Enjoy de Rainforest at Soberania National Park

Soberania National Park is located within Colon Province and Panama Province. It is about 40 minutes from Colon, and 20 minutes from Panama City. Established as a national park in 1980, the park covers 55,000 acres (220 km²) The Charges River flows across the national park at the town of Gamboa.

 

There is a park headquarters with rooms for meetings and audiovisual presentations, a store, orchid site, and natural trails. In Aguas Claras there is a checkpoint and a forest ranger facility. There are three natural trails: the Charco, the Camino de Plataciones and Camino de Cruces. In the protected area there is a camping area. There 105 species of mammals, 525 species of birds, 79 reptiles, 55 amphibious and 36 species of fresh water fish, so the park is an important wildlife refuge.

 

The jewels of the park are Trail el Charco in Gamboa and the bird observation sites along Pipeline Road ( Camino del Oleoducto). The Camino de Cruces also crosses the park. This was the road that the Spanish used to transport gold overland from the Pacific to their ships in the Caribbean. Part of the paved section has been restored.

The annual mean temperature is 28º C the Caribbean slopes of the park. Rugged undulating hills and steep slops prevail, with a maximum height at Cerro Calabaza (85 meters above sea level).

The Park is made up of humid forest with its impressive trees like, cotton tree (ceiba), cuipo (Cavanillesia platanifolia), mahogany and guayacan (Tabebuia guayacan). The forest contains lots of lianas, epifitas and orchids and the royal palm tress, fruit trees nance (Brysonima crassifolia), and wild plums.

Birds are particularly noteworthy here. On its best known trail, the Pipeline Road, the Audubon Society has for 19 years held consecutive world records in the annual census it organizes. 525 species of birds were recorded on just one day in 1996. Among the outstanding ones are the endangered crested eagle, the spectacular rofous-ventaul, ground- cuckoo, and colorful tragons like violaceous tragon, motmots, toucans, trogons, flycatchers, antbirds, woodpeckers, tanagers, and hawks. Among the rare bird species in the park are yellow-eared toucanets, crimson-bellied woodpeckers, sirystes, and rarely seen harpy eagles

Among the mammals you will fid jaguar, the white-tailed deer, ñeques, raccoons and herds of wild pigs. Various species of monkeys occupy the forest canopy, including the small mono titi , the evasive jujana , white-faced capuchin monkeys, mantled howler monkeys, Geoffroy's tamarins, two-toed sloths, three-toed sloths, anteaters, coatis, and agoutis. Green iguanas are also found in the park

Reptiles such as the babilus, the warty snake, amphibians such as the common toad or the salamander and fresh water fishes like the sabalo, pipon or the barbudo are to be found here

 

Portobelo National Park

Portobelo National Park is located within Colon Province. It is made up of 86,000 acres, 20% of which are marine areas. It protects both coral reef communities and coastal forest. This coastline includes important stretches of coral reefs, mangrove swamps, coastal lagoons and beautiful beaches, where every year four species of marine turtle, including the threatened hawksbill, come to nest. Within the park is one of the more beautiful natural harbors of all Caribbean, the bay of Portobelo. The fortifications that are conserved surrounding the cove were named by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1980. This means that the bay of Portobelo has been included on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Program administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage Committee, whose goal is to preserve sites of outstanding cultural or natural importance to the common heritage of humankind.