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How I did it: If you want to see rain forests, but you're apprehensive about traveling, go to Panama. Panama is one of the (if not the) wealthiest, safest places in Central America. People often say that going to Panama is like going to Miami... except with less crime and fewer hurricanes.
A lot of Panama is fairly built up, but there are still some extraordinary national parks and wildlife reserves.
Gamboa is great as far as wildlife goes. There's all sorts of trails and tours. It's right on the Panama Canal/Chagres River. They have made a very conscious effort to keep things natural and preserve as much of the forest as possible. You can see all sorts of things without even looking!
If you really want to see the forest, without any of the people, Darien National Parque is probably your best bet. Be careful if you're going there though, it can be dangerous. Certain areas are hotspots for narco-traffickers or Columbian paramilitary troops.
That being said, the Darien is absolutely phenomenal! People have gone there and seen more in three days than in three weeks in the Amazon. It is forest so dense that they could not pave a road through it. The Darien Gap accounts for the only break in the Panamerican Highway between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego. It is some of the densest jungle in the world! ('Though more and more of it is being cut down every day, sadly.)
Bottom line? If you want to go to the Darien, by all means do! But make sure you do your homework first. Know where you're going and what to expect. Enjoy it for what it is. Take precautions and be safe. Read how I did it… 2 years ago
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I feel at home in the jungle. You can say it is one of my passions. I prefer to call it a rainforest because sometimes jungle also infers to someplace dark and nasty. The rainforest is neither dark, nor nasty. Even though only 2% of sunlight reaches the forest floor in a jungle/rainforest, you can see clearly when you are in it. It is also pretty much devoid of mosquitos and other nasty bugs. It is when you are on the fringe of the forest, on perturbed land, especially if there is and abundance of farm animals, that you find plenty of mosquitos and no-see-ums.
When you are deep in the jungle, especially in primary jungle, the ground is wide open and you can easilly walk in any direction you want. Only when you get to a place where a tree has recently fallen do you come to a mess of vegetation that makes passage difficult. But it is often easy enough to go around the tangle of new vegetation looking to fill up the gap in the forest canopy. The jungle is often portrayed as impenetrable because its edges are difficult to get through.
Also, secondary rainforest is messy. But that is because it is still in the growing phase and the forest canopy is not completely closed. In primary rainforests, the canopy is really high, upwards of a hundred feet, and you feel like in a cathedral. I go to the jungle to find my religion, and I feel close to God when I am deep in it. 5 years ago
