure about the name, may also be Central Panama), Western Panama (anything west of the Canal), and Eastern Panama (anything east of the Canal):

• The Canal: 5 linked cities (Panama City, Colon, Gamboa, Balboa, Cristobal), 4 ODs (El Valle (though not directly on the Canal, this one is close enough, and we shouldn't be making West overflow with cities and ODs), Contadora (though closer to the coastline of the Eastern Panama, it seems the only way to get there is to take planes from Panama City, so it's best listed here), Pearl Islands (same with Contadora; this is the archipelago Contadora belongs), Taboga (another island with the sole access from Panama City)).
• West: 9 linked cities (David, Boquete, Boca Chica, Pedasi, Cerro Punta, Rio Sereno (the last two are "hidden" in Chiriqui article), Bocas del Toro, Changuinola, Almirante (and these three are "hidden" in Bocas del Toro)), 7 ODs (Bastimentos, Gulf of Chiriquí, Boca Chica, Parque Nacional Marino Golfo de Chiriquí, Coiba National Marine Park, Volcan Barú, La Amistad International Park (a number of which have breadcrumbs showing that they are part of the region of Gulf of Chiriquí)).
• East: no linked cities (though this should be no surprise, given the vast forests and swamplands in Darien Province of easternmost Panama), an OD (San Blas Islands).

However, looking at how it turns out now, West may need to be further divided in order to avoid an overflowing article when more cities and ODs are added, and I suggest we divide it into Caribbean and Pacific coasts as two seem to be different climatically. So, here is how it looks:

• Caribbean West: 3 cities (Bocas del Toro, Changuinola, Almirante), an OD (Bastimenos)
• Pacific West: 6 cities (David, Boquete, Boca Chica, Pedasi, Cerro Punta, Rio Cereno), 5 ODs (Gulf of Chiriqui, Boca Chica, Parque Nacional Marino Golfo de Chiriquí, Coiba Marine NP, Volcan Barú)

I'm not sure which side La Amistad NP should go though, and couldn't find which coast it's nearer from a quick Google search. Article of Costa Rica, which has part of the park, gives no clue either. It may best be placed in where its main gateway is located (but no clue about that either).

The boundary between two can follow the official district borders. Better names for these should definitely be found, though. – (WT-en) Vidimian 15:24, 27 April 2010 (EDT)

I am working on this regions map and hope to post a draft for comment in next day or two.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 21:17, 2 August 2011 (EDT)

Here is the map. I think Panama has been a singularly unloved country article, and there is a huge amount of regionalisation work to be done. So before starting on that, it would be good to get in advance any comments on the region plan here. The plan as put forward above did require splitting two provinces across region borders (Panama and Veruguas).--(WT-en) Burmesedays 05:33, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

The more I delve, the worse it gets. We have random third level region articles, complete inconsistency with squiggly and non-squiggly name versions, non-articles..... it goes on. Big task ahead in organising Panama. --(WT-en) Burmesedays 09:44, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

This is almost exactly the division I proposed more than a year ago, except that I've proposed Pearl Islands to be a part of Central Panama, since their only access to the rest of the world seems to be via Panama City. However, having no travel experience in the country, I can readily accept arguments for the contrary.

I'm not sure how good and distinguishable "Pacific West" and "Caribbean West" are as region names—I've just proposed them as some sort of "provisional" names to make it clearer what I was talking about, so if anyone has better alternatives in mind, by all means, please go ahead.

I haven't checked recently but as far as what my original post above says, Chiriqui, Bocas del Toro, Gulf of Chiriquí seem to be third-level subregions, but we might need a through check again.

And no matter what, let me say that the map looks great—I especially liked the colour palette. – (WT-en) Vidimian 10:29, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

On the Pearl Islands that's my error - I intended to include those in Central for the very reasons you put forward. They got incorrectly grouped somehow. Will put that right.

I am not in love with bland names like Pacific West either and only use them by default. But I couldn't really come up with anything else.

Thanks for the compliment on the map. I am more and more taken by soft colour palettes and very light strokes (if any) for our maps).--(WT-en) Burmesedays 10:40, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

I think it looks great, and the regions seem fine. Maybe it would be useful to show what exactly is the Darién Gap, since that's the clear no-go area? As it currently stands, the map gives the impression that it's possible to go around Darién (NP) to get to Colombia, but using a diagonal stripe pattern to show the area colord in on this map might make things clearer? --(WT-en) Peter ^Talk 20:19, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

I could maybe use a dotted line to create that effect? I am though very unsure of the extent of the true no-go area. It cannot correspond to the area on the map you linked as that is truly huge. I know you can go all the way to northern termination of the PAH at Yaviza for example. Not so sure what happens on the Colombian side within the FARC run areas, but it seems that the unconnected ends of the PAH are only 100 km apart?--(WT-en) Burmesedays 21:59, 3 August 2011 (EDT)

Fixes done. Any other comments please?--(WT-en) Burmesedays 03:20, 6 August 2011 (EDT)

Map posted and region changes done. A lot of fiddly work. All four top level region articles could do with re-writing. If anyone fancies that job, please go ahead.--(WT-en) Burmesedays 03:28, 7 August 2011 (EDT)

Communication

For business or pleasure tourists, it would be very helpful to be able to keep in touch with other family members or business colleagues using cell phones or other mobile devices. Is it possible to rent cell phones at the airport or other port of entry? Or even buy cell phones? What about mobile wifi? On a recent trip to Germany, I bought a USB 3G/4G mobile device, bought a SIM card for a local carrier, and then purchased extra minutes. It allowed me to e-mail and talk with colleagues so we could coordinate our plans. Even better would have been to get a mobile wifi device. —The preceding comment was added by 50.77.194.225 (talk • contribs)