Panamá





THE PROVINCE







The province of Chiriqui is located at the west of the Republic of Panama having like limits, to the north the province of Bocas del Toro and the Ngobe Bugle Reserve, to the west the Republic of Costa Rica, to the east the province of Veraguas and to the south the Pacific Ocean.

It has a surface of 6.476,2 km2, with a population of 368.790 inhabitants (2000) who occupy 87.509 houses. Politically it is divided in 13 districts: Alanje, Barú, Boquerón, Boquete, Bugaba, David, Dolega, Gualaca, Remedios, Renacimiento, San Lorenzo, San Felix and Tolé.

Chiriquí was populated, until the arrival of the Spanish, by different indigenous tribes (changuinas, zurias, boquerones, buricas, doraces, bugabas and gualacas) grouped under the generic name of guaymíes.

Its discovery attributes to the Spanish Gaspar de Espinosa, in 1519, being created the province the 26 of May of 1849, during the time at which Panama comprised of Colombia.

Its economy is based mainly on the agricultural and cattle production, being the main food suppliers for the rest of the Republic. The tourism is beginning to take his first steps in the province that counts on sufficient attractive like becoming, in just a short time, in a destiny asked for by the national and international travellers.