Gamboa Sloth Sanctuary — Attraction in Cristóbal

I really enjoyed this place and was grateful to get in at the last minute. We arrived late and were still allowed to join the tour. I'm not into butterflies, but even so the garden was pretty cool. They rehabilitate several animals and release them back into the rainforest. To see 4 sloths was pretty amazing and I was heartbroken by the stories of how they were rescued, since they're orphans. We stuck around and asked some questions, which I recommend doing to fully appreciate the work they are doing here. The little souvenir shop was cute. I think we spent about 2 hours here total. If you make a reservation for a tour, make sure you are in the resort lobby on time! We drove from Panama City, no issues except a little construction on the bridge. I recommend going to the website and texting the number listed via Whatsapp to book at least one day...

Overall I love the premise but the lack of ability to plan/schedule ahead of time is a hardship. We showed up and had to wait an hour for one tour and then the other tour we wanted to do was sold out.

Also the tour we took seemed overbooked as some people couldn’t fit on the first tram to start the tour. By the time the rest of us got to the sanctuary, the tour had already started without us.

There were like 4 sloths but they were all sleep and bundled up so you didn’t see anything. The rest of the tour was a butterfly garden and some poisonous frogs. It was okay but not worth $25 USD IMO.

We did buy a few souvenirs from the gift shop as it (hopefully) goes to a worthy cause. We also had drinks while waiting for the tour to start. Drinks were good and fairly priced.

Unless you can book multiple tours ahead of time, I would...

There is a beautiful frog area with heaps of tiny poisonous frogs, then a fun lil butterfly area with lots of butterflies. Oh and several kinds of orchids. Finally, We got to see 4 sloths that cant be released into the wild due to their injuries. The guide gave lots of info on sloths and even learned why each one we saw couldnt be released. It was cool to see them hanging around, eating flowers, and one just napping under a lil blanket (as if it were cold) haha. There are more sloths at the sanctuary which are being re-habilitated and they limit human interaction. The guide said the sloths are taken in each night so they cant be attacked by predators. If you want to see sloths up close,...