Isla Grande

The island sits just a few hundred meters off the coast in front of the fishing town of La Guaira, a 30-minute drive east of Portobelo. Isla Grande (Big Island) is a misnomer, as the island is just 3 mi long. The funky little Afro-Caribbean community along its southern shore has neither roads nor addresses, people come and go by boat, and it takes less than 30 minutes to walk from one end of the island to the other. Most of the island is quite precipitous, and hills covered with dense foliage rise up just behind town, thus visits are generally confined to the town, the small beach on the island's western tip ($3 entrance fee), or the north-shore bay where Bananas Village Resort is located.

A nicer beach with better snorkeling can be found on Isla Mamey, a short boat trip away.The main activity on Isla Grande, aside from eating and drinking, is scuba diving. Though the reefs here are in bad shape, they have a good variety of fish and other marine life. There are, however, dozens of dive spots within 20 to 60 minutes from the island by boat, including healthy coral reefs, caves, and shipwrecks.

On weekend and holidays Isla Grande can get crowded, which in Panama means noise and littering. During the week it's a ghost town, and it's sometimes tough to find a meal. About 1,000 people live on the island, surviving on a mix of fishing, farming on the mainland, and tourism. Despite their relative dependence on tourism, the people of Isla Grande are not terribly friendly. But they do a good job of preparing lobster and other local seafood. Ask at the restaurants in town if they have fufu, a seafood soup made with coconut milk, plantains, and jungle tubers such as ñame.