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

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

of 7,600 in the Coclé

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

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Geography

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

Environment

Because of its elevation (600 m), the area 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.

Important Bird Area

El Valle is home to around 500 species of birds. A 10,600 ha site encompassing the forests and volcanic peaks north of the town, forming the upper watersheds of several rivers, has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports significant populations of

black guan The black guan (''Chamaepetes unicolor'') is a species of bird in the chachalaca, guan, and curassow family Cracidae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The black guan shares the genus ''Chamaepetes'' with the sic ...

s, olive-sided flycatchers and

golden-winged warbler The golden-winged warbler (''Vermivora chrysoptera'') is a New World warbler. It breeds in southeastern and south-central Canada and in the Appalachian Mountains in the northeastern to north-central United States. The majority (~70%) of the globa ...

PIA03369 Perspective View with Color-Coded Shaded Relief Central Panama

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 is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

, as well as a small

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

(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, 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. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Eart ...

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, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

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. The town is about 25 km off the Interamerican Highway 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. Bill Dalton was the founder and writer of the regularly updated ''Indon ...

(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 Important Bird Areas of Panama Populated places in Coclé Province Corregimientos of Coclé Province