Coiba Island, Panama
After sailing during the night around 120 nautical miles, the sun rays gave us the welcome to Panama. We had arrived at one of the newest National Parks of Panama. Coiba National Park was created in the 1980s and protected by law in November 2004. Having an area of around 271,000 hectares, only 50,000 are main land and the rest includes the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. All this richness was kept pristine since the area was used as a penal colony for about 80 years. Once declared a national park, the prisoners were little by little relocated to different local jails.
Today, we had that great opportunity to enjoy part of that marvelous scenery. Just before breakfast some of us went to the headquarters for an early birding expedition. Red-legged honeycreepers, red-lored parrots, crimson-backed tanagers, sulfur-bellied flycatchers, red-crowned woodpeckers, lance-tailed manakin, bananaquits, and many others delighted our eyes.
Back on board, we repositioned the Sea Voyager near a small islet known as “Granito de Oro”. Similar to a Gary Larson comic islet, a few palm trees, a lot of hermit crabs and white sand; this was Paradise! We had a lot of activities to do. Kayaking, sun-tanning, snorkeling, reading, enjoying the view, just having fun!
We could have spent the rest of our days in this Paradise but we had to continue our trip. 190 nautical miles must be covered before reaching to our next destination: Otoque and Bona Island.
After sailing during the night around 120 nautical miles, the sun rays gave us the welcome to Panama. We had arrived at one of the newest National Parks of Panama. Coiba National Park was created in the 1980s and protected by law in November 2004. Having an area of around 271,000 hectares, only 50,000 are main land and the rest includes the second biggest coral reef of the Eastern Pacific. All this richness was kept pristine since the area was used as a penal colony for about 80 years. Once declared a national park, the prisoners were little by little relocated to different local jails.
Today, we had that great opportunity to enjoy part of that marvelous scenery. Just before breakfast some of us went to the headquarters for an early birding expedition. Red-legged honeycreepers, red-lored parrots, crimson-backed tanagers, sulfur-bellied flycatchers, red-crowned woodpeckers, lance-tailed manakin, bananaquits, and many others delighted our eyes.
Back on board, we repositioned the Sea Voyager near a small islet known as “Granito de Oro”. Similar to a Gary Larson comic islet, a few palm trees, a lot of hermit crabs and white sand; this was Paradise! We had a lot of activities to do. Kayaking, sun-tanning, snorkeling, reading, enjoying the view, just having fun!
We could have spent the rest of our days in this Paradise but we had to continue our trip. 190 nautical miles must be covered before reaching to our next destination: Otoque and Bona Island.
