Caribaro

Caribaró was the Indigenous name associated with the waters around the islands and sheltered bays of Bocas del Toro on Panama’s Caribbean coast. The archipelago lies off a mountainous mainland, with channels connecting its islands to the Chiriquí Lagoon and Almirante Bay. Christopher Columbus visited the region on his fourth voyage in 1502. The sheltered waters and nearby mainland were already inhabited by Indigenous communities whose ties extended across this island-dotted coast.