Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Restaurante Villa Ensueño
Villa Ensueno 448 2964.
Built out over the water next to the
island's Cristo Negro - a large stone crucifix - this is one of the best places to dine, offer-
ing inexpensive delights including
fufú
(fish soup in coconut milk; $6) and lobster.
Daily
11am-9pm.
The eastern Costa Arriba to Cuango
For most people the Costa Arriba stops at Portobelo; very few venture much further along the
windswept coastline, though bearing right at the fork after Nuevo Tonosí takes you through
a string of surfing beaches and sparsely populated villages - Viento Frío, Palenque and
Miramar - before terminating at Cuango.
Nombre de Dios
The most compelling of the coastal settlements,
Nombre de Dios
is famed as the Atlantic ter-
minus for the Camino Real, where in colonial times treasure was transferred from exhausted
mules to ships bound for Spain. The village derived its name from the apocryphal words of
its founder, Diego de Nicuesa, who, desperate to land his starving crew, espied the spot and
cried out, “Paremos aquí en el nombre de Dios!” Sadly no trace remains of the town's fam-
ous historical past, largely thanks to Sir Francis Drake, who razed the place to the ground in
1595, thus persuading the Spanish to move their operation to Portobelo.
Nevertheless Nombre de Dios is a scenic place to stroll through, situated on the palm-
fringed Río Fato, and with a pleasant five-minute meander up to a
mirador
established by a
local environmental group offering a view of the village and the turquoise sea beyond.
Playa
Damas
is the best local beach, a short hop by boat.
Miramar and around
There's little reason to stop off in
Viento Frío
and
Palenque
but at the forlorn port of
Miramar
, the next village along - and the only place you can get petrol - a small beachside
hotel and a couple of restaurants offer succour to those who get stranded here for a couple of
days waiting for a boat to Guna Yala. At the end of the tarred road lies
Cuango
, with a tan-
gible end-of-the-road feel, though the vast new Decameron resort being built the other side
of the river may change all that.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE: ALONG THE COSTA ARRIBA TO
CUANGO
By bus
Buses to Cuango from Colón (daily 9am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm & 4.30pm; 2hr 30min)
are marked “Costa Arriba-Cuango”; the last return bus departs at 2-3pm. They all stop
at Nombre de Dios, Viento Frío, Palenque and Miramar en route. Nine more buses
(6am-5.45pm) run from Colón to Nombre de Dios.
