About Pixvae

Pixvae is located 44 km SW of the agricultural town of Sona. A steep, winding gravel road connects Pixvae to civilization, a journey of around 2 hours in a four-wheel drive car.  Access via boat from several points on the coast is also possible.  We can arrange and or assist with all you transportation to and from Pixvae.

Forming part of the “Buffer Zone” of the Coiba National Park. Pixvae, is a safe, quiet and organized remote fishing village located at the head of a protected, western facing, crescent shaped bay, lined with an extensive golden sand beach. The village has a population of around 400 residents. 

Pixvae and this remote coastline are almost completely off the tourism “Radar Screen” This area boasts beautiful islands and beaches and is without doubt the closest point on the coast to access the natural jewel of the Coiba National Park. 

Precipitous, high hills adorned with dense tropical forests form the backdrop to Pixvae and provide some of the last intact habitat for a wide variety of this regions flora and fauna. Four small rivers plunge from these steep slopes into the alluvial plains and extensive mangroves forests on the coast.

To this day, the horse is still the principal and vital form of transport here. Subsistence farming and sustainable fishing are almost the only form of income for the 300+ habitants of Pixvae.

The village was first established at the start of the 19th century, with the growing numbers of Free Divers arriving to the area to harvest the regions rich and lucrative Oyster beds in their hunt for Pearls. 

Pixvae became a divers village! Pearl diving engendered a host of beliefs. The sea and the sky were always full of omens!  The air was heavy with stories of encounters with sirens, monsters of the deep and tales of the bravery and the ability of the divers to dive to incredible depths without even a facemask!

By the 1920’s, even the rich oyster beds around Coiba Island were exhausted from over fishing. A rare disease struck the Pearl beds, accelerating the collapse of this activity, an activity whose origins significantly predate the arrival of the first Europeans to the Panamanian isthmus.

In more recent times the community of Pixvae relied almost completely on artisanal fishing around the Coiba National Park area. With the creation of the UNESCO World Heritage Site and new regulations on fishing and use of the parks natural resources, fishing is now limited. As a consequence the community of Pixvae is looking towards a future based on sustainable tourism as an alternative.