playa venao, pa

Alright so this may be the quickest and harshest overview of any place that I have talked about on this website. Playa Venao for me, is the worst place that I went in Panama. It's a vapid, overly and rapidly developed, whitewashed and cultureless example of exactly what is becoming so overtly wrong with the backpacking industry all over the world. I drove through the place during my time exploring the wild and free pacific coast and when I arrived is was an entirely flattened bay that was prepped for development of the most egregious kind. Shipping containers with building supplies filled dirt lots that were once fields of trees. Garden style apartment complexes were being constructed that made the place more resemblance of an American suburb than a beach paradise in Panama. The waves are just fine, and I'm sure they get good every once in a while but for God's sake just go somewhere else. It's also extremely expensive, hot, and generally not that pretty compared to the rest of Panama, let alone the Pacific Coast.  If you take my advice for it, skip Playa Venao. The birthplace of the death star, or Selina, is here in Playa Venao with the first one ever being here. There are better things to do with your time, like go and support the lovely nearby Santa Catalina. Don't let the pretty pictures fool you!!