Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Las Tablas
1.50
45
every 20min
Macaracas
2.50
60
hourly
Ocú
2.50
60
hourly
Parita
0.70
20
every 45min
Pedasí
3.25
60
hourly
Pesé
1.10
20
every 30min
Playa El Aguillito
0.50
12
every 20min
Playas Monagre & El Rompío
1.25
30
every 20min
Santiago
3
75
every 30min
Villa de Los Santos
0.35
5
every 10min
Getting Around
When the highway reaches Chitré, it becomes Paseo Enrique Geenzier, changing its
name again a dozen blocks further east to Calle Manuel Maria Correa. The Carretera Na-
cional re-emerges at the southern end of town.
If you need to travel by vehicle, a taxi is the best way to go. They're cheap - most fares
in town are between US$1.50 and US$2.
BIRD-WATCHING AT PLAYA EL AGUILLITO
Seven kilometers from Chitré, Playa El Aguillito is a mudflat created by silt depos-
ited by the Río Parita and the Río La Villa. At low tide, it stretches more than 2km
from the high-water mark to the surf, supplying a bounty of plankton and small
shrimp to thousands of migrating birds.
Regulars include roseate spoonbills, sandpipers, warblers, black-necked stilts,
white-winged doves, black-bellied plovers, yellow-crowned amazons, yellowlegs
and ospreys. The beach is also home to common ground-doves, found only in this
one spot in Panama. At high tide, birds congregate around salt ponds to the imme-
diate east of Playa El Aguillito. The artificial beach is a failed attempt to create a
sunbathing beach by destroying a mangrove forest back in the 1960s.
Chitré native and 'friend of the birds' Francisco Delgado heads
Humboldt Ecolo-
gical Station
. Since 1983, the group has monitored more than 15,000 birds with
the assistance of international scientists. Their work shows that annual visits to the
same feeding grounds is an important survival mechanism for long-distance mi-
