Coiba Marine National Park, Panama
Today we are at one of the jewels of conservation efforts in Panama, Coiba Marine National Park.With a dark history as a former devils island prison camp, this new national park has an extension of 270,000 hectares of which 80% is submerge under water. Coiba contains the third largest coral reef on the eastern pacific, but not only that, hidden inside of the island we still can find primary forest and wildlife between its boundaries.
In the morning, we did an early bird watching at the rangers station, Coiba counts with 147 species of birds, including the scarlet macaw and the endemic Coiba spinetail. We were rewarded by sights of red-legged honeycreepers, crimson-backed tanagers and many other birds.
Afterward, we repositioned to Granito de Oro island for a morning of snorkeling, and once again, we were rewarded by sights of nature in the forms of colorful fish like the king angel fish, giant damselfish and even sea turtles.
As if all this excitement wasn’t enough, we repositioned in the afternoon to explore one of the rivers of this island having a chance to see another impressive ecosystem, the mangrove forest, where we had a special sighting of white throated capuchin monkeys.
Our evening came with a beautiful sunset and recaps to give the perfect closure to such a remarkable last day in Panama. Tomorrow we enter Costa Rica, and I wonder, what kind of surprises will this day bring?
Today we are at one of the jewels of conservation efforts in Panama, Coiba Marine National Park.With a dark history as a former devils island prison camp, this new national park has an extension of 270,000 hectares of which 80% is submerge under water. Coiba contains the third largest coral reef on the eastern pacific, but not only that, hidden inside of the island we still can find primary forest and wildlife between its boundaries.
In the morning, we did an early bird watching at the rangers station, Coiba counts with 147 species of birds, including the scarlet macaw and the endemic Coiba spinetail. We were rewarded by sights of red-legged honeycreepers, crimson-backed tanagers and many other birds.
Afterward, we repositioned to Granito de Oro island for a morning of snorkeling, and once again, we were rewarded by sights of nature in the forms of colorful fish like the king angel fish, giant damselfish and even sea turtles.
As if all this excitement wasn’t enough, we repositioned in the afternoon to explore one of the rivers of this island having a chance to see another impressive ecosystem, the mangrove forest, where we had a special sighting of white throated capuchin monkeys.
Our evening came with a beautiful sunset and recaps to give the perfect closure to such a remarkable last day in Panama. Tomorrow we enter Costa Rica, and I wonder, what kind of surprises will this day bring?
