Where does our name came from?
"First impressions are important, and that's just one more proof that names have power."
The Bennett family has always been an outdoorsy and adventurous family. My generation of cousins (including Jorge Espino, founder of Panama Heavens) was lucky enough to grow up with parents, aunts, and uncles who took us into the outdoors every weekend. Our childhood is full of memories of us going on 50+ people kayaking trips, doing 3-day hikes in the jungles, and going out of the boat to spearfish and do water sports on the weekends.
Once our parents got a bit older, the Bennett cousins took up the responsibility of continuing the tradition of getting outside every weekend. During our teenage years (and still to this day), we spend weekends going on surf trips, camping on the beach, running in the mountains, and playing the guitar around a fire and singing under a starry night sky.
It was through our love for adventure and nature that we began to develop the idea of one day owning our own tourism business that promoted our lifestyle. Back then, we thought it would be cool to own hostels, have a system of buses that would take people from hostel to hostel, and guide travelers on fun trips around the country. Our initial ideas of the business have evolved since then, but the spirit and essence remains.
Then the name “Panama Heavens” came from our cousin Yvonne Bennett who encouraged the cousins to start using #panamaheavens as hashtag every time we uploaded beautiful pictures of Panama on Instagram to have all the pictures of our adventures under the same hashtag. Once Jorge Espino began the business during the pandemic, he decided to use the hashtag as a name for his business because it captured just how magical and wonderful our country is.
Panama Heavens has been running for a solid 3 years now, with so many highlights, challenges, breakthroughs, and accomplishments. We are passionate about what we do because we believe that through our work we can have a positive impact on travelers, the communities we visit, and the environment around us.
It is our privilege to wake up every day and do what we do.
- Isa Nellos