Mainland
Coastal Towns & Cloudforest Mountains
While this area of Bocas del Toro is still developing, the magic here is evident. Main towns include Almirante, a port town, Changuinola, a small city, and Sixaola, a border town. In the cloud forest, mountains find some scattered mountain eco-lodges and lookout points near the Chiriqui border.
Almirante, Changuinola, Sixaola
This area of Bocas del Toro includes the mainland towns that makeup Bocas del Toro. Almirante is the port city where anyone going to the Bocas islands would arrive and has a cacao tour worth checking out. Changuinola is the largest city in Bocas del Toro and has some larger shopping areas and the second airport in the province. Sixaola is the border town just across from Costa Rica.
The mountains of Bocas del Toro offer some of the wildest primary rainforests in Central America. Here there are a few mountain lodges to check out and some indigenous tribes providing amazing experiences. One of those tribes is the Naso, a small indigenous group that lives in the northeastern Bocas del Toro mountain region. They are spread out in eleven communities along the Río Teribe and are among the last indigenous groups in the Americas that have a traditional monarchy.
Information
History of Mainland Bocas
Many people do not know but Bocas del Toro is home to the first man made canal in Panama, the Snyder Canal. The Snyder Banana Company and Minor C. Keith were granted permission by the Colombian government in 1899 to build a canal near Boca del Drago, isla Colon to Changuinola with the objective to connect new banana plantations in Changuinola with new port towns to export bananas. The United Fruit Company purchased the Snyder Banana Company in 1899, and completed the Snyder Canal in 1903, 11 years before the completion of the famous Panama Canal.
