Traffic eases as I turn off the Panama Canal highway toward Gamboa. Most cars continue into the interior. The Gamboa road deteriorates, but at least I am enveloped in jungle green and silence.
The rainforest of Soberanía National Park is home to caymans, crocodiles, iguanas, and several hundred bird species. Located next to the Panama Canal, in the 16th century the Las Cruces Trail (Camino de Cruces) lead through this part of the jungle, used by the Spanish to transport gold across the isthmus to Portobelo, the Spanish port on the Caribbean whence they shipped the loot home to motherland.
Built 110 years ago to house employees of the Panama Canal and their dependents, Gamboa today is a quiet outpost, a gateway to the Soberania National Park.