Coiba National Park & Granito de Oro Island, Panamá
After navigating for twelve hours, Sea Voyager reached its destination, the largest island on the Pacific side of Central America. More than just size, this island is home to an incredible array of flora and fauna which came from mainland during the last glacial time, from 18,000 to 11,000 years ago. When the waters rose up again the plants and animals were trapped, diverging their genetic pool from their ancestors.
Coiba is covered by a dense, undisturbed tropical humid forest, which was protected because Coiba was the “Alcatraz Prison Island” of Panama until the 1990’s. That is when the Panamanian government removed the prisoners and the island was declared a national park.
The park also protects the second largest coral reef in the eastern pacific. Together with Galápagos (Ecuador), Malpelo (Colombia) and Cocos Islands (Costa Rica), it forms the very important Mesoamerican Marine Corridor. This protects not just the native marine life but as well migratory species, such as sea turtles, whales and large fish.
The day’s activities were planned to take advantage the unique characteristics of this area. For birdwatchers, the first rays of sun breaking through the clouds were the trigger for a walk near the park’s ranger quarters. Several species were spotted: Crimson-backed Tanagers, Red-crowned Woodpeckers and Yellow-headed Caracaras, among many others.
As the birdwatchers went back to the ship, other guests were gathering their snorkeling gear for the second activity of the day, which took place on the small island known as “little grain of gold.” Snorkeling is as impressive as bird watching. The fish are as colorful as the birds and the coral reef is as varied as a tropical rain forest. Each fish has its job; the damsel fish protects its algae garden, the butterfly fish, with its elongated snout, sucks out coral polyps from their calcium carbonate homes and the parrot fish, with its fused beak, scrapes algae from the rocks.
Even when all of that sounds like plenty of activities, that was just the morning. The galley prepared a delicious barbecue lunch and after that the Sea Voyager started its navigation toward the Bay of Panama. As a great day’s closure, several pods of dolphins rode our bow through these calm waters… wish you were here… what a day!
After navigating for twelve hours, Sea Voyager reached its destination, the largest island on the Pacific side of Central America. More than just size, this island is home to an incredible array of flora and fauna which came from mainland during the last glacial time, from 18,000 to 11,000 years ago. When the waters rose up again the plants and animals were trapped, diverging their genetic pool from their ancestors.
Coiba is covered by a dense, undisturbed tropical humid forest, which was protected because Coiba was the “Alcatraz Prison Island” of Panama until the 1990’s. That is when the Panamanian government removed the prisoners and the island was declared a national park.
The park also protects the second largest coral reef in the eastern pacific. Together with Galápagos (Ecuador), Malpelo (Colombia) and Cocos Islands (Costa Rica), it forms the very important Mesoamerican Marine Corridor. This protects not just the native marine life but as well migratory species, such as sea turtles, whales and large fish.
The day’s activities were planned to take advantage the unique characteristics of this area. For birdwatchers, the first rays of sun breaking through the clouds were the trigger for a walk near the park’s ranger quarters. Several species were spotted: Crimson-backed Tanagers, Red-crowned Woodpeckers and Yellow-headed Caracaras, among many others.
As the birdwatchers went back to the ship, other guests were gathering their snorkeling gear for the second activity of the day, which took place on the small island known as “little grain of gold.” Snorkeling is as impressive as bird watching. The fish are as colorful as the birds and the coral reef is as varied as a tropical rain forest. Each fish has its job; the damsel fish protects its algae garden, the butterfly fish, with its elongated snout, sucks out coral polyps from their calcium carbonate homes and the parrot fish, with its fused beak, scrapes algae from the rocks.
Even when all of that sounds like plenty of activities, that was just the morning. The galley prepared a delicious barbecue lunch and after that the Sea Voyager started its navigation toward the Bay of Panama. As a great day’s closure, several pods of dolphins rode our bow through these calm waters… wish you were here… what a day!
