El Valle de Antón, generally called El Valle, or Anton's Valley in English, is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

of 7,600 in the Coclé

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

Geography

PIA03369 Perspective View with Color-Coded Shaded Relief Central Panama

The town is located in the flat wide caldera of the 6 km wide El Valle volcano that is inactive; there is evidence that it erupted as recently as about 300,000 years ago Because of its elevation (600 m), it is cooler than the Panamanian lowlands.Friar, p. 226. Natural attractions near El Valle include the Chorro El Macho waterfall, Las Mozas waterfall, the "square" trees behind Hotel Campestre, and a group of small thermal pools (which consist of three cement pools of mineralized water that varies in color depending on the specific minerals present at a given moment). The area around the town is also known for being one of the last habitats of the critically endangered

Panamanian golden frog The Panamanian golden frog (''Atelopus zeteki''), also known as Cerro Campana stubfoot toad and other names, is a species of toad endemic to Panama. Panamanian golden frogs inhabit the streams along the mountainous slopes of the Cordilleran cloud ...

. Some of the forests around the town are protected areas.

Demographics

El Valle had a population of 7,602 as of 2010. In 2000 its population was 6,175; in 1990 it was 4,900.

Features

El Valle has one main road, called Avenida Central or Calle Central, which runs east–west across the town. A main landmark is the town's public market, which is open seven days a week, although it is sometimes referred to as El Valle's Sunday Market. El Valle has a very small historical and geological

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

, as well as a small

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for Conservation biology, conservation purposes. The term ''zoological g ...

(El Nispero, named after a type of tree), a small

serpentarium A herpetarium is a zoological exhibition space for reptiles and amphibians, most commonly a dedicated area of a larger zoo. A herpetarium which specializes in snakes is an ophidiarium or serpentarium, which are more common as stand-alone entiti ...

a butterfly house
and an orchid conservation center, called

APROVACA APROVACA (Spanish ''Asociación de Productores de Orquídeas de El Valle y Cabuya'') is a non-profit organization established to conserve and protect native orchids in El Valle de Antón, Panama. The organization was founded on May 15, 2001 with t ...

, which displays over 100 native local

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

species. There are also several petroglyphs west of town that are known as La Piedra Pintada. Some of the people who own properties in the heart of El Valle are wealthy people from

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

who use the area as their vacation or weekend home.Friar, p. 230. Popular activities in the area include cycling, hiking, horseback riding, and birdwatching. El Valle is home to around 500 species of birds. The town is about 25 km off the

Interamerican Highway The Inter-American Highway (IAH) is the Central American section of the Pan-American Highway and spans between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Panama City, Panama. History The idea of a road being built across all of Central America became a tangible ...

by a two-lane road. The road is generally in good condition, with a few potholes that are repaired regularly. Buses, usually mini-buses, to

are frequent and take approximately 2.5 hours. As of 2014, the last direct bus to Panama City leaves El Valle at 3pm with a fare of $4.25. To reach other locations in Panama, it is generally necessary to take a bus to San Carlos and transfer there. As of 2014, the last bus from El Valle to San Carlos leaves at 6pm.Friar, p. 236.

Sources

Notes

Works cited

*Friar, William. ''Panama''.

Moon Publications Moon is a travel guidebook publisher founded in 1973 in Chico, California. The company started with travel guides to Asia and later also published guides to the Americas. The company is now based in Berkeley, California and published by Avalon T ...

(2008). . *Reid, Robert et al. ''Central America on a shoestring''. Lonely Planet (2007). .

External links

Official Website of Anton's Valley Chamber of Tourism

Official Website of El Valle

Website of El Valle de Anton

{{DEFAULTSORT:El Valle de Anton Populated places in Coclé Province Corregimientos of Coclé Province