Panama's Provincial Promises |
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At Tropic Star Lodge, anglers have broken 150 IGFA world records. In this fishing paradise, a daily release might yield 40 or 50 fish per boat. At day’s end, boats returning to the marina have outriggers waving dozens of release flags. Located on 14,000 rainforest acres, Tropic Star is not your ordinary fishing lodge. Its setting on Piñas Bay is magnificent and can only be reached by boat or plane. So remote - 150 miles south of Panama City - there are no roads within a hundred miles. A chartered Twin Otter plane lands on a paved 3,000-foot airstrip. Guests can grab a beer or soft drink or make a pit stop in a small ramada before jumping on a tractor-pulled tram for the short ride to a nearby estuary where a panga waits. It’s then a short 10 minute ride to the lodge’s dock.
The luxury lodge serves excellent cuisine either in its waterfront dining room or al fresco around the swimming pool. There’s even lunch in the boat cooler. Ham and cheese sandwiches? Not here. How about Genoa dried salami on focaccia with sundried tomatoes and olives, fresh fruit, and whatever beer or soft drink you’d like. Tropic Star’s 80 person staff outnumbers its capacity of 36 guests. Needless to say, the service is attentive. While out on the ocean, their fleet of 31-foot Bertrams with high transoms, perfect for fighting fish when seas are rough, feature all the necessary fishing equipment one may need to catch the big one. Boats depart the dock at 6:30 in the morning and return at 3:00 p.m. What may seem like a long day of fishing becomes short and exhaustive as one fish after another puts up the fight of a lifetime. Along with 12 outstanding anglers from Florida, North Carolina, Washington, and Arizona, I came to Panama to participate in the IWFA’s annual billfish catch and release tournament. On the Puerto Rica, Floridian Grace Canfield, using 20 lb. test Ande hi-viz line, released a dozen sailfish in a morning. There were times when she fought double hookups. Multiple hits are more the rule than the exception, as on one occasion four sails chased our ballyhoo and belly baits. On the final day, Lorraine Francis came from behind and garnered the championship by releasing 24 sailfish. The grand total came to six boats releasing 390 sailfish within the three day competition. Panama is also noted for its fresh and brackish water fishing for peacock bass, snook, and tarpon. Motoring down the Chagres River, we passed under a historic railway bridge into the Panama Canal. While most visitors cruise the passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, I was fishing for peacock bass with Horacio A. Clare III in the adjacent channel heading into Lake Gatún. Better known as “Chicho,” the 41-year-old is not your typical fisherman. He is Panama’s IGFA peacock bass world record holder, with a second championship pending for dorado. He brings an uncanny expertise and fishing knowledge of the area and the 164-square-mile man-made lake.
In the early 19th Century, Lake Gatún was created during the building of the Panama Canal. Throughout the rainforest, the channels and lagoons of the lake are home to peacock bass, tarpon, grouper, red snapper, snook, oscar, and jack trevally. Panama has only one of the four species of peacock bass. Their “sargento” is sedentary and territorial. According to Chicho, “they don’t go out to restaurants, rather they sit and wait for a passing tasty morsel.” Peacocks are aggressive during the spawning months between November and February. They’ll bite anything that passes their way. Crocodiles, including half a dozen month-old hatchlings and turtles, sunned on muddy banks as birds dipped into the water to feed on fish. A harpy eagle - Panama’s national bird - soared overhead, while a black anhinga and an osprey perched on logs. In this bird watcher’s paradise, keel-billed toucans, wrens, tanagers, tropical woodpeckers, red-beaked wattle jacana, hummingbirds and yellow kisskadee are just a few of Panama’s 975 bird species. Panama’s dense vegetation also propagates a palate of color. Yellow blossoms of the mayflower, purple jacaranda and the white flowered caracucha were in full bloom. The trees enveloped philodendron, ferns, bromeliads, orchids, and schefleras, while liana vines snaked around huge strangler fig trees. Observing the beautiful flora, I could hear the distinctive growling of howler monkeys echoing across the water, forcing the phrase “it’s a jungle out there” from my lips. The ride to and from the Gamboa Rainforest Resort lies in the wake of freighters and cruise ships approaching the Canal’s Pablo Miguel locks. Located near narrow Gaillard Cut - the 800-foot excavation linking Lake Gatún to the Gulf of Panama - Gamboa River Resort’s 156 rooms and 32 historic villas sit surrounded by Parque Nacional Soberania. Embraced by the jungle, the area about 40 minutes from Panama City is designated as an eco-reserve. Gamboa offers many unique nature-related tours and activities. A 300-foot tram carries guests above the forest canopy, offering a coast to coast view. Hiking trails and rental kayaks are available at the marina. A boat trip to Monkey Island provides the opportunity to view a family of six white-faced capuchin monkeys. Another nearby island featured a lucky sighting of a half dozen month old crocodile hatchlings.
