2 Best Sights in The Canal and Central Panama, Panama

The wilderness just behind the Fuerte San Lorenzo is part of Parque Nacional San Lorenzo, a 23,843-acre (9,653-hectare) protected area that includes rain forest, wetlands, rivers, and coastline. For decades this was the U.S. Army's jungle training area, where tens of thousands of troops trained for warfare in the tropics. The army used parts of the park as a bombing range, and there may still be unexploded ordnance in its interior, though far from the roads and fortress. Today the park is the haunt of bird-watchers, who hope to focus their binoculars on some of the more than 400 bird species. Mammalian residents include spider monkey, armadillo, tamarin, and coatimundi. The lush forest here gets nearly twice as much rain as Panama City, and it doesn't lose as much of its foliage during the dry season. Most of that rain falls at night, so mornings are often sunny, even during the rainy season.

The most famous bird-watching area in Parque Nacional San Lorenzo is Achiote Road (Camino a Achiote), which is about 25 km (15 miles) south of the fort. To reach it, turn left after crossing the locks and drive 15 km (9 miles) south. Members of the Panama Audubon Society once counted 340 bird species in one day on Achiote Road during their Christmas bird count. The community of Achiote, about 4 km (2½ miles) northwest of the park on Achiote Road, has trained birding guides and a visitor center, the Centro del Tucan, with rustic shared, dormitory-style accommodations for $12 a night, as well as private cabins at prices that vary according to the season .

Trails into the Parque Nacional Soberanía wilderness can be reached by public bus, taxi, or by driving the mere 25 km (15 miles) from downtown Panama City, though you are best off visiting the park on a guided tour. Those trails wind past the trunks and buttress roots of massive kapok and strangler fig trees and the twisted stalks of lianas dangling from their high branches. Though visitors can expect to see only a small sampling of its wildlife, the park is home to more than 500 bird species and more than 100 different mammals, including such endangered species as the elusive jaguar and the ocelot.

If you hike some of the park's trails, you run a good chance of seeing white-faced capuchin monkeys, tamandua anteaters, raccoon-like coatimundi, or the large rodents called agouti. You may also see iridescent blue morpho butterflies, green iguanas, leafcutter ants, and other interesting critters. On any given morning here you might see dozens of spectacular birds, such as red-lored parrots, collared aracaris, violaceous trogons, and purple-throated fruit crows. From November to April the native bird population is augmented by the dozens of migrant species that winter in the park, among them the scarlet tanager, Kentucky warbler, and Louisiana water thrush. It is the combination of native and migrant bird species, plus the ocean birds along the nearby canal, that have enabled the Panama Audubon Society to set the Christmas bird count world record for two decades straight.