Bocas del Toro & Chiriquí

Western Panama belonged to the Gran Chiriquí culture area, shared with southern Costa Rica. Its peoples carved stone statues and grinding tables, and at the Barriles site near Volcán, statues show one figure carried on another's shoulders. On the Caribbean side, Christopher Columbus sailed into the bays of Bocas del Toro on his fourth voyage in 1502, and Almirante Bay takes its name from him.

Spanish control was thin. The Chiriquí plains were settled with cattle ranches, and David, founded as a small settlement in the colonial era, grew into the commercial capital of the west. The Caribbean coast drew English-speaking settlers, turtle hunters and traders from the islands, and Bocas del Toro long looked more to Jamaica and the Caribbean than to Panama City.

The banana transformed Bocas. From the early 20th century, American fruit companies, above all the United Fruit Company, planted the mainland, built the port of Almirante and brought West Indian workers. Plant disease later hit the plantations, and the banana still dominates the Changuinola area. Chiriquí meanwhile became Panama's farm belt, with highland coffee grown around Boquete. In recent decades tourism has reshaped both provinces, and the Naso Tjër Di comarca was created in 2020 for the Naso people of the Teribe River valley. In 2025 a long banana workers' strike over social-security reform hit the plantations of Bocas del Toro.

Chiricanos have a strong regional identity and a reputation within Panama for pride in their province. Their towns keep Spanish-colonial festivals and música típica, while the highlands have absorbed European and North American settlers. European immigrants, including Yugoslavs, helped settle Boquete, and Boquete has a large community of retirees from North America.

Bocas del Toro is different in language and rhythm. Afro-Caribbean islanders, descendants of West Indian migrants, speak Bocas del Toro Creole, an English-based creole, and Caribbean Protestant churches reflect those roots.

The region is also home to Indigenous peoples. The Ngäbe and Buglé live on both sides of the Cordillera, and many work on the banana and coffee farms. The Naso, who live along the Teribe River in their own comarca, are known for keeping a king as their traditional leader, chosen within a ruling family and confirmed by the community. The Bribri live near the Costa Rican border.

David is the region's main city and the commercial hub of western Panama, with farm supply stores, malls and cross-border trade with Costa Rica. Boquete, Volcán and Cerro Punta are small highland towns, and in Bocas del Toro the main centres are Changuinola, Almirante and Bocas Town on Isla Colón.

Chiriquí's economy rests on cattle, dairy, rice, vegetables and coffee. Cerro Punta's fertile land grows vegetables and fruit, and the coffee farms of Boquete produce Geisha beans that sell for record prices at auction. The coffee harvest depends on seasonal Ngäbe pickers. In Bocas del Toro, bananas and tourism are the main employers, and banana work around Changuinola has been hit by labour disputes and job losses.

Foreign retirees and tourism have raised land prices in Boquete and on the Bocas islands, and water supply, waste and development on fragile islands and mangroves are local issues. The pace is relaxed: early starts in the highlands, where evenings are cool, and in Bocas a day organised around boats and tides.

Chiriquí is a farming province, and its food shows it. Cerro Punta grows vegetables and strawberries, and the lowlands supply beef, rice and fresh white cheese. Chiricano cooking is hearty and rural: sancocho, stewed beef with rice and beans, fried pork chicharrones and tortillas of maize. Trout is farmed north of Volcán.

Coffee is the glory. Boquete's Geisha, a variety originally from Ethiopia, became famous when the Hacienda La Esmeralda estate entered it in the Best of Panama competition in 2004, and it now fetches some of the highest prices ever paid for coffee. Estate tours explain the process from cherry to cup.

Bocas del Toro eats like the rest of the Caribbean: rondón, the coconut-based fish and root-vegetable stew; coconut rice; patacones; fried fish; and lobster in season. Bocas Town's restaurants also reflect its foreign residents, with everything from Thai to Italian. Fresh coconut water and local beer are the everyday drinks.

The Bocas del Toro archipelago is the Caribbean draw. Bocas Town on Isla Colón has wooden stilt houses and water-taxi docks; Starfish Beach is one of the island's beaches. Bastimentos has the village of Old Bank, Red Frog Beach and Wizard Beach, and much of the island and the nearby Zapatilla cays belong to Isla Bastimentos National Marine Park, with reefs, mangroves and nesting turtles. Dolphins are often seen in sheltered coves reached by boat.

In Chiriquí, Boquete is the highland base, with coffee tours and birdwatching for the resplendent quetzal. Volcán Barú, Panama's highest point, stands in Volcán Barú National Park; the summit is reached by an overnight climb, and the Sendero Los Quetzales links Boquete with Cerro Punta through cloud forest. Cerro Punta and Guadalupe open onto La Amistad International Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site shared with Costa Rica.

On the Pacific side, David is the provincial capital and a transport hub. Boca Chica gives access to the Gulf of Chiriquí National Marine Park, with islands such as Boca Brava and reefs for snorkelling. The Barriles archaeological site near Volcán and the Naso villages on the Teribe River, reached from Changuinola, show the region's older history.