El Valle de Antón

From the Valley rim one can see that
El Valle was once a volcanic caldera

Canopy Lodge is set in a verdant canyon just above El Valle de Antón, also known as Crater Valley, 57 miles outside of Panama City. It takes three nights to experience the forest around the Lodge and two more for the complementary habitats of the region. There is also a museum, mud baths and a small zoo in the neighboring village nestled in the caldera of an extinct volcano that exploded 5 million years ago. The scenery is quite unique -- a steep valley surrounded by jagged peaks and filled with flowers, streams and verdant forests. For Panamanians, this is a "secret getaway."

Your home here is the newly-constructed Canopy Lodge, sister to the Canopy Tower, a charming small hotel built next to a lovely mountain stream and adjacent to the protected area of Cerro Gaital Natural Monument. In the gardens surrounding the lodge species such as the Crimson-backed, Blue-gray, Dusky-faced and Plain-colored Tanagers, Social Flycatcher, Ruddy-ground Dove, Barred Antshrike, Yellow-faced Grassquit, Rufous-tailed, Violet-capped Hummingbirds, and Clay Colored Robin are readily seen.

On Sundays, El Valle's bustling "Sunday Market" fills with artisans who come down to town from the surrounding mountains to sell their goods. The El Valle Sunday Market is considered one of the best supplied in the region. This will be an excellent opportunity to buy local handicraft directly from the "manufacturer." Prices are usually negotiable. There are ceramics, bateas (wooden trays), woven baskets, hats, carved and painted totumas (cups made from squash) and trinkets made from acorn, as well as vegetables, fruits, ornamental plants, flowers, and orchids.

For a bit of El Valle History, click here
El Valle Geology

For a sample three day itinerary
to Canopy Lodge, click here.

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