Cerro Punta

Home » Cerro Punta

Cerro Punta is a small city in the western highlands of Panama, in the province of Chiriquí. Cerro Punta’s altitude is 6,500 feet (2,000 metres) above sea level just south of the Continental Divide. Many of the inhabitants of the village and the surrounding areas are indigenous Native Americans. The climate, like the rest of Panama, is tropical with a short dry season and rainy season that extends about 9 months of the year. Night time temperatures are often cool due to Cerro Punta’s relatively high elevation. During the 1970s much of the land was used for cultivating strawberries; households also maintained small mixed-vegetable gardens. The village can be reached by traveling north from the Pan-American highway. It is also a 2-hour drive from Boquete, on the other side of Volcan Baru.

Cerro Punta is named after a hill with that forms which is the highest point of the village at 2300 meters. The original name Cerro de Punta, original name is credited to the Chircana poet Caval Beatriz Miranda, who taught grade school in Cerro Punta. In the 1940s in a meeting to choose the name of the town said: “Cerro Punta your name is written in your mountains.”

Economy

The economy is based on agriculture. The land is very fertile as a result of being on the slopes of a dormant volcano and the coolness and wetness resulting from the elevation. Northern Chiriqui has a different kind of weather the rest of the country, provides the enabling environment to practice a type of seed would be impossible to practice in the rest of the country because it is merely located in Central tropical, facing the Caribbean.

Tourism

Tourism has been another source of income in recent years as the region has a temperate type. It is refreshingly cold, in the more tropical country of Panama.  It’s an excellent place to visit for Panamanian nationals, as well as tourists, as one can enjoy the change of climate and different ecosystems in one day.

Ecotourism is opening up in the region, as many come to enjoy and study its climate and flora and fauna of the Parque Internacional La Amistad (La Amistad International Park between Panama and Costa Rica).  This large region has species that live only here and can be in danger of extinction. The area has ecological trails, hiking, and amazing orchid farms to visit.

Cerro Punta is also proud of horse racing with some great racehorses of Panama bred there. At temperatures between 10 and 20 °C, horses develop better lung capacity allowing these thoroughbreds to be the best in the world, winning the great classics of the country and internationally recognized awards.