Granito de Oro Islet, Coiba Island National Park, Panama
After sailing all night from Costa Rica, National Geographic Sea Lion finally arrived to Coiba Island National Park in Panama. From our ship we could see a lush forest that covered the biggest island of the park. The sun was as bright and only a few clouds could be seen in the sky. Definitely we were going to have a great day.
The water was crystal clear and as our ship made its way to the anchorage area, a couple of green sea turtles welcomed us to the park. This park is one of the newest parks in Panama, protected by law in 2004. It has an extension of 271,000 hectares (around 677,500 acres) in which only 51,000 hectares (127,500 acres) is mainland and all the rest is marine area.
The park is formed by a group of islands and islets. The biggest island is known as Coiba in honor of a Cuevas Indian chief who ruled over the area. The area was kept pristine for almost a century due to the fact that it was used as Panama’s Devils Island. It had a total of 21 penal camps so no visitors were allowed to explore this area. In the year 2001 it was declared a national park and soon all the prisoners were relocated to other jails.
Today, this park is part of a very important marine corridor. The corridor connects several marine parks form Costa Rica to Ecuador. It is in this park that we have the second biggest coral reef of the Tropical Eastern Pacific.
With this in mind, we anchored next to an islet called Granito de Oro. A few palm trees, white sand, and a big troop of hermit crabs greeted us as we set foot on it. The temperature was ideal for swimming and snorkeling, so we waited no more to jump in and explored part of the reef.
Lovely colored corals and abundant species of reef fish delighted us as some of us snorkeled around the islet. Others decided to explore by kayaks. From the kayaks you could see the bottom of the reef. White-tipped reef sharks could be seen resting on the bottom while a school of Panamic sergeant majors would scatter when the kayaks passed closed to them.
It had been a great morning enjoying the beauty of the life of this reef. Back on board, we weighed anchor and started our navigation to our next destination of our trip. As we started, several pods of pantropical spotted dolphins appeared to bow ride our ship. More sea turtles were spotted as we gathered out on deck to enjoy the sunset. As a final crown of the day, we were delighted by a double rainbow close to the shoreline.
Indeed it has been another great day of adventure!
