After a successful Panama Canal transit yesterday our sense of exploration brought us for the first time this season to the Pearl Islands. Located inside the Gulf of Panama, this archipelago possesses one of the richest histories almost equal to its unique marine conditions. Different pre-Columbian indigenous groups inhabited Pearl Islands; unfortunately, due to the strong presence of Spaniards—after Vasco Nunez de Balboa arrived at the Pacific—the natives diminished, reaching the point of disappearance from the area entirely.
Balboa himself called this archipelago the Pearl Islands, due to the many amounts of this precious mineral found and even given away by indigenous groups to Spaniards. These wild or natural pearls included the famous “La Peregrina” which is found in this region and considered one of the most perfect in the world.
In order to discover this natural realm, we dedicated the morning before and after breakfast to witness the intricate connection between the different organisms and their environment. One of the highpoints was observing a bare-throated tiger heron enjoying its morning meal provided by—what seemed like—an individual of blunt-toothed snake eel. In addition to the bird life surrounding us, an additional great observation of a pod of bottle nosed dolphins completed an outstanding early morning outing.
Briefly after our explorations by expedition landing crafts, we had the great chance to enjoy swimming, kayaking, and a little snorkeling in the pristine clear water beach on Vivienda Island. The views of the forest, mangroves, and turquoise water made a perfect portrait of a tropical paradise. By noon we needed to leave this paradise behind in order to cover 192 nautical miles around Azuero Peninsula.
During the rest of the day, a talk by our National Geographic photographer Kike Calvo showed us to feel inspired and get creative with our photography. Then a breakout session with our photography experts revealed some great secrets about composition besides learning our digital camera’s insights.
