Cocle del Norte – Panama’s Undiscovered Carribbean Paradise!
Recently I had the chance to take a cayuco down the Cocle del Norte River down to the Atlantic and I truly believe this is one of those magical trips everyone should take in their lifetime. It ranked right up there with trekking in the Himalayas or camel riding in Morrocco.
We had radioed our cayuco driver weeks in advance to meet us in Coclecito, a 3 hour ride from the city of Panama and he was there waiting for us at 8 a.m. ready to head down the river. As you embark on his 30 foot 15 hp cayuco you know you are in for a treat. Off course your heart is pounding a bit from the thought of potential danger but just minutos off the dock you realize that this journey will be nothing short of magical.
Pretty soon you start seeing all kinds of birds including the beautiful Toucan and endless amounts of other birds I had never seen, oropendulums which create the most interesting nests, parrots, red, blue, yellow and every other color in the spectrum of birds. You also see an endless assortment of flora. Palms of all shapes and sizes including some of the largest fish tail palms i have ever seen, pixbae palms, and some which I believe were Acai palms famous for its antioxidant properties that I thought only grew in the Amazons.
On the way down the river you pass many other rivers that begin to drop into the Cocle del Norte River, including the Toabre, Cutevilla and many others which are also very beautiful and merge into the Cocle’s main river creating a spectacle of a river as you head down to the Atlantic Coast. On the banks you can enjoy many small communities some of them indigenous others just plain mountainous people that live off farming and cattle raising. We stop off at just two points to say hello to some friends, stretch a bit and grab a cold Atlas beer.
Three hours and a half later you make it into the sleepy town of Cocle del Norte, with approximately 2000 habitants, this little town is a mix of mountainous people with Caribbean flair all mainly coming from Colon. The town is very safe and the people are very friendly, we rented a house for 8 bucks a night and by 8 pm the town was mostly all sleeping.
As you awake and take a stroll on the beach, have some fish and coconut rice leftovers you embark on the same cayuco and go hit the beaches. I was impressed with the number of beaches that neighbor this town. All uninhabited but presenting a huge opportunity the day they build a road that will access this area. These beaches are lined with coconut palms and have beautiful sandy beaches. We visited some of the more closer beaches and had a great opportunity to take a few pics which you can see at our photo gallery our at: Picasaweb gallery
Many of these properties are in right of possession others, very few have titles, but they are absolutely breathtaking. We hope you will enjoy some of the pics and we will continue our story to Cocle del Norte and share with you some of the pics we took on the way back.
If you are interested in investing in property in Cocle del Norte or Panama Real Estate in areas that are great for farming and off the beaten path contact us at info@panama-experts.com or visit our website at http://panama-experts.com
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