A luxury Bed & Breakfast is now available in Panama at "La Cresta de Oro" which opened for business on April 1st. They offer four spacious, air conditioned guest rooms ranging from $75 to $99 per night. Prices include local phone access, high speed internet, made-to-order breakfast, daily wine and appetizers, pool and beautiful grounds. Pets are welcome – a big attraction for the increasing number of visitors arriving with pets in tow (an average of five per day according to Tocumen´s quarantine vet).

Owner and chef, Jennifer King is justifiably proud of her establishment. “You would never guess this mansion is in the city, it is so quiet here” she says. "yet you can grab a taxi and be anywhere in minutes".

Although they appear at first glance to be at opposite ends of the nature spectrum, a golf community developer and a major ecological park have joined hands to the benefit of both.

EcoParque Panama, a 930-acre tropical forest preserve in the former Canal Zone, borders Tucán Country Club, a 180-acre private golf community. The preserve's caretakers, a consortium of scientific organizations funded mainly by the Northeast Panama Rotary Club and the Panamerican Conservation Association, have agreed to advise developer Dinesh Vaswani and his team, whose goal is to build a community compatible with the surrounding habitat.

In return, Vaswani has committed to help EcoParque raise additional funds for its educational and outreach programs, as well as assisting in carrying its message to both Panama and its visiting tourists.

"We have a rich biodiversity here," said Nestor J. Correa, EcoParque's Executive Director, "with thousands of plant and animal species. The overhead canopy covers more than 90 per cent of the preserve, with eight different types of vegetation. And we're still discovering more species every day."

EcoParque Panama's plans call for the creation of a visitors' interpretive center, nature walks and trails, a butterfly compound, camping areas and other amenities allowing visitors of all ages to see what a tropical forest is all about.

Tucán itself is a major reclamation project - the golf course, villas, condos and clubhouse are being built on the site of what once was a U. S. military golf club. The course is expected to open late this summer, and the first condominium units will be completed in the fall.

"We are putting every possible conservation measure into our development," Vaswani said. "We have made it clear to everyone that Tucán will be a model of sustainable development for Panama."

Among Tucán's conservation elements:

• Using recycled water to irrigate the golf course and landscape.
• Using "grey" water from the sewage treatment plant.
• Using lakes and lagoons to collect fairway runoff, and recycle the water again.
• Using Seashore Paspalum grass, which grows in salt water and waste water SeaIsle 1 on fairways, SeaIsle 2 on greens).
• Instead of extensive herbicides, will control weeds with salt water.
• Will attract local fauna with fruit trees and feeders throughout the course and community.
• Will control ants with anteaters and coatimundi ("They call coatimundi 'gato solos', but the fact is they almost always travel in groups," Vaswani laughed.)

Mr. Correa has begun an animal rescue service, with injured sloths, monkeys, anteaters, macaws and even a small boa constrictor. With support from the Institute for Neotropical Conservation, the USDA Forest Service International Institute of Tropical Forestry, and Southern Illinois University, the Panamerican Conservation Association is conducting wildlife inventories with digital cameras which take pictures of nocturnal animals who feed only after dark. A coyote recently found his way in front of the camera - a species previously undocumented in the area.

"With the help of people like Dinesh and his company, we hope to make EcoParque Panama a major attraction for visiting tourists - especially children," Mr. Correa explained. "It is our goal to benefit the country through assisting in the proper development of the former Canal Zone, by bringing in eco-tourist groups, and by raising the consciousness of everyone concerning the importance of preserving our natural heritage."