Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
around balcony. Package prices include full board, transport from
and
to Panama City, and
bilingual naturalist guide. It's an extra $96 to overnight in Mogué.
$1606
/person
Garachiné
Set against the imposing backdrop of Cerro Sapo (Toad Hill), the small, neglected fishing
community of
GARACHINÉ
surprisingly boasts an airstrip and a road (leading to Sambú
before looping back to the coastal Wounaan community of Taimatí), making it another entry
point into the rainforest - though time your visit for low tide and you'll be wading knee-deep
across alluvial mud flats to the shore.
ARRIVAL AND GETTING AROUND: GARACHINÉ
By plane
Air Panama operates twice-weekly flights from Panama City (Wed & Sat; 45min;
$85 one way).
By boat
Regular connections (Mon, Wed & sometimes Fri) from La Palma ($25) and Puerto
Quimba ($30).
Police registration
There is a police checkpoint on the beach, where the boats pull up.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Fonda Carlos Alberto
C Principal.
Head here for a plate of rice and fried chicken or fish,
washed down with a beer from the rather grim local
cantina
.
Daily 7am-8pm.
Hospedaje San Antonio
C Principal 299 6428 (public phone), or 6042 8504 (Efraim de
Olmedo).
The only accommodation is housed in a two-storey wooden buil
din
g. Basic facilit-
ies but a good place to enquire about transport to Sambú or further afield.
$12
Río Sambú and the Comarca Emberá-Wounaan
Portal to the twelve communities of the
Distrito Sambú
of the
Comarca Emberá-Woun-
aan
, 12km up the serpentine
Río Sambú
, the twin settlements of
Sambú
and
Puerto Indio
are generally only reached by river at high tide. The boat trip, sweeping round the river's tor-
tuous bends, causing flocks of white ibis to fly off in unison, is highly atmospheric. As the
Río Sambú's waters swell during the rainy season,
piraguas
can penetrate as far upstream as
the tiny village of Pavarandó; more easily accessible downriver is the fairly dispersed com-
munity of
La Chunga
, which lies a few minutes' paddle up a quiet tributary.
Sambú and Puerto Indio
Outside the waiting room at the airstrip, a hyperbolic wooden sign announces the “Sendero
del Paraíso Sambú!”. While
SAMBÚ
and its counterpart
PUERTO INDIO
, connected by
a footbridge, are pleasant enough places, they serve more as a gateway to what might more
aptly merit the description: swathes of primeval
forest
and a serpentine waterway leading to
Emberá
and
Wounaan communities
further upriver.
