Santa Catalina, Panama
Santa Catalina, Panama is located on the Pacific Coast in the state of Varaguas. It is a sleep fishing community that was discovered by Panamanian surfers in the 1970's to have incredibly consistent and high quality surf. Their secret paradise was kept quiet for over 20 years until the Casa Blanca Surf Camp opened up and surfers began trekking in.
Today, visitors come from around the world to partake of the activities this tropical paradise has to offer. In addition to some of the best surfing in Central America, Santa Catalina offers world class scuba diving and fishing and is the gateway community to Coiba National Park. Coiba National Park is a 430,825 acres protected marine environment just offshore from Santa Catalina.
While the Casa Blanca has since been sold and closed, a number of surf camps and small hotels have cropped up to serve the ever growing flow of adventure tourist that visit the area each year. There are also several small open air restaurants that serve a cross section of international cuisine such as Argentinian, Italian, and of course, Panamanian.
Recent paving of the main road from Soná to Santa Catalina has made access easier, but it is still a very out of the way place and offers seclusion and relief from the easy to access overcrowed beach resorts of Latin America.
