Sloth in rainforest Panama Magnet

Darién National Park is Panama’s largest and most remote protected area, covering nearly 5,800 square kilometers of dense rainforest along the border with Colombia. Designated both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve, it contains a vast mosaic of lowland jungle, rivers, mangroves, and mountain ranges that form part of the famed Darién Gap—the only break in the Pan-American Highway. Its isolation has helped preserve extraordinary biodiversity and traditional Indigenous cultures. The park is home to iconic wildlife such as harpy eagles, Baird’s tapirs, jaguars, giant anteaters, and several monkey species. Birdwatchers prize it for hundreds of species found nowhere else in Central America, while adventurous visitors trek or boat with local Emberá and Wounaan guides along rivers like the Tuira and Chucunaque. Access is challenging—typically by charter flight or multi-day boat trip—which keeps visitor numbers low but rewards those who venture in with one of the richest wilderness experiences in the Americas.