By reservation, Caudillo or Headman Felipe Cabezón welcome visitors to the Emberá village of San Antonio, a 10 minute boat ride from Gamboa where guests can experience the lifestyle of the Emberá native Indians who choose to live in a traditional village where family and community take precedence. Historians believe that the Emberá migrated to Panama through Columbia from the Amazon River. Their role in the construction of the Panama Canal was building hand carved canoes. In return, they were given land in the Charges National Park. In addition to their villages in the Darién, an hour and a half from the modern architecture of Panama City, the Emberá retain their primitive style of life in the rainforest. Their thatched roof open-air huts are built on stilts to protect from flooding. They subsist on corn, which they grow in a small plot, and fish the river. They sell woven baskets and carvings to the few visitors who make the canoe voyage upstream. Women paint their topless bodies with the black colored fruit of the Jagua that looks like dark henna, while the men wearing loincloths tend to the needs of the village. For serious anglers making the trip to this gateway country, the abundance of the more sizeable Pacific sailfish in such large schooling numbers is an unequaled experience. Marlin fishermen have an easy target during seasonal migrations, while the bass, tarpon, and snook angler will love fishing in the rainforest as ships navigating the canal come and go. From its fascinating indigenous culture, to its modern capital city filled with an abundance of nightlife and upscale shopping, Panama seems to offer something for everyone. Mary L. Peachin is the founder and publisher of Peachin.com. She is the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Sharks (Alpha/Penguin), Scuba Caribbean and Sport Fishing in the Caribbean, (University Press Florida, late 2008 and 2010). A freelance travel writer, her passions are fishing and scuba diving. Read more about her adventures at www.peachin.com. Where To Toss The BagsContinental and Delta airlines offer non-stop flights to Panama City’s Tocumen Airport from Houston and Atlanta. Other airlines serving Panama include Iberia, TACA and Aero Mexico. Eight major US gateways including Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Houston and Atlanta provide service to Panama. US departure airports sell five dollar entry visas. Tropic Star Lodge rates begin at $4,150 for four days of fishing. A twin Otter flies from Allbrook domestic airport to the strip near Piñas Bay where guests land on a 3000-foot paved strip. Guests will then take a tractor-pulled tram to the river where they’ll board a boat for the short ride to Tropic Star’s dock. Tropic Star Lodge Gamboa Rainforest Resort Awaken to a tropical chorus of motmots, toucans, and fruitcrows at the Canopy Tower Ecolodge. This Nature Observatory features 12 nicely appointed double-occupancy rooms with large windows located at treetop level, about 40 feet from rare sightings like blue cotingas and green shrike-vireos, species that can only be viewed at high levels. The top floor, covered by a 30-foot high geotangent dome, is used as the main dining area and is completely surrounded by panoramic windows. Canopy Tower Ecolodge
Bring Your CameraIn addition to its famous canal and diverse fishing, Panama offers scuba diving, surfing, kayaking and river rafting, caving, rock climbing, handicraft and super-sized mall shopping aside from its numerous beaches and historical sites. The engineering feat of the Panama Canal, a 48,000-acre National Park, still remains the country’s primary visitor attraction. Outside Panama City, Miraflores Locks is the place to watch giant gates leveling water for ships transiting the 50-mile Panama Canal. Approaching Gaillard Cut, ships ply through muddy water. The canal is currently being dredged to accommodate larger container and cruise ships, a project scheduled for a 2014 completion. In 1671, Captain Henry Morgan viewed Panama City from the top of a nearby hill, now called Cerro Luisa. Not only could he see the city; he could see from coast to coast. Today, the remaining ruins have been established as a park. Pink lilac-type flowering guayaca trees cover the ruins. Reminiscent of the French Quarter in New Orleans, a decade after a destructive 1671 fire, Casco Antigua or Colonial Panama was rebuilt using colorful wrought iron balconies either painted or decorated with bougainvillea. Tourist season in Panama is primarily during the dry season, November through April. Of the 2.8 million people in Panama, two of the better known indigenous tribes are the San Blas Islands Kuna and the Emberá. Their colorful dress and embroidered molas are renowned. The Emberá, many who wear loin clothes, live in thatched-roof stilted huts. They weave baskets and make wood carvings from the tagua nut or cocobola, a rainforest palm tree nut also known as “vegetable ivory.” Panama’s canal may be one of the great civil engineering wonders of the world, but the country’s culture, history, geography, and people should not be missed. Other Notes of InterestAbout PanamaFor additional information visit: www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2030.htm
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The cheerfully designed double rooms have a large bathroom and a shared balcony with comfy chairs overlooking the water. El Palacio - the original owner’s home - sits high on a mountainside. For those not wishing to walk the 122 stairs, a cable-pulled car ascends the hill. The Palace has three bedrooms with private baths, a full kitchen, and can sleep six. Its expansive sunken living room and outside terrace offers a panoramic view of the bay and surrounding mountains. 
Chicho doesn’t just fish like a champion angler, he looks like one. His fly-fishing shirt is emblazoned with sponsor emblems: Rapala, Shimano, and his IGFA world records. As we observed a phenomenal scene in a shallow lagoon, Chico was so in awe that he put down his rod. A male was protecting his larger pregnant mate as a voyeuristic predatory oscar waited nearby to eat the emerging eggs or hatched juveniles. “I have only seen this a few times,” Chicho said. “It’s more important for this female to give birth than for me to catch her.”
