🇵🇦 Panama · Cordillera Central and Coclé
Penonomé is the capital of Coclé province, in the center of Panama, on the Pan-American Highway, halfway between Panama City and the west of the country. It is a historic town, briefly capital of the isthmus in the 17th century, and an important commercial and service center for the central region, as well as a crossroads toward the mountains, the river swimming spots and the beaches of Coclé.
The town is known for its Carnival, one of the most popular in Panama, famous for its 'culecos' (soakings with water), parades and its unique water Carnival on the river. Penonomé also preserves craft traditions, such as the 'pintao' hats of the Coclé region, and works as a starting point for nearby attractions such as El Valle de Antón, El Copé, mountain swimming spots and the coast.
This guide covers the essentials of Penonomé: its history and its center, the Carnival, the crafts, the natural and beach surroundings, where to sleep and eat, and how to get to and around central Panama.
Penonomé, capital of Coclé, was founded in colonial times and became, for a brief period in the 17th century, the capital of the isthmus of Panama after the destruction of the old city of Panama. Today it is a busy commercial center, the cradle of traditions such as the sombrero pintao and the home of a famous Carnival.
Read the full history ↓The central province of the 'Arco Seco', between the Pacific and the mountains: cradle of the pre-Columbian goldwork of Sitio Conte and El Caño, of Natá de los Caballeros (1522), of the crater town of El Valle and of the beaches of Farallón.
Read the history of Coclé →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The very name of Penonomé holds a tragedy. Tradition has it that it comes from 'penar a Nomé' (to punish Nomé), an Indigenous chief the Spanish are said to have executed on this spot during the conquest of the center of the isthmus. Historical truth or legend, the place name contains the founding collision of two worlds, and it foreshadows the singular role this inland town would play: that of having been, if only briefly, the capital of the entire isthmus of Panama.
Penonomé sits in the center of the isthmus, in a region, today's Coclé province, inhabited since pre-Columbian times by Indigenous societies that left a hugely rich archaeological legacy, with sites famous for their tombs, their goldwork and their ceramics. That historical depth makes Coclé one of the most archaeologically important areas in Panama.
The origin of the name 'Penonomé' is wrapped in tradition. The most widespread version links it to an Indigenous chief called Nomé who, according to the story, was executed by the Spanish on the spot; from the phrase alluding to 'penar a Nomé' the toponym is said to derive. As with many names of colonial and Indigenous origin, this is a popular etymology whose historical accuracy is hard to establish, but it forms part of local memory.
The colonial town grew as a center for the mestizo and Indigenous population of the central region, organized around the church and a farming and ranching economy. In time it established itself as the seat of Coclé and one of the main hubs of inland Panama, a role it keeps today as provincial capital.
The most celebrated episode in Penonomé's history is bound to one of the most dramatic events in Panama's colonial past: the destruction of the city of Panama (today's Panamá Viejo) in 1671 at the hands of the Welsh pirate Henry Morgan. That attack razed the isthmus's old Pacific capital, leaving the Spanish administration without its principal seat.
While the site of the new city of Panama was being decided and built, it would rise shortly afterwards on the spot of today's Casco Antiguo, Penonomé is said by historical tradition to have functioned as the provisional administrative seat of the isthmus. In that way, for a brief period, the small inland town took on a central role in colonial government, a fact it takes pride in to this day.
Beyond that interlude, Penonomé went on being an important inland hub, benefiting over time from its position on the routes crossing the center of the country. Its consolidation as capital of Coclé province reinforced its character as the commercial, administrative and cultural center of central Panama.
Penonomé and its surroundings are a focal point of traditional Panamanian culture. The Coclé region is the cradle of the 'pintao' hat, the traditional hat woven from plant fibers and decorated with dark motifs, considered a national emblem and recognized cultural heritage. Nearby villages such as La Pintada concentrate the artisan communities that keep the technique alive, and Penonomé is one of the places to buy these pieces.
The town is also famous for its Carnival, one of the busiest in the country. To the parades, the music, the 'culecos' (the characteristic soakings with water) and the crowning of queens, Penonomé adds a unique feature: its water Carnival, in which floating floats parade down the river that crosses the town, a spectacle that has become a badge of local identity and draws crowds every year.
These traditions, the craft of the sombrero pintao and the water Carnival, coexist with Penonomé's role as a busy commercial and service center for Coclé, and as a base for exploring the region's natural attractions. Colonial history, popular culture and a vocation as a crossroads all combine in the identity of this inland Panamanian capital.
Coclé province, with Penonomé as its capital, occupies a central place in the archaeology of Panama. From the start of the 20th century, sites such as Sitio Conte, on the banks of the Río Grande, excavated by expeditions from Harvard University (Peabody Museum) and the University of Pennsylvania between the 1930s and the 1940s, revealed a rich pre-Columbian heritage: elite tombs with grave goods of worked gold (pectorals, bracelets, ear ornaments), polychrome ceramics of great artistic quality and objects attesting to complex, stratified chiefdom societies that inhabited the region roughly between the 8th and 11th centuries, long before the Spanish arrival.
Those finds placed the so-called 'Coclé culture' or Gran Coclé among the most studied ceramic and goldworking styles in the whole American intermediate area (the belt connecting Mesoamerica and the Andes), with an iconographic style of its own, stylized animals, mythical beings and geometric motifs, that specialists recognize instantly. Many of those pieces are displayed today in museums in Panama and abroad, including the Peabody Museum itself in the United States, and their departure from the country has also fuelled long-running debates about the looting and repatriation of archaeological heritage.
The Museum of Penonomeño History and Tradition, in the town center, gathers part of that legacy and sets it in dialogue with the region's colonial and republican history, offering visitors an accessible summary of Coclé's historical depth, often overshadowed by the prominence of the capital and the Canal in the country's tourist narratives.
Over recent decades, Penonomé's position on the Pan-American Highway, halfway between Panama City and the western provinces, has cemented its role as a crossroads and as the logistical and commercial center of the country's interior. The growth of road transport, better road infrastructure and the development of domestic tourism brought in shops, banks, hotels and services that today make the town a convenient base for exploring the central region.
At the same time, the closeness of attractions such as El Valle de Antón (a town set in a volcanic crater, with hot springs and biodiversity), Omar Torrijos National Park at El Copé (cloud forest) and the beaches of Santa Clara and Farallón on the Pacific has made Penonomé a common starting point for circuits combining mountains, nature and coast in a few days.
That vocation as a crossroads, along with the persistence of traditions such as the water Carnival and the craft of the sombrero pintao, defines today's Penonomé: a town that looks both to its colonial and pre-Columbian past and to its practical role in the tourism and economy of contemporary inland Panama.