The British tour operator Black Tomato is interested in promoting Panama as an adventure destination in the United Kingdom.

At the recent World Travel Market in London, Panamanian authorities met with executives to lay the groundwork for an agreement that would come into effect in the first trimester of 2013.

The blessed land of Panama offers sea lovers the opportunity to enjoy a voyage past our shores in the company of our ocean host, the dolphin. This majestic species is admired for its nobility, charisma and spirit of dance, which they use along with a group of sounds to communicate and orient themselves.

We invite you to participate in this great experience in places like

• The Dutch Keys located in San Blas

• Coiba National Park

• Bocas del Toro and the Pearl Islands

• Tropical areas with crystal-clear water

• Reefs that show the virtue and majesty of the oceans that bathe Panama's borders.

Tour operators recommend visiting during the months of July to October for the peak seasonal journeys.

Visitpanama.com has made available the following directory of tourism services that you can contact for more information:

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Renowned for its design and strategic location, we can enjoy the Biomuseum. This internationally recognized site has been heavily visited in the first phase of construction. It will offer its visitors a colorful journey through each of the galleries that represent a fundamental basis of the biodiversity on our isthmus. The museum meets the need to raise ecological awareness and create environmental values based on what our natural environment gives us, an unparalleled abundance of life.

The Bridge of Life building will be located in the Amador area of Panama City, at the end of a causeway at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. This privileged location is only blocks away from the Flamenco Yacht Club and Marina port, and is just minutes from the National Sovereignty Park.

The Biomuseum, created for everyone as a center of attraction, offers the following exhibitions: Biodiversity Gallery, Panamarama, The Bridge Appears, The Great Interchange, The Web of Life, Divided Oceans and Panama is the Museum.

Biodiversity Gallery: The first exhibition gallery provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts, as well as the focus of the museum design. It is both a trail and exhibition. Visitors are introduced to the project of Natural Science.

Panamarama: At the end of the Biodiversity Gallery there is an acoustic passageway that blocks the light and leads to a three stories high projection space with 14 screens. Visitors walk over a glass floor and are immersed in an audiovisual presentation of the natural wonders of Panama, from the depths of its oceans up to its montane cloud forests.

The Bridge Appears: The Earth's forces that joined and lead to the formation of the isthmus are shown in a tangible and vigorous way. Three compositions of rock that are 14 meters high explode upwards towards an uneven roof. Each composition consists of probing samples that were collected across the Isthmus and that vividly describe the hidden forces of subduction, volcanism and sedimentation that united to create the isthmus.

The Great Interchange: Departing the tectonic formation, the gallery opens dramatically to reveal a stampede of animal sculptures of all shapes and sizes that runs both towards and away from the vantage point of the visitors. At the very top, birds fly around a skylight, while the curved panoramic walls are covered with mosaics of plants and insects.

The Web of Life: Shapes that roll and fold up, slightly familiar but on an enormous scale, extend out to the very end of the Divided Oceans gallery. This is the visitor's introduction to the Web of Life, a gallery where the pyramid of life is inverted and humans are at the bottom.

Divided Oceans: What is really astonishing is a pair of two story tall semi-cylindrical aquariums. The environments of the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea are designed within each tank to dramatically display the divergent aquatic environments. Species of fish, crustaceans, molluscs and plants have been selected to clearly demonstrate the differences between the two marine environments. Scuba divers will be able to dive into the tanks to give live presentations.

Panama is the Museum: Here museum visitors are encouraged to explore the relationship between Panama and the world, using interactive information, live reactions and connections to virtual and physical environments. The exhibition is an open and bright space enveloped in light, color and texture, that creates an excess of information for visitors.

Opening Hours:

From 12:00 to 5:00 pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

At 1:00 pm a construction tour. It is advisable to wear long pants and tennis shoes to enter.

Important: the entrance to the under 18 not permitted

At 2:00 pm a presentation on “How Panama Changed the World”.

Important note: if you log-in on the website, no entrance fee is charged.

Entrance fees:

Adults B/.2.00

Senior citizens, students (present student ID) and children pay only B/.1.00

Friends of the Biomuseum enter free of charge.

What I can do at the Visitor Center?

• See what the final design of the Biomuseum will look like from Frank Gehry's scale models

• Discover what each of the eight galleries will be like

• Take a survey on the gallery designs to help us create a better Biomuseum for everyone

• Support the Biomuseum's educational and cultural programs by purchasing books, graphic information, calendars and souvenirs

• Show your friends, family and visitors where will be the funnest place in Panama to learn about biodiversity

• Become a Founding Friend of the Biomuseum and form part of a historic project

Learn more!

http://www.biomuseopanama.org/

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Panama is a quintessential marine country, whose history and economy have long been linked to the sea. It has coasts on the Caribbean (1,207 km) and the Pacific (1,700.6 km) Oceans. This privileged geographic condition has generated important marine and coastal areas with such terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems as mangroves, beaches and coral reefs, that form incredible underwater landscapes of submarine flora and fauna on both coasts.

On the Panamanian Caribbean Sea submarine specialists are astonished by the extraordinary underwater beauty,

The North and South Zapatillas Keys in the province of Bocas del Toro, part of the Bastimentos Island National Marine Park,

The waters nearby Old Point,

Hospital Point

Donato

Crawl Cay

Stern Island

Tiger Cay

Wild Cane Cay and East Water Cay.

On Colón Island, tour operators provide the necessary equipment and guides to safely practice this activity. Here you can go diving year-round.

The San Blas Archipelago is famous worldwide for its beautiful islands formed of coral and crystal clear waters, that make diving and snorkeling the main activities performed in this place. The best months for diving are April, May, November and December.

Portobelo Bay, Mamey Island and Big Island are meeting places for divers and snorkelers. Diving in these waters, awash in history from pirates and corsairs of the seventeenth century, can turn into a grand adventure. These waters were the scene of stormy battles, and the underwater grave for the famous pirate Sir Francis Drake, tossed into the sea in a lead coffin. The best months for diving are in April and May, and in November and December.

In the Pacific Ocean there are large stretches of underwater beauty, like at Coiba Island, in Coiba National Park, where the largest coral reef on the Pacific coast of Central America converts the area into a vast natural aquarium. Another possibility is to visit the Gulf of Chiriquí Marine National Park, where going tankless diving or snorkeling is an emotional journey, like in a multicolor fishbowl, but with large species like whales and dolphins. In these two areas, the best diving is had during the months of December to March.

The Contadora and Taboga Islands in the Pearl Islands Archipelago are the closest sites to Panama City for diving. These islands offer all the facilities for diving with or without a tank.

The coral reefs at Iguana Island Wildlife Refuge are perfectly conserved, creating ideal conditions to easily observe at shallow depths and making it an excellent and calm place for diving.

The waters near the Panama Canal, specifically in the Gatun and Alajuela lakes, are a globally unique diving destination. Diving here may become quite a different experience, because the appeal is to peer into the depths to seek out the ruins of the first pan-isthmian train and the ancient dredges that excavated the Canal bed.

 

For more information

Tourist Services

 

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If you ever imagined yourself gliding down the rapids of a river, this is the best time to do it in Panama. One of the main characteristics of the geography of the Isthmus is its tracts of tropical forests, cut through by an enormous number of rivers that flow on long and steep courses. Several of these create rapids, setting the ideal scene for river rafting.

 

Take advantage of the natural environment to get some exercise with a day of adventure on Gatún Lake. Enjoy paddling a kayak around the Panama Canal, where you can watch from water level as the enormous vessels pass by. You can also paddle by and get close to the diverse animal species that inhabit this lush place.

Panama is a country with over 10 thousand years of history, represented in its monuments and archaeological sites, with cultural features from the four continents that intermix to form just one.

Learn about Panama and discover its history. Check out this brief list of some of the museums in the interior provinces of the country.

Typical Panamanian handicrafts originated in the period of the Spanish conquest, by exploiting their faith and the use of the workable materials to modify their artistic expression. As motivators of art, friars responded to philosophical liturgical concepts or rituals, elements that have been common across time in all the villages of Panama.

The Interoceanic Canal Museum of Panama, commonly known as the Canal Museum, is a public and non-profit museum located in Panama City. It is dedicated to preserve, research and display the testimonies of the history of the Panama Canal. Its headquarters is in a building located in Independence Square, in the old quarter of the city, in the township of San Felipe. The idea for the new museum was conceived in 1996, when the board that oversees its activities decided to rehabilitate the building where it was housed, which dates to 1874. It reopened on September 9, 1997, in honor of the Universal Conference of the Canal.

To dine with a view of the ships passing through the locks of the Panama Canal, we invite you to the Miraflores Restaurant and Bar. Located next to the Miraflores Locks, on the first floor of the visitor's center, the Miraflores Restaurant offers its diners a delicious variety of seafood and fusion dishes. A fabulous executive buffet is available for your business meetings in the evening, with an excellent panoramic view of the progress in the widening of the Panama Canal. The restaurant is managed by the Hotel El Panama.