Home to cowboy towns simmering with sentimental allure, the heartland of folkloric tradition beckons visitors to its festival and pockets of colonial charm. Offshore isles are prime nesting sites for marine turtles, and coastal wetlands offer prime birding.

Azuero, comprising Los Santos and Herrera Provinces, has a beguilingly enigmatic appeal wholly unique in the nation. Remarkably overlooked by tourists, this 7,616 square kilometre trapezoid of land extending into the Pacific Ocean is considered the soul of the nation. Nowhere else in the country seems as antique as Azuero, with its creaky museums, whitewashed churches, and exquisite colonial homes in calming pastels. Life moves at a nostalgic paced. The clip-clop of horses’ hooves echoes down streets lined with red-tile-roofed row houses, especially lovely at dawn and dusk, when sunlight gilds their timeworn facades.