Panama island offers "idyllic" and authentic surroundings
Friday, May 29, 2009Imaginative travellers looking for "idyllic" surroundings and authentic culture should head to the independent island of Kuna Yala in Panama, according to a travel journalist.
Writing for the Times, Richard Holledge described Panama as a "surprising place" where a modern city of skyscrapers sits alongside empty rainforest.
Arriving in Kuna Yala, Mr Holledge said: "Life has been carefully - and tenaciously - frozen in time."
With few places to stay on the 200-mile stretch of 365 islands that line the Caribbean coast, the islands have managed to remain "untouched, uncommercial and as soothing as you could hope", he added.
Mr Holledge said the appeal of the island was the fact that it was so different from 21st century life as facilities are simple and there is no such thing as a television in the resort.
Each island has an identity of its own, he continued, and he said Utupu is like a small "bamboo Venice".
Lonely Planet recommends travellers spend some time interacting with the natives on Kuna Yala, who are a fiercely independent people and have fought hard to maintain their traditions since the arrival of Christopher Columbus.
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