La India Dormida: The Most Stunning View in Panama
- Cecilia Markley
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
Published on Travelbinger
The Panamanian legend of La India Dormida (The Sleeping Indian Girl) tells of a beautiful indigenous girl, Flor del Aire, who fell in love with a Spanish conquistador. Flor was the daughter of the great chief Urracá, who was fighting the conquistadors, so this love was forbidden. Yaraví, a great indigenous warrior, loved Flor, and took his own life due to Flor’s rejection.
Overcome with grief and regret at having betrayed her people and caused Yaraví’s death, Flor fled to the mountains, where she died. The mountains are said to have taken the shape of Flor, which is why the mountains in the small town of El Valle de Anton appear to look like a woman laying on her side.
El Valle de Anton doesn’t have a famous canal like Panama City, or starfish and crystal-clear beaches like Bocas del Toro, or the adventure tourism of the mountain-town Boquete. However, El Valle topped my list for favorite place in Panama for one primary reason: the view at the top of La India Dormida.
El Valle de Anton: A Small Town Near Panama City
Near the end of our Central America backpacking journey, between visiting Boquete, a town in the highlands of western Panama, and Panama City, we stopped in El Valle de Anton. To get there from Boquete, we went to David and then took a bus headed for Panama City. We had to get off the bus in the town of Las Uvas and wait for a colectivo, a popular form of transportation in Central America, typically a minivan, truck or small bus with fixed routes and flexible stops. Colectivos pack in as many people as possible to keep the costs low, so each one that went by, already overflowing with people, could only fit a few more of those waiting at our stop. By nightfall, we ended up sharing a taxi to town with a local.
El Valle de Anton is a quaint town with a population of around 8,000. The town is unique because it sits at the center of a crater of the extinct volcano El Valle, meaning when you are in the town you are literally staying in a volcano’s crater. Walking along the main road in town, we were surrounded by mountains and cloud forest.
The main reason we came was to hike La India Dormida, but El Valle de Anton has so much to offer even beyond this fantastic hike. Had we not been on a time crunch to catch our flight in Panama City, we would have stayed longer to relax in the hot springs, visit the butterfly sanctuary and hike some more.
My biggest regret was missing out on visiting the nonprofit El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center, where for less than $5 you can see the critically endangered Panamanian golden frog. Unfortunately, the center is closed on Thursdays, which is when we had to catch our bus to the city.
Hiking La India Dormida
Many who have done the hike recommend leaving extremely early if you want to make it to the top for sunrise, but, as we did not want to do a hike in the dark without a guide, we left later in the day, around 10:30 a.m. With hindsight, it worked out perfectly, as we enjoyed a lunch alone at the viewpoint and hiked back down just as it began to rain.
We opted to walk to the park rather than pay a few dollars for a taxi, so we left our hostel on one edge of town and enjoyed a 45-minute leisurely walk to the park entrance at the other side of town. The park entry fee was $3 per person. The hike itself took us around three hours.
There are various hiking trails to choose from to get to the summit, as well as trails that take you even further along the summit of the mountain than we went. We chose to go in a figure-8 loop to have a more scenic route of the mountain on our way up. We began by walking by La Piedra Pintada, or the Painted Stone, a petroglyph-covered boulder that a teacher was describing to a group of schoolchildren. From there, we passed several waterfalls, including Salto del Sapo, where hikers can wet rappel down the waterfall into the water below.
The first part of the hike, before the trail splits into two paths, you walk on stone steps. This part is well maintained, but, particularly around where the waterfalls were, the ground was quite muddy and slippery with dense, cloud forest vegetation. We passed a family with two children coming down, the mother slipping in sandals that were coated in mud, and I remember being glad I wore my hiking shoes.
When the trail came to a split, we chose to go to the right to take the more scenic route. At this point, we were past the wet, cloud forest area and stone steps, and the trail transitioned to mud. This middle part of the hike was less slippery. At some point we accidentally made a wrong turn and ended up on a local farm, until the owner kindly pointed us in the right direction back onto the trail. After another 45 minutes of steep terrain, the hike suddenly flattened out and we emerged on top of a series of rolling hills.
Making It to the Top
We made it to the top at midday. We were warned that it would be windy and chilly, but as it was the middle of the day and the sun was beating down, we did not need the jackets we had brought. We walked along the green, rolling hills for a few minutes until we reached a point where, standing on gray rock surrounded by lush grass and vegetation, I looked to my left to see a sharp drop-off and to my right I saw mountains that seemed to never end.
We continued on for five more minutes along the rolling hills to the summit. I was shocked with how isolated we were. It was the middle of the day, and there were just two other people at the top. We sat on a rock and took some pictures until they left, leaving the lone bench that sits at the top of the mountain free for us to use while we ate and enjoyed the 360-degree view of the swelling terrain in solitude. From the top, we were able to see clearly that the town below us sat in the middle of a volcanic crater.
The View From the Top
It is honestly difficult to describe what the experience from the top of La India Dormida is like. The photos certainly capture much of its beauty, but to truly grasp its magnificence, it has to be experienced firsthand.
We stayed at the summit for an hour just taking it all in. You can choose to hike further along the rolling hills to a cross that can be seen from the summit and down from there, but we opted to return after taking in the view. The hike back to the park entrance was about 45 minutes. It began to pour down rain right before we got back to the waterfalls, so our rain jackets came in handy. We opted to take a taxi back to the hostel rather than endure the rain on the walk back and spent the evening relaxing and reflecting on the perfect day we had.
Visiting El Valle de Anton is a must for anyone planning to visit Panama, and for lovers of hiking who can handle a moderate hike, the view from the top of La India Dormida is breathtaking.
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