A Practical Guide to El Valle De Anton, Panama

El Valle de Anton, also known under the shorter and more familiar name El Valle is a small village only 2.5 hours drive from the capital of Panama, Panama City.

You might think that you’ve already seen places like this before – a small town with great hiking possibilities, green hills everywhere you can see, hot pools, orchids or butterflies (these are in short things you can do in El Valle de Anton), but yet, El Valle de Anton is not the usual place.

What makes it so different is the settings of the town as El Valle was built in a volcanic crater many years ago- actually, the crater is the largest inhabited volcano crater in the world.

And the undeniable fact is, that the crater can be best appreciated from above during one of several hikes accessible from El Valle de Anton.

That’s why we have decided to focus on our three favorite hikes we did in El Valle, but we will also cover other things you can do while enjoying the greenery in the beautiful valley of Central America.

LA INDIA DORMIDA HIKE

La India Dormida was the first hike we did after quite a long time, and we could feel we were off shape since we hiked almost every day in Patagonia about two months ago.

Although the hike is short when we reached the top in less than an hour, it is quite steep.

It is a popular sunset or sunrise trek, but we did it in the afternoon when the light was flattering, and the views from the summit overlooking the crater and hills around were beautiful and exaggerated by the fact it was just two of us and two local runners in the distance.

La India Dormida Trail starts approximately 15 minutes walk from El Valle de Anton at Piedra Pinteda trailhead (you will see signs along the road leading you to the starting point).

At the beginning of all hikes, we have done in El Valle, were ticket booths, and the price written on the board was between $3 – 5, but even though we visited the area when the summer season was in full swing, there were no people around.

We assumed this was an ambitious plan, but people were not willing to pay money for every hike in the area, so they dropped the idea, but who knows.

From the trailhead, the path to the summit is straightforward. You will pass a small waterfall and continue up (there are occasionally blue arrows on stones) until you reach the main viewpoint.

The hike is supposed to be a loop, but at the entrance, there was a map with this option crossed out, so we returned the same way.

And why the name La India Dormida alias Sleeping Indian?

According to a legend, at times when Guaymi Tribe of Anton Valley fought against Spaniards, there lived a girl Luba, who fell in love with Spanish official, the enemy.

When Yaravi, a member of the tribe saw it, he killed himself because he loved Luba. The girl was torn as she did not want to betray her tribe, so in a panic, she lost herself in the mountains where she died.

When you look closely from the top, you might see a hill reminding you of a shape of lying woman’s body.

CERRO IGUANA HIKE

The Cerro Iguana Hike is equally long, or short if you will as La India Dormida hike, it takes about an hour to get to the top from where you can admire the crater and hills around from different perspective.

The hike starts at the southwest corner of El Valle de Anton: there is a path and Maps.me app will lead you to the trail’s beginning safely.

Quite a long part of the trail goes on an unpaved road, so you can also cheat a bit and skip the less interesting part.

As we didn’t have a car, we walked all the way up. You can rent a car here.

Follow the road until you reach a sign announcing the start of the trek (there is also a small concrete building on the left you must pass).

From here, the incline is actually milder, and you will enjoy the hike through a grassy land revealing the views slowly.

To get back to El Valle, you must walk the same way, but watch your steps when going downhill as stones on an unpaved road are slippery even under dry conditions.

CERRO GAITAL HIKE

The hike to Cerro Gaital was the longest (four to six hours) and the toughest we did in El Valle de Anton area. The length of this trail pretty much depends on how you decide to reach the trailhead – if on foot or by bus.

We decided on hiking, so it took us about an hour only to reach the trailhead. Use Maps.me app which proved to be reliable here.

rom the northeast corner of the village follow La Entrada del Valle road for three or four kilometers (depends on where are you staying) and then turn left (the turnoff is in the app).

In case you are not adventurous enough or don’t have time, we recommend you to take a bus as the walk from El Valle de Anton to the starting point was not that interesting, and we also had to walk through a couple of gates and private properties (luckily no strayed dogs) in order to get to the trailhead.

The other and less painful way how to reach the trailhead is by taking a local bus with a sign La Messa on the window. The ride cost $1. Ask a driver to drop you off at Cerro Gaital trailhead.

At the starting point, there is a building where you must sign in (you don’t need to pay an entrance fee as of March 2019) and claim the reason for your visit – we noticed there were several people coming for bird watching. If this is your area of interest, visit the trail early in the morning.

The first section of the trail leads through a mossy and dense forest, but it changes quickly as you will have to go through bushes for the longer part of this trek.

Getting to Cerro Gaital requires a bit of strength and physical conditions because there were sections we had to climb up using our hands or ropes.

It was not terribly difficult, but definitely challenging and we wouldn’t recommend doing this trek when wet as rocks and climbing sections could be extremely slippery.

To be honest, views from Cerro Gaital were a bit limited because of trees and bushes around, but what we enjoyed the most this time was the physical activity and the feeling we could savor the fresh air.