Catering to serious birdwatchers, this ecocamp sits in the Reserva Hidrológica Filo del Tallo, a verdant secondary rainforest. Eight spacious, multiroom safari tents with wooden decks are outfitted with comfortable beds, screens, electricity and fans. Each thatched lodging is extremely private, with freestanding bathrooms equipped with open-air hot-water showers that bring the forest and its wildlife that much closer.
Guiding is top-notch, with dedicated naturalists and an onsite 1550m-long trail. For birdwatchers, a trip to the Darién is a chance to glimpse a harpy eagle or a crested eagle, in addition to poison-dart frogs, golden-headed manakins and barred puffbirds.
Sitting on 40 hectares of forest with orange, papaya, banana and soursop trees and 2km down a rough road from the Interamericana, the lodge is made sustainable by such initiatives as solar panels, wastewater treatment and composting.
In low season, lodging may be open to passers-by. The communal area/lounge has wi-fi and a library replete with Darién titles. Visitors mostly come on four- to seven-day packages that include meals, guiding and transfers from Panama City. It's between kilometer markers 247 and 248.