Punta Culebra Nature Center
On a rainy Saturday morning we headed off to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute – Punta Culebra Nature Center. Punta Culebra is a visitor center located at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal and is dedicated to exploration and discovery of the natural world through science.
There’s just something appealing about the idea of cute little poisonous frogs, right?
Although that was the main draw, there’s more to it than just some frogs. This facility includes aquarium displays, both indoor and outdoor, with a walking trail where you may potentially see sloths. I mean, we didn’t, but the signs indicate that they may be there.
The Punta Culebra Nature Center is near the end of the Amador Causeway; a short ride away from Casco Viejo and not overly far from the financial district near where we stayed.
This excursion is a good choice to be paired with a visit to the Bio Museo. All else being equal, I think I would do the Bio Museo FIRST and then come down here after getting a good overview of Panama’s biodiversity. But, that’s a decision made in hindsight. We started here and worked our way backwards towards the city.
The frog exhibit was, as I mentioned, our main focus. It’s a very educational display with knowledgeable docents who seem more than happy to answer any frog related questions you may have.
The aquarium wasn’t as interesting to us, we’ve seen far more tropical fish in our lives than poison frogs and they just aren’t as photogenic.
The center is laid out in a straight line; once through the gate you come first to the frog house, then to outdoor aquariums then finally to the indoor aquarium.
A walking trail takes off into the jungle from the far end and loops back above and behind the buildings bringing you out to the pathway just ahead of where you would enter the frog house. Which is exactly what we did, a second look at the amphibians.
Overall it was a good stop. At US$8 per adult it’s not expensive and we spent just over an hour going through the exhibits and then walking the (sadly sloth-free) jungle trail.
If you are using a ride-share service be sure you look for Punta Culebra Nature Center rather than Smithsonian Tropical Research Center. We nearly went to the wrong place. We both looked up the UBER price and got VERY different numbers so we confirmed with the driver at pickup.
That’s another general tip for Panama City, too – we frequently found pricing differences of US$0.50 or more with both of us looking for the same destination. It’s not much but even if you save just a quarter each on a dozen trips you paid for a coffee.