Panama’s historic towns and wild islands

Most tourists in Panama focus on its “storied” canal and resort towns such as Bocas del Toro. But this Central American country – a narrow isthmus stretching for 500 miles between Costa Rica (to the west) and Colombia (to the east) – offers far more to interest the curious traveller, said David Amsden in Condé Nast Traveller.

The canal, which was completed in 1914, bisects the country at its midpoint, where it is narrowest (at a mere 37 miles across). And set beside the Pacific coast at...