Spend an adventurous week exploring a UNESCO world heritage site, an indigenous community and The Mamoní Valley Preserve in Panama!
Upon arrival in Panama City, you will be transported to a one-night stay in Casco Antiguo, a UNESCO world heritage site, and spend the night in a hotel that offers the perfect blend of colonial-era charm and modern comfort in an area surrounded by lovely views of colonial buildings.
After that, your two-night expedition takes you into the Chagres National Park, to the remote jungle communities of the indigenous Emberá Ẽjuä So territory. You will paddle in a traditional dugout canoe and hike into the primary rainforest to a waterfall and one of Panama’s most charming communities to experience the beauty of their natural environment and learn from their traditions. You’ll enjoy some of their traditional meals and explore the source of the most important river in Panama and historic routes of the Camino Real, the colonial route where gold and silver were carried through the Isthmus during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.
Transition from the Embera community to the rainforest campus, Centro Mamoní, which is an off-grid facility in the Mamoní Valley Preserve where students, interns, researchers, and adventure-seekers like yourselves help us achieve the goal of becoming 100% self-sufficient.
For these three nights, you will stay at their lodge that is sustainably powered, with cabañas and hand-crafted furnishings built from locally salvaged hardwoods. The cabañas are distinctive, open-air raised structures equipped with plush beds, showers, flush toilets, and electricity— conveniently connected to the outside world via WiFi.
While in Mamoní, enjoy fresh meals containing organic locally grown ingredients in their open-air dining area. During down-time, lounge peacefully in a hammock while hummingbirds fly overhead, and swim laps in the 25m length stream-fed natural pool. Enjoy activities such as a horseback ride to a local community, an interpretive rainforest hike to the top of the continental divide, and their Junglewood falls Mamoní river site offering a dramatic rock formation and cauldron of water